I go to movies to be entertained, touched, inspired-- to make me laugh, to have my heart moved, my tear ducts pumping.
Sicko gave me all of that and more. It's a testimony to the pure brilliance of Michael Moore and to the desperate need America and the world have for a hundred more Moores-- people who can turn over rocks and cast light on the dark parts of the times we live in.
Michael Moore hits you hard with Sicko. Within the first two minutes, my eyes were misting. Within five minutes I was cursing out the right wing liars and corporate shills who are literally killing people with their greedy drives for profit at any price.
Moore With 9/11 Heroes at Guantanamo, Seeking good-as-terrorists-get healthcare
He weaves stories of victims together-- hard working, everyday Americans-- who have been hit brutally, heartlessly by big, for-profit health care medical companies.
Most of the people he covers are not among the 46 million Americans without health care. Moore shows that the health care industry is screwing the quarter of a billion Americans who are overpaying for lousy health care. Lousy? Is that going too far?
Well, considering that the shills who sell the image for the health care industry call the USA's health care the best, when it's actually something like the 39th, just before Estonia, I'd say that it's pathetic, that lousy is just the right word. Our infant mortality is lower than far too many other countries. Our mortality is years younger than other countries. Fine-- we may have to wait shorter times for appointments (one wait for a specialist I had this year was three months) than Canadians or French, but they LIVE three effing years longer.
I found, watching Sicko, it was hard not to curse under my breath, every few minutes, the people who maintain this shameful situation. And then, Moore would show another tragic case-- people who died-- no, they didn't die. They were killed by the American system-- the system Newt Gingrich was so proud he and George Herbert Walker Bush and over a hundred million in insurance company, Chamber of commerce and RNC attack ads and lobbying money prevented Hillary Clinton from fixing. Murder!!!. These MFs are killing tens of thousands of people, with and without insurance.
Moore shows again and again how so many people who DO have health insurance are refused coverage for tests, scans, treatments, for drugs that could save their lives, that insurers literally pay doctors bonuses to reject, with lame excuses, like they are experimental.
Here in Pennsylvania, there's a bill in the state congress-- legislation for Universal, single payer health care-- a system that cuts out the profits, that cuts out the huge, multi-billion dollar players. It's a certainty that the big insurers in PA, the Blues, Aetna, etc., will respond with a huge, multi-million dollar, multi-pronged attack on the bill, the sponsors the activists. This is about huge amounts of money, not just in Pennsylvania, since, if the efforts make any progress here, and just get the bill introduced is progress, the repercussions nationwide will be powerful. That means insurers all over the US will be watching and kicking in to do all they can do totally destroy, injure, damage and wipe out the efforts here.
Sicko will be a great tool to build support for legislation and action across the nation. I will be asking all of my members of congress to be sure to watch it and respond to it. I hope you do too. The movie is sure to be a powerful weapon in the war against greedy corporate health care companies, their executive and political and lobbyist shills. (I deleted more colorful descriptive language.)
I went to the movie with some political activist friends. One commented that the movie just shows that we're all about money and materialism in our culture. That got me thinking about how, on OpEdNews, we're trying to develop non-monetary ways to get people to become more involved, more a contributing, participating part of the digital community. And we're coming up with answers. We need to do the same in the real world-- in our country, counties, neighborhoods and communities-- find ways to reward and motivate people to do good, to care, to make a difference... without a strict money or power motive.
This happens in pre-literate, what would be called un-civilized jungle tribes. They know some things that we have lost or forgotten, or perhaps never knew. Just as pharmaceutical companies are combing the jungles for naturally occurring drugs that can heal illness, we must seek answers to our toxic single-focused dependence upon money and power. I don't think we'll really heal our culture and our planet unless we re-visit pre-civilized cultures and find some of the ingredients that were left behind in the first pass, as civilization evolved as a slave supported, power/hierarchy money driven way of living. We need to open a much bigger conversation about the deep down reasons why millions of Americans can suffer so much and watch their loved ones die while supporting the system that is perpetrating such horrors.
Moore has an amazing genius for juxtaposing the comic with the sardonic, and that's what he does when he takes, as the trailers preview, 9/11 heroes who the US healthcare system has failed, to Cuba, where there is universal health care, for treatment. This is a touching and funny portion of the film. It underlines, as other parts of the film do, that it is far more important to provide for all than to worry about the artificial boogeyman of socialized medicine. Moore reminds us how we already have what could be called socialized services-- education, fire departments, police-- and American does just fine with those system. Imagine if they were privatized as those on the corporatist right support. Moore does a great job answering the biggest objections that the corporations have spent hundreds of millions of dollars trying to put over with fear mongering.
It took three years for this film to come out. I hope we see more from Moore faster and sooner. The world needs his brilliant help in turning over those rocks and casting that light. He's a media hero in my book.
Rob Kall is executive editor and publisher of OpEdNews.com, President of Futurehealth, Inc, inventor . He is also published regularly on the Huffingtonpost.com. He is a frequent Speaker on Politics, Impeachment, The art, science and power of story, heroes and the hero's journey, Positive Psychology, Stress, Biofeedback and a wide range of subjects. He is a campaign consultant specializing in tapping the power of stories for issue positioning, stump speeches and debates. He recently retired as organizer of several conferences, including StoryCon, the Summit Meeting on the Art, Science and Application of Story and The Winter Brain Meeting on neurofeedback, biofeedback, Optimal Functioning and Positive Psychology. See more of his articles here and, older ones, here.
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-While I'm registered as a Democrat, I consider myself to be a dynamic critic of the Democratic party, just as, well, not quite as much, but almost as much as I am a critic of republicans.
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Thanks for your review of Sicko. We plan to see it this week.I'm recovering from foot surgery, which, thank God, was covered by our insurance.
Just a word to the wise: When I receive solicitations for a donation from my legislators, I now send them this message:
Nobody gets another dime from me until three things happen:
No more war; Cheney , then Bush are impeached; there is a national health care in place which covers every person in America. In the United States, the richest country in the world,it's obscene that we are denied health care for all.
Dennis Kucinich has these and many more answers to our problems.
Listen to him.
by
Caronome (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 1 diaries, 223 comments)
on Sunday, July 1, 2007 at 10:54:57 AM
Dennis Kucinich DOES have the answers to America's woes.... as per the above poster LISTEN TO HIM !
If you are going to donate to any campaign, I would suggest you donate to Kucinich if you want a greater voice in HEALTHCARE FOR ALL, IMPEACHMENT of Cheney then Bush, ending US involvement with NAFTA and WTO that have shipped American jobs out of the country, if you want OUT OF IRAQ and NO CONFLICT WITH IRAN.... Kucinich is the ONLY answer.
Don't let the media dictate who you can vote for....choose yourself, and choose wisely.
Take a few minutes of your time to visit www.kucinich.us and judge for yourself who is the best candidate with the best ideas AND the least obligation to huge corporate donors. If you can spare it....donate to the Kucinich campaign and become a Patriot for Peace. America needs Peace Patriots now more than ever.
For the price of a happy meal at McDonalds you can help to change the world.
by
Eric (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 34 comments)
on Sunday, July 1, 2007 at 12:31:01 PM
In your otherwise excellent review of Sicko you did not mention what to me was the most salient point of the film.
Moore's point in the film is that people in the USofA are afraid and feel powerless. This feeling of fear and powerlessness pervade our collective psyche and keep us from advocating for our own self interest. If this were not so would we not be filling the streets to protest the USofA occupation of a sovereign nation without provocation? If this were not so afraid would we not enact Universal Health Care? If this were not the case wouldn't we rise up and demand that our anti-trust laws be used to address the abuses of Corporate America? If this were not the case would we simply sit by and watch our country embrace a policy of pre-emptive war? If this were not the case would we stand idly by and watch the most massive redistribution of wealth in the history of the world from the lower and middle to the upper class? Would we have countenanced the destruction of our Labor Unions? If this were not the case would we have supported the decisions to spend our nation's resources on Viet Nam and now Iraq rather than fund universal FREE PUBLIC Education k-Grad School, Universal Health Care, Child Care for Single Parents, and a Living Wage for those on Social Security? All of these expenditures have been well within our means to fund. These programs and services would benefit us all. Yet we have been so afraid and have felt so impotent as not to force our government to choose to fund these alternatives. Instead we have funded the Military Industrial Complex and it's attendant handmaidens. We have allowed ourselves to be brainwashed into actually taking seriously the proposition that what is good for the Ruling Class of this country is good for us!
In the movie Moore points out that in France the government is AFRAID of the people and not the other way around. The smoke of the fires of the French revolution is apparently still in the noses of their public officials. In England he points out that the entire country experienced the devastation of WWII and came together to help their fellow countrymen rebuild. This sense of "we are all in this together" is the glue that he postulates bonds the English to their view that Universal Health Care is a right for all people in their nation.
Universal Health Care is such a no-brainer and so obviously in our self interest that to argue against it is to show ones allegiance to the forces in our society that would oppress the fundamental needs of the people.
Iflyfish
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Iflyfish (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 2 comments)
on Sunday, July 1, 2007 at 12:33:57 PM
The Health Insurance companies are corporations. The Drug Companies are corporations. The first rule for any corporation is to serve itself first. Corporations do not have a conscience. Decent healthcare is not a contractual matter.
This is why America is sick. Michael Moore made an earlier movie entitled the Big One. He suggested it as a new name for the United States. After watching his film I suggest we rename the United States the BIG SICKO for its lack of commitment to promise decent health care be provided to its citizens.
Only a government not beholden to contractualism can make promises.
Promises offer hope.
American Contractualism is Arrogant, Stupid, Selfish, Ignorant and in the end offers only Hopelessness for the many.
When will the Americans wake up from the brainwashing being done to them by their Corporations?
When the realize that insurance contracts are not promises.
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Bucky the Commoner (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 44 comments)
on Sunday, July 1, 2007 at 12:57:55 PM
I saw Sicko yesterday with a group of like-minded friends, but had I gone alone, I feel I would have been among friends. People were openly weeping (self included), especially during the Cuban sequence; people were cursing; people were empathizing. It was especially ironic for me, since I have just lost my COBRA insurance coverage from my last job. I'm an adjunct professor (for this read "professor who does not qualify for benefits) with atrial fibrillation - a heart rhythm problem. Just the cost of insurance and medicine has me now ready to file for bankruptcy.
I've always been a big fan of Moore; he dares to speak up for things that nobody else will, and he has used his success to continue to do so instead of staying home and spending his money. "Sicko," however, hit harder than any of his other movies. His anger was quieter; his empathy more present. If this film does not inspire people to action, then I don't know what will. Thanks to you, too, and OP Ed News. Someday, I may have the money to send you some. In the meantime, I forward articles to my friends and have my students visit the site as part of learning argument!
by
Debbie Scally (2 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 52 comments)
on Sunday, July 1, 2007 at 1:52:44 PM
As a full-time practicing physician, every day I encounter real-life examples of our dysfunctional and unjust health care system.
So dysfunctional and unjust that we've come to holding garage sales and charity breakfasts to help families with medical expenses. So dysfunctional and unjust that we've come to families bartering services for care for their children (for example, a father in my practice recently did us the great service of fixing our wheelchair ramp at cost for supplies after I had seen his uninsured daughter free of charge for a series of visits when she was very ill...this is but one example of the bartering that goes on).
I have not seen "Sicko" yet, though I plan to this week upcoming. But from what I understand, Mr. Moore has performed the brilliant trick of not focusing on uninsured Americans, whose numbers are legion, but on the millions upon millions of Americans insured but having benefits so insufficient that they are not able to meet the financial consequences of major illness.
As a physician, I would inform your readers not to be under any misimpression that doctors oppose universal health care. Almost the complete opposite is true, even though we realize it may mean lower incomes. If there are physicians opposing it, they are almost exclusively high-paid specialists, who would undoubtedly take the largest cut in reimbursement under a single-payer system (as well they should).
I am unaware the position of the AMA, but I would also inform readers that most physicians are not members of this organization, which has traditionally opposed any change that would impact the reimbursement of its wealthiest members. Please do not make the mistake of believing that a few wealthy doctors opposed to the right of every American to quality health care speak for all physicians, especially we primary care physicians who are daily and nightly dealing with the failures of our health care delivery system.
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Todd Huffman, M.D. (80 articles, 0 quicklinks, 1 diaries, 109 comments)
on Sunday, July 1, 2007 at 2:02:15 PM
Right on, doctortodd. The specialists I speak with are
almost to a person in favor of universal single-payer.
I've heard some mention bartering. Unfortunately, many physicians are constrained from giving free or reduced cost medical tests or care because of institutional policies or laws. This is a very tough spot for physicians to be in.
I hope you take a look at my diary entry. The only thing I thought was missing in Sicko were the voices of practicing physicians who are dissatisfied to outraged over the US health care system.
by
Kathlyn Stone (42 articles, 219 quicklinks, 26 diaries, 637 comments)
on Sunday, July 1, 2007 at 8:30:40 PM
I am hoping that this next presidential election helps get some type of workable universal health care into place. When I lived in England I used their health care system and I had no complaints. There were as many doctor offices as there were pubs – at least one on every block. Never had long waiting times and didn’t even have to make appointments in most cases. I know a lot of people want to claim that it’s socialized medicine so it must be “bad”.
Few of these people stop to think that health care premiums are one of the biggest overhead costs to employers. In fact anywhere from one third to one half of the cost of keeping employees is medical insurance. You would think that large corporations would be cheering for universal healthcare because it would increase their bottom line.
I would also think there would be major religious support for this as well (helping take care of your fellow man philosophy - which last I heard was still a big Christian tenet) yet I haven’t heard any religious leader speaking out in favor of universal health care. Why?
I believe when Charleston Hesston played Moses he had a line in the movie where he said “Hungry slaves make few bricks. Dead slaves make none”. Maybe a more modern translation would be “Sick employees do little work while dead employees do none”.
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RLAnchors (7 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 39 comments)
on Sunday, July 1, 2007 at 3:31:27 PM
Universal health care is a key component to freeing us from corporate control.
Many people would be able to start their own businesses because the burden of providing health care for their families would be lifted. Likewise, employers would be lifted from the strain of providing health care
and could use the extra money for better quality products and better wages. The pharmaceutical companies don't want universal health care
because it would cut into their obscene profits. To me universal health care
is one of the biggest no-brainers.
As for the religious leaders. There are different brands of religious leaders.
Some cannot think outside the box they have created for themselves. But,
I think there are many that are starting to become more active in meaningful, practical endeavors.
by
Bob Gormley (1 articles, 0 quicklinks, 3 diaries, 932 comments)
on Sunday, July 1, 2007 at 3:46:30 PM
Top Religious Leaders Have No Courage or real Convictions
They either are Calvinist type apologists for the status quo or they can be found in the vest pockets of the powerful people who are making megaprofits from the present system. Their lack of action proves that they are all hypocrites who do not deserve any of our attention.
There is a silent holocaust happening in America's healthcare system right now.
Where were the major religious leaders who spoke out and took action during the holocaust of WWII? From the pope on down there weren't any.
Corporate Christendom also died there. It is only now that the poor in North America are discovering that fact from experiencing their healthcare holocaust.
Maybe the time has come to sell off all the church's assets and use that to pay for the poor folks healthcare charges. Seen collectively, they are the world's largest holders of real estate. Lets have a real estate auction.
THe churchs are as responsible for the rotten healthcare system in America for not challenging the profiteering corporations who have brought on this dilemma as are members of the AMA for not fulfilling their oath as health care providers.
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Bucky the Commoner (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 44 comments)
on Sunday, July 1, 2007 at 5:39:10 PM
There are a few prominent religious leaders calling for universal health care, such as Michael Lerner (Tikkun) and Jim Wallis (Sojourners), but while well-known, these highly respected and respectable progressive religious leaders are largely ignored by the MSM, who must still believe that the likes of Jim Bakker and Jerry Falwell stand (or, in the case of the latter, stood) as exemplars of Christianity and religion in America today.
But you are absolutely correct to ask this question. What are we to make of a reputedly Christian nation that refuses to make health care a right? If compassion is the defining characteristic of faithful people, then why is it that the first question we ask of the sick is not "where does it hurt", but "do you have health insurance?"
Was not Jesus a healer of the sick? Jesus sought to ease suffering and heal disease, no matter how it came to afflict those who suffer. The rich who purport to follow Jesus are oblivious to the existence of the very poor and the sick to whom he tended.
If we are indeed created in the image of God, and if all life is precious, then it is a violation of God's intended dignity that so many of our sisters and brothers lack access to basic health care. We all agree that we should love our neighbors as ourselves. But we also tacitly agree to a society in which we do not care for the sick or help those in need.
Okay, enough sermonizing!
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Todd Huffman, M.D. (80 articles, 0 quicklinks, 1 diaries, 109 comments)
on Sunday, July 1, 2007 at 6:34:50 PM
not rip it off. The story goes that the health care industry posted it to google to sabotage the turnout for the movie. I think information clearinghouse is mistaken, though perhaps well intended, aiding and abetting them. We shouldn't be ripping off our own, or anyone else, for that matter.
by
Rob Kall (808 articles, 3921 quicklinks, 332 diaries, 1702 comments)
on Sunday, July 1, 2007 at 4:32:04 PM
