** True, while film critics (vs. political pundits), have remarked that
"Sicko" has more humor than Moore's previous efforts, his latest film has
been excoriated by a surprising number of writers who are fine-toothing him
like never before.
** The New Yorker, hardly a "conservative" magazine that I've read for
nearly 40 years, was particularly harsh. David Denby's review of "Sicko"
(see below) was blistering. Then this morning's report by the Associated
Press (also below) -- takes a point-by-point whack at "Sicko" in a way that
puts Moore under a cloud of suspicion that's unusual from a normally fawning
press corps that in years past -- has accommodated Moore's effort to grab
free publicity w/o having to spend millions on advertising.
** As a U.S. citizen and world traveler who was born in Japan, I looks at
America's "goodness" in a way I think some indigenous Americans take for
granted. I've seen all of Moore's films even though I consider myself a
social liberal and fiscal conservative who supports the military (esp. given
Japan's dependence on the US for its national defense) -- Bernard Goldberg
would describe me as a JFK "liberal" who leans toward the right. I liked
"Bowling for Columbine" even though I found Moore's ambush of Charlton
Heston at the end upsetting. And I felt "Fahrenheit" was a screed that
doesn't hold up upon second viewing. I've paid full theater admission to
see all of his films.
** But I'm gonna pass on "Sicko" until it comes out on DVD. Despite his
value as an "entertainer," Moore's suspect "documentarian" methods are
upsetting to me an ex-news director, editor and reporter. Hence I'm glad
that Kirby, while recommending "Sicko" to MoPo's members -- described
Michael Moore as a polemicist -- because in my view, Moore is not a
news/documentarian in the Cronkite or Edward R. Murrow tradition (who were
both liberals, by the way). If Moore's films can be considered
documentaries with balance, than so can Leni Riefenstahl's "Triumph of the
Will."
-koose.
================================
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Sunday, July 1, 2007; 1:52 AM (ET)
MOORE'S 'SICKO' GIVES ACCUSED LITTLE SAY
By Kevin Freking and Linda A. Johnson
WASHINGTON (AP) - In many respects, Michael Moore's new movie, "Sicko," is
like a trial for those who oversee health care in the United States.
The industry - doctors, drug makers, hospitals, insurers - is charged with
greed and putting personal interests above patients'. Moore heard from
thousands of people who had maddening and heartbreaking brushes with this
system. As chief prosecutor, Moore lets them do most of the talking and
weaves their stories into the film with wit, compassion and humor.
But one aspect missing from the film is the defense. Do not expect to hear
anyone speak well of the care they received in the U.S.
On the other hand, patients and doctors from Canada, Britain, France and
Cuba marvel at their health care.
Moore tells viewers there are about 50 million people in the U.S. without
health insurance. Just this past week, the Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention estimated there are about 43.6 million uninsured people in the
country. In March, the Census Bureau put the number at 44.8 million.
Moore noted that about 18,000 people die each year as a result of the lack
of health insurance. That number comes for a January 2004 report from the
Institute of Medicine. The report said the uninsured do not get the care
they need and are more likely to die prematurely.
Taking on the pharmaceutical industry, Moore says it spent millions of
dollars lobbying Congress for a Medicare prescription drug benefit.
"Of course it was really a bill to hand over $800 billion of our tax dollars
to the drug and health insurance industry," he said. Moore is citing the
projected cost for the Medicare drug benefit's first 10 years.
Last year, however, Medicare officials told The Associated Press that the
projected cost of the benefit through 2015 stood at about $729 billion, a
substantial drop compared with original estimates.
Moore also noted the some of the elderly in the drug program could end up
paying more for their prescriptions than they did before. That is true.
But the vast majority do save because of the tens of billions of dollars in
annual government subsidies to help cover the cost of their medicine. The
Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services says people save about $1,200 a
year on average by participating in the program, called Medicare Part D.
At one point, Moore notes where the U.S. ranks in terms of health care
around the world.
"The United States slipped to No. 37 in health care around the world, just
slightly ahead of Slovenia," he said.
That ranking is based on a 2000 report from the World Health Organization
that some health analysts viewed as misleading. Moore does not say that one
of the countries he highlighted, Cuba, is ranked 39th, below the U.S.
Among the others, France is ranked No. 1, the United Kingdom ranked 18th and
Canada ranked 30th. He does not give those rankings, either.
