Michael Moore's 'Sicko'
Posted: Monday, July 30, 2007
In case you haven’t heard, Michael Moore’s “Sicko” addresses the health care crisis in America and dares to ask how the wealthiest nation on Earth can’t afford to provide its citizens with health care. Once again, while the mainstream media cowers, it’s the guy in the baseball cap with the high school education asking the tough questions. The film documents how millions of Americans are routinely denied coverage for ridiculous reasons, and how those who have coverage are given the runaround by insurance companies and saddled with huge medical bills that leave them in financial ruin.
These are not fairy tales. I know because I checked it out myself. I got in contact with one of the people featured in Moore’s film. Her name is Donna Smith and the film details how she and her husband Larry were forced to file for bankruptcy three years ago because they couldn’t keep up with their medical bills. Donna developed uterine cancer while Larry had a series of heart problems. Like most Americans, they had health insurance, but it didn’t pay for everything. They lost their home in Lead, South Dakota, and moved to a Denver suburb to live with a daughter to get on their feet financially.
Smith told me how she simply answered an ad Moore had placed asking people to tell their health care horror stories. Smith, who wasn’t paid for appearing in the film other than having her travel expenses reimbursed, said she wasn’t a fan of Moore’s but that her opinion of him has changed.
“I think all of us who listen to the comments about Michael Moore, you wonder whether or not the stories (he tells) are told truthfully. Well, I can promise you, at least from our perspective, the most amazingly annoying part of this process was what they call the fact checking phase where you send them (Moore’s staff) documentation of everything about your story. Everything from hospital bills to insurance checks to bankruptcy papers. Our life became an open book in terms of what we shared with that staff.”
Smith was also one of the people who accompanied Moore on his controversial trip to Cuba to seek medical care for 911 rescue workers and others. Smith, who was provided with treatment she could not afford to get in the United States, said that while the Cubans frequently offered to put the Americans at the front of the line, she and the others in Moore’s group insisted they not be treated differently.
The bottom line is that “Sicko” shows how a great many countries have better health care than the United States. The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development publishes the “OECD in Figures,” a report that allows us to easily check out what Moore says. And yes, while Cuba is ranked 39th and the U.S. is 37th on the list of which nations provide the best health care, they have far less resources at their disposal than we do.
Now I know that some of you want to believe what those profiting from this mess are telling you, that the U.S. health-care industry is the best in the world. But don’t be like most of the people recently polled in The Journal who said they would not see this movie. We should not be afraid of the truth no matter how much it hurts. And we shouldn’t be afraid to talk about what we see. When I saw “Sicko,” I visited with a nurse who works at a Sioux City medical facility. She, like the California Nurses Association, endorsed Moore’s film but when I asked if I could use her name in this column, she begged me not to. She was afraid she might lose her job.
I urge you to see “Sicko.” It is arguably Moore’s best work. It will make you laugh and it will make you cry, but most of all it will make you angry. It’s time for Americans to stand up to the insurance companies and the health care industry. Thank God Michael Moore has.
Paul Guggenheimer is a free-lance writer from Sioux City and the host of Dakota Midday on South Dakota Public Broadcasting. You can write to him in care of The Journal or at lvrcomments@hotmail.com.
These are not fairy tales. I know because I checked it out myself. I got in contact with one of the people featured in Moore’s film. Her name is Donna Smith and the film details how she and her husband Larry were forced to file for bankruptcy three years ago because they couldn’t keep up with their medical bills. Donna developed uterine cancer while Larry had a series of heart problems. Like most Americans, they had health insurance, but it didn’t pay for everything. They lost their home in Lead, South Dakota, and moved to a Denver suburb to live with a daughter to get on their feet financially.
Smith told me how she simply answered an ad Moore had placed asking people to tell their health care horror stories. Smith, who wasn’t paid for appearing in the film other than having her travel expenses reimbursed, said she wasn’t a fan of Moore’s but that her opinion of him has changed.
“I think all of us who listen to the comments about Michael Moore, you wonder whether or not the stories (he tells) are told truthfully. Well, I can promise you, at least from our perspective, the most amazingly annoying part of this process was what they call the fact checking phase where you send them (Moore’s staff) documentation of everything about your story. Everything from hospital bills to insurance checks to bankruptcy papers. Our life became an open book in terms of what we shared with that staff.”
Smith was also one of the people who accompanied Moore on his controversial trip to Cuba to seek medical care for 911 rescue workers and others. Smith, who was provided with treatment she could not afford to get in the United States, said that while the Cubans frequently offered to put the Americans at the front of the line, she and the others in Moore’s group insisted they not be treated differently.
The bottom line is that “Sicko” shows how a great many countries have better health care than the United States. The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development publishes the “OECD in Figures,” a report that allows us to easily check out what Moore says. And yes, while Cuba is ranked 39th and the U.S. is 37th on the list of which nations provide the best health care, they have far less resources at their disposal than we do.
Now I know that some of you want to believe what those profiting from this mess are telling you, that the U.S. health-care industry is the best in the world. But don’t be like most of the people recently polled in The Journal who said they would not see this movie. We should not be afraid of the truth no matter how much it hurts. And we shouldn’t be afraid to talk about what we see. When I saw “Sicko,” I visited with a nurse who works at a Sioux City medical facility. She, like the California Nurses Association, endorsed Moore’s film but when I asked if I could use her name in this column, she begged me not to. She was afraid she might lose her job.
I urge you to see “Sicko.” It is arguably Moore’s best work. It will make you laugh and it will make you cry, but most of all it will make you angry. It’s time for Americans to stand up to the insurance companies and the health care industry. Thank God Michael Moore has.
Paul Guggenheimer is a free-lance writer from Sioux City and the host of Dakota Midday on South Dakota Public Broadcasting. You can write to him in care of The Journal or at lvrcomments@hotmail.com.
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