Moore returns to Cannes with scathing look at healthcare

