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Posted on 08/22/2006 7:38:30 AM PDT by Huntress
NEW YORK (AdAge.com) -- The health-care industry is worried sick over "Sicko."
Few details have emerged about the 2007 documentary from Michael Moore, the filmmaker who ripped apart Detroit automakers with "Roger and Me" and now has his sights set on the $1.5 trillion pharmaceutical and health-care industry. But it's still enough to mobilize health-care trade groups who are trying to discredit the film.
No balance from Moore "A review of America's health-care system should be balanced, thoughtful and well-researched to pin down what works and what needs to be improved," said Ken Johnson, senior VP for the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America. "You won't get that from Michael Moore."
Added a spokesman for one of the top 10 pharma companies: "We expect it will be one-sided and biased, just like his other documentaries."
Several other pharmaceutical makers did not return calls for comment. But Pfizer, AstraZeneca and GlaxoSmithKline all advised their employees last year not to speak to Mr. Moore when he began his research for "Sicko." It is not known whether any HMOs or drug companies will appear in the film.
"We were approached, but declined," said a spokeswoman for a second top-10 drugmaker. "Frankly, as much as we felt like we wanted to get our message across, in the end we didn't want to subject ourselves to the editing process."
Academy Award winner Mr. Moore, the Academy Award-winning director of "Bowling for Columbine" and "Fahrenheit 9/11" -- the latter the biggest-grossing documentary in movie history -- recently told Variety that the drug companies have been on to him for some time.
"They're so hip [to me] that whenever we have a family" with a health-care nightmare "they get free health care," Mr. Moore said during panel discussions last month at his second annual Traverse City Film Festival in Michigan. "There has been a 100% success rate of the people we're filming of getting whatever they need from the HMOs, pharmaceutical companies, whatever."
On his website, Mr. Moore offered a snapshot of what the documentary entails. "Back in February, I asked if people would send me letters describing their experiences with our health-care system, and I received over 19,000 of them," he wrote. "To read about the misery people are put through on a daily basis by our profit-based system was both moving and revolting. We've spent the better part of this year shooting our next movie, 'Sicko.' As we've done with our other films, we don't discuss them while we are making them. If people ask, we tell them 'Sicko' is a comedy about 45 million people with no health care in the richest country on Earth."
Film in flux Mr. Moore didn't return calls for comment. But on his site he said that, like his other films, what he starts with is not necessarily what he ends with.
"That, I can say with certainty, is happening now as we shoot 'Sicko,'" he wrote. "I don't think the country needs a movie that tells you that HMOs and the pharmaceutical companies suck. Everybody knows that. I'd like to show you some things you don't know. So stay tuned for where this movie has led me. I think you might enjoy it."
If that same 28 year old chooses to pay $50/month for cable/satellite, $35/month for cellphone, $40/month for DSL, $25/month for digital radio, $20/month for Netflix, cigarettes, etc. etc. it could also be called a matter of budgeting for priorities.
Who said anything about dying? Permanent paralysis would be nice. Then put a box of donuts in his line of vision.
aAAAAAAAAAAAAAAghhh!!!! Healthcare is a BUSINESS... not a divine right for free care for everyone. It is for profit and should be competitive. We pay for every other service in our lives, why not healthcare? And I am sssssssssoooo sure that Moore is going to donate all the money he makes on this film to free clinics everywhere. not. How come its okay for him to make a decent living but health care providers are not? Okay, rant off...
Or perhaps he should visit Canada and do a segment on their stellar national health care system, so backlogged that Canadians have to come to the U.S. for surgery.
That ad is sick. I have a phobia of Digger.
"We were approached, but declined," said a spokeswoman for a second top-10 drugmaker. "Frankly, as much as we felt like we wanted to get our message across, in the end we didn't want to subject ourselves to the editing process."
Nick Berg was interviewed for Fahrenheit 9/11 but his subsequent decapitation (less than a month after Michael Moore threw his support to the insurgency and denied there was terrorism) would have served as an ironic reminder of just how wrong Michael Moore is.
There is nothing to be gained in granting Micheal Moore access. You can expect to be taken out of context and solely used to advance his agenda.
Screw 'em. They should have planned better
out of the abundance of the heart, so the mouth speaks
Hmmmm... That conjures up some vindictive thoughts that I need to get outta my head! /big, big smile
He says PROFIT BASED like it's a bad thing.if what he does is so IMPORTANT, why should he profit from it? Unfortunately, there are young people today who believe that healthcare is a right. Go over to IMDB and read the comments about this POS. When I asked one college student who was whining about having no healthcare to tell me where in the Constitution is his right to healthcare, he responded, "PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS" How can you argue with morons like that?
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Sadly, I have to agree.
Actually, that was sarcasm. (But not too far from the attitude of many).
EEEEWWWW!!!! That's enough to bring on junky industrial waste puke!!
YEA -- typical RAT/lib/socialist MO -- profitting from others' misery.
Case in point:
Tom Green's hidden health-care lesson (Michelle Malkin - June 5, 2000)
"The weird part is how quickly all of this has happened. In three months, I found out I had cancer, I got rid of the cancer, and now, I'm recovering from cancer," Green reflected in an interview published by the Ottawa Sun.Green's recovery is neither weird nor accidental. Survival rates for testicular cancer have skyrocketed from less than 50 percent two decades ago to greater than 90 percent today. Early detection through physical examination is key; ultrasound technology then helps determine whether a lump is a cyst or a solid mass. Speedy appointments with alert specialists and competent surgeons help ensure positive outcomes like Green's.
Canadian patients, however, must endure terminal waiting lines, shoddy treatment and severely rationed care. In the short time it took Tom Green to be diagnosed, screened with ultrasound and CAT scans, and operated on twice in the United States, a typical Canadian man would still be waiting to see a urologist for an initial consultation.
The American Medical Industry is generally an over-subsidized bastion of predatory parasytes that prices-out the working poor.
Fat Mike is a rich anticapitalist. Goebbels would be proud of this one.
How much money does Michael Moore donate to charitable funds for those with costly surgery?
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