The report, based on 1997 data, measured not just the quality of care
provided, but how well the countries prevented illness and how fairly the
poor, minorities and other special populations are treated.
Moore's film includes security video showing a disoriented elderly woman in
a hospital gown and slippers wandering in the gutter of a busy Los Angeles
street. Kaiser Permanente Bellflower Medical Center near Los Angeles had
discharged her and sent her off in a cab. Eventually, a staff member from
the Union Rescue Mission in the city's crime-ridden Skid Row area comes out
to help the woman. The March 2006 incident was widely documented. This
May, Kaiser Permanente, the country's biggest health maintenance
organization, reached a settlement with Los Angeles prosecutors requiring
Kaiser to make changes to end the dumping of homeless patients on streets.
Los Angeles authorities are investigating allegations that a dozen area
hospitals have dumped more than 50 homeless patients downtown. On Wednesday,
prosecutors filed civil complaints against two other hospitals and a
transportation service accusing them of dumping homeless patients in Skid
Row.
In the movie, Moore correctly states that the chief executives of health
insurance companies make millions of dollars a year. Among the insurers
mentioned are Humana Inc. (HUM), where chief executive Michael McCallister
received about $5.9 million in salary and other compensation in 2006, and
Aetna Inc. (AET), where chief executive Ronald Williams last year received
salary and other compensation totaling about $30.9 million. Those figures
were determined by an AP analysis of company filings with the Securities and
Exchange Commission.
Huge executive salaries are the norm in all of corporate America.
An AP analysis of 386 Fortune 500 companies' executive compensation reports
showed that half the CEOs made more than $8.3 million last year.
In the film, an insurance company call center employee says her company has
a list of pre-existing conditions that would "wrap around this house." The
conditions, including diabetes, heart disease and cancer, make applicants
ineligible for coverage. Numerous disorders then scrolls up a black screen
in yellow letters - think of the "Star Wars" movie introductions.
Karen Ignagni, president and chief executive of the trade group America's
Health Insurance Plans, said Moore does not identify the plan involved but
that it is not a typical one. She said about 17 million people in the U.S.
are insured under individual plans and an additional 200 million under group
plans.
"If that list were true, none of those people would be getting health
insurance," Ignagni said.
Ignagni said decisions about which treatments are covered by a plan are made
by the sponsor, such as an employer, not by the insurer.
Moore also takes on the notion that universal health coverage leads to
longer waits in hospital emergency rooms and to see doctors. He visited a
crowded emergency room in Canada and asked patients how long they had to
wait. One said 20 minutes; a second said 45 minutes. "I got help right
away," a third said.
Yet a recent report from the Commonwealth Fund indicates that wait times in
the U.S. are clearly shorter than they are in Canada.
In all areas measured, the U.S. fared better than Canada. For example, 24
percent of Canadians waited four hours or longer to be seen in the emergency
room versus 12 percent in the U.S.
The difference was more acute when it came time to see a specialist.
Fifty-seven percent of Canadians waited four weeks or longer to see a
specialist versus 23 percent in the U.S.
The Commonwealth Fund also monitored wait times in Britain, which has
universal health care. The wait times for emergency room care were
comparable to those in the U.S.
There was a big difference when it came time to see a specialist - 60
percent in Britain waited four weeks or longer.
The film concludes with a trip to Cuba where Moore seeks care for a group of
workers who have experienced health problems after responding to 2001
terrorist attacks. They are greeted with open arms at a hospital in Havana
and given what appears to be top-notch care that they could not get in the
U.S.
The question left for viewers to ponder is whether Cubans are given such red
carpet treatment, too.
---
Linda A. Johnson reported from Trenton, N.J.
================================
July 2, 2007
THE NEW YORKER
The Current Cinema
Do No Harm - Sicko
by David Denby
Michael Moore has teased and bullied his way to some brilliant highs in his
career as a political entertainer, but he scrapes bottom in his new
documentary, Sicko.
The movie is an attack on the American health-care system, and it starts out
strongly, with Moore interviewing families who have been betrayed or
neglected by H.M.O.s and insurance companies.
A man whose life might have been saved by a bone-marrow transplant died when
he was refused experimental treatment. A feverish baby died when her
mother, rather than taking her to a hospital run by her insurer, Kaiser
Permanente, rushed her to the nearest emergency room, where they were turned
away.
