Just to remind one and all what a disgusting human being Michael Moore is.
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."
I agree.
I'm sick of limo-libs spending other peoples millions and calling it a 'grass roots'.
Why pay for campaign commercials when you can string all the sound bites of the whole campaign into a 2 hour diatribe the voter pays for out of their own pocket?
What's the cost of Avid time these days? Pennies.
It bolsters the point that all art is propaganda.
I'd love to see him do an honest doc on the abortion industry. Who would be his friends then? THAT would be guts.
We can only hope this bastard kicks in soon but knowing how things are never fair he will probably live forever like Ted Kennedy.
There is - buy an HSA plan or join a trade association and you can use their group to get a health plan.
I'm a SB owner and I have an HSA plan - approx $200 a month towards insurance and $220 a month towards my HSA account. After a $2600 deductible, all else is 100%. I get to sock away tax-free that $220 a month, and treat it like an IRA if I don't use it. What's not to like about that ? I'm saving, and I have my catastrophes covered.
It's all around you if you dig a bit.
Under the adage that there's no such thing as bad press, F 9/11 forced people to pay their own money to sit in a dark theater to hear the words "George Bush" over and over.
Even if he was forced to save it (via MSA's). If he was real smart, he'd also plunk down $50 a month for catastrophic care (cancer, major accident, etc.) and use the rest for incidentals.
Only one problem with MSA's. Getting people to spend their money on preventative care (which is only a fraction of what is spent if the problem gets worse). Maybe the catastrophic insurance provider could incentivize that -- after all, it's in their best interest.
Health advice from Moore? No thanks.
I agree I would not like that in a society either. We discussed this very issue with my elderly parents and when it came time there were no heroic measures for either one of them. It was hard, but the right thing to do. The both were ready for heaven.
Plus, some care is just flat-out expensive. I forget the exact number, but it's like 80% of healthcare money is spent on the care of a patient in the last six months of their life.
when they say 45 million dont have health care they fail to menton they are lumping illegals in with it. not to mention the 20 something year old males that have better things to spend 400 dollars a month.
That being said I wonder if Michael Moores solution is nationalized health care. somehow nationalizing it would stop the corruption and make it cheaper. HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAHA
You've seen public housing? Now, imagine public health care. ugh.
Who wants to bet that hypocritical communist POS Moore not only owns Haliburton in his stock portfolio, but also owns United Healthcare.
( No more Olmert! No more Kadima! No more Oslo!)
That bit about "pursuit of happiness" is not in the Constitution.
When my second daughter was born, a perfetly normal pregnancy, healthy birth, it cost us $4500. And that was with insurance.
The doctors doubled billed countless things, included visits from her peaditrician days before she was born and visits from specialists that I never saw. I called them on each and every fraudlent charge. Their response was "oh that's right, your insurance doesn't cover that." Not, "oh that's right, you never saw these people." As soon as I informed them that I had called both my insurance fraud alert line and the state fraud alter line, all those charges disappeared.
On the other hand, my insurance would not cover routine prenatal care without denying it first to see if I would object. I had to get the Rhogam shot, completely routine and yet they refused to cover it. But they covered the second one no questions. In the end, they paid everything that they originally denied, but I had to fight them for every penny. And they raise my premiums by almost $100 in the course of a year.
The insurance companies are greedy to a point that I consider it immoral. They make their money by causing harm to others. Doctors are just as bad in my mind. The only solution I want to see from the govenment however is tort reform and anti-trust laws apply to insurance companies.
Michael Moore trades HMO stock.
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