Posted on 05/20/2007 2:29:17 PM PDT by GMMAC
Moore blasts U.S. health-care system
Canada on right track, filmmaker tells festival
By Bruce Kirkland
Toronto Sun
Sunday, May 20, 2007
CANNES -- Sicko just caused a sensation at the 60th Cannes Film Festival last night. And George W. Bush just might be squirming in the White House this morning.
Sicko is Michael Moore's new agitprop documentary. Slick, funny and wildly entertaining, the film is highly critical of the Bush administration and Congress for turning the U.S. health-care system into a profit-making machine that may be killing people by denying them drugs and surgeries.
"There is something very barbaric about a system like that," a battling Moore told a Cannes press conference yesterday about the problem of people being refused care because they don't have the money and/or because their insurance companies find loopholes to deny them proper treatment.
BETTER ELSEWHERE
The avuncular filmmaker -- who made Bowling For Columbine and won the Palme d'Or here for his Bush-bashing film Fahrenheit 9/11 -- said in the film and at Cannes that countries such as Canada, Britain and France have vastly superior universal health-care systems that the U.S. should steal and implement.
The Canadian system has problems, Moore admitted, although he paints only a rosy picture in the film. "I hear a lot from Canadians about the long lines and whatever," Moore said. "All the studies have shown with emergencies that, if you need help, you get the help right away. But the Canadian system, beginning with (Brian) Mulroney, has been under-funded and that's the problem.
"There's not a problem, though, with the actual concept of universal health care in Canada. If you ask most Canadians: 'Would you be willing to trade your Canadian health insurance card for our health insurance card?' What would your answer be? No! That is correct.
"If I were a Canadian, I would probably complain more loudly than you just did. But I'm not. I'm an American saying that something is wrong with our system, something is right in Canada. You're in a longer line than we are because you get to live three years longer than we do. Why is it that you, the French, the Brits, have a longer life expectancy? A baby born in Toronto has a better chance of living to its first birthday than a baby born in Detroit.
"There is something that you are doing right. I know that it's difficult to hear me say these nice things about Canada. I hope that you are not a country that has a hard time accepting a compliment. If we aspired more to the way that you are doing it, we would be better off. I recognize that there are flaws in your system. But that is not for me to correct. That is for you to correct."
Moore told the press conference he has until Tuesday to respond to the U.S. treasury department's notice of intent to investigate him for a trip to Cuba that is depicted in the film. In a typical stunt, Moore took a group of Americans with health problems to the U.S. military base at Guantanamo Bay to try to get treatment from the military doctors there who provide services to detainees, including alleged al-Qaida terrorists.
GROUND ZERO
Among Moore's party were three 9/11 emergency workers who are suffering health problems from Ground Zero but have not been properly looked after in the U.S. After being rebuffed from Gitmo, Moore takes them to a Cuban hospital where they get a warm reception, free treatment and cheap drugs.
"I have a lot of faith in the American people," Moore said. "The American people get it -- or they eventually get it. And I know they're smart enough to know that this film, at least in regards to Cuba, is about me taking 9/11 workers who have been abandoned by the U.S. government to go and get some help. I think, when Americans see this, they're not going to focus on Cuba or Fidel Castro or what other propaganda comes out of the White House. They are going to say to themselves: 'You're telling me the al-Qaida detainees are receiving better health care from us than those who went down to rescue those who suffered and died on 9/11?'
"They're not going to listen to Bush any more. I think the American people get it now. I don't think they're going to be as snookered and hoodwinked as they were with Iraq and the other things that Bush did in his first years."
You know, I don’t believe Mikey ever did go over to Cuba. If he had, the locals would have fried him in his own fat and eaten him.
Oh wait...
I don't see that as a blatantly false claim . Depending on why one is there right away might be measured in hours or minutes in an ER , certainly not days or weeks.
Moore is a complete idiot!
Then why the h@ll doesn’t he move there if its all that great!
That must be why so many Canadians come to the U.S. to pay cash for medical treatment.
Sure, if it’s immediately life threatening....but I’ll never forget the woman I spoke with in Vancouver, BC who was SOOOOO happy her husband had his heart attack in NY State....he got better care there....quicker. It’s the long waiting, isn’t it, for surgeries and procedures....plus the kicking out of hospital of old people....(A friend’s father endured this in Alberta.)
Five years ago my sister lived in Canada. She started having serious “woman” problems. The doctor wanted to do a complete hysterectomy - a two year wait - two flipping years!!!
She moved to Illinois, saw a GYN and THE NEXT day they did the surgery. The next day!!
Oh, ya the health care system in Canada is sooooo great.
Yup No one did anything for profit prior to GWB L0L.
I heard a BBC thing on this film and even the BBC types admited that Moore glossed over the problems with socialised medicine
Moore is a sanctimonious idiot, and hopefully he will need care here in Florida where he can personally meet about a million Canadians a year in the waiting rooms.
Same thing in this country. Moore should shut his mouth. I worked as a paramedic and we didn't ask questions of heart attack or trauma patients. We reacted and treated.
That help you get “right away” may not necessarily be the most effective or the right help.
The way to take care of a wounded horse on a battlefield is to shoot it right there. Merciful, but spells the end for the horse.
Medical assistance is available to ANYONE who can make it to emergency medical services, be it by ambulance or to the emergency room door. By law, they have to take you in and consider your degree of need for medical services.
And here is where it gets dicy. Because at this point you may be competing for medical services, with others who, in the judgment of the medical professionals, may have a GREATER need for medical services than you.
All is not lost. Those with sufficient resources (cash, or a third party willing to cover the expense), may purchase the services of as many medical professionals and of the sort needed for the specific medical condition they may be suffering from.
There is a serious misconception in this country that “health care” is only management of crisis situations. And that is only a very small part (but by far the most expensive part) of the overall picture of “health care”.
About 95% of “health care” is up to the individual, in that certain choices in behavior, and practice of simple preventative steps, AVOIDS most of the crisis situations.
Unfortunately, a sizable minority of people in this country never LEARN these relatively simple steps, or if they do know of them, they fail to practice what they may already know.
That sanctimonious idiot is getting rich selling his “victim” films
Someone as rich as Moore need not wait in line — he can go to the U.S. for near instant treatment.
I don’t honor MM by reading of looking at anything he does, I know beforehand he’s full of poo poo. No point in reading any his crap.
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