Moore then zeroes in on the situation of three volunteer Ground Zero rescue
workers, who have trouble breathing or who suffer from stress and cant get
assistance from the federal government. More baffled than angry, they
soberly report on their conditions, and Moore comments that even national
heroes arent given help by the nation.
A bit later in the film, however, he presents congressional testimony
suggesting that people the Administration has deemed to be national
enemiesthe detainees at Guantánamo Bayare receiving good health care free.
So Moore loads the Ground Zero volunteers, plus some other people who have
serious health problems, into three boats in the Miami harbor. Which way to
Guantánamo Bay? he calls out to a Coast Guard vessel, and the little
flotilla sets off for Cuba. When the boats arrive outside the base, they
are, of course, stonily denied entrance.
An absurdist of outrage, Moore has attacked corporations that destroy cities
by closing down local plants (Roger & Me); a gun-happy culture that makes
arms easily available (Bowling for Columbine); an Administration that
begins a war without sufficient cause (Fahrenheit 9/11). He has stalked
corporate officials and congressmen, planted his bulk before them and asked
mock-naïve questions, and his provocations, at their best, have smoked out
hypocrites and liars.
But this confrontation is different. Hauling off seriously ill people to a
military base where they wont receive treatment is a dumb prank. And the
insensitivity isnt much relieved by the piece of whimsy that comes next:
Moore and the rescue workers (the other sick voyagers having mysteriously
disappeared) wander onto the streets of Havana and ask some guys playing
dominoes if theres a doctor nearby. They go to a pharmacy and then to a
hospital, where the Americans are admitted and treated.
Few people in Moores audience are likely to be displeased that they receive
help from a Communist system.
But what is the point of Moores fiction of a desperate, wandering quest for
medicine on the streets, as if he hadnt known in advance that Cuba has free
health care? Why not tell us what really happened on the tripfor instance,
what part Cuban officials played in receiving the American patients?
After the early tales of the systems failure, Sicko becomes feeble, even
inane.
A recent poll shows that a majority of Americans not only favor a national
health service but are willing to pay higher taxes for it. In that case,
wouldnt it have made sense for Moore to find out what features of universal
care in other countries could be adapted to America?
Instead of sorting through any of this, Moore and his crew go from place to
placeto Canada, England, and France, as well as Cubaand, at every stop, he
pulls the same silly stunt of pretending to be astonished that health care
is free.
How much do people pay here in France? Nothing? Youve got to be kidding.
But isnt everyone taxed to death to pay for health care? Well, heres a
nice, two-income French couple who have a great apartment and collect sand
from the deserts of the world. Not only havent they been impoverished by
taxation; they travel. And so on.
In each country, Moore interviews doctors who speak proudly of how well
their countrys system works. But the candor of these doctors is no more
impressive than that of the corporate spokesmen Moore has confronted in the
past.
No one mentions the delays or the instances of less than first-rate care.
We find out that a doctor in Great Britain makes a good income (about two
hundred thousand dollars), but not how medical care in, say, Toronto might
differ from that in a distant rural area, or how shortages may have affected
the quality of Cuban health care.
Moore winds up treating the audience the same way that, he says, powerful
people treat the weak in Americaas dopes easily satisfied with fairy tales
and bland reassurances. And since he doesnt interview any of the countless
Americans who have been mulling over ways to reform our system, were
supposed to come away from Sicko believing that sane thinking on these
issues is unknown here.
In the actual political world, the major Democratic Presidential candidates
have already offered, or will soon offer, plans for reform. A shift to the
left, or, at least, to the center, has overtaken Michael Moore, yielding an
irony more striking than any he turns up: the changes in political
consciousness that Moore himself has helped produce have rendered his latest
film almost superfluous. ♦
----Original Message Follows----
From: Kirby McDaniel <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Reply-To: Kirby McDaniel <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: [email protected]
Subject: RECOMMENDED: SICKO
Date: Sun, 1 Jul 2007 00:29:14 -0500
That wicked polemicist Michael Moore is at it again. The pre-election
hysteria of FAHRENHEIT 911 will not juice up audience numbers for SICKO, but
I think this may be Michael Moore's most accessible film. Certainly some of
the film is over the top, but once again Moore proves that his considerable
heart is in the right - or should I say LEFT - place as he looks at the U.S.
medical care
conundrum: the best doctors and hospitals in the world but don't count on
seeing them if, as Woody Guthrie once said, "you ain't got the dough-re-mi."
Kirby
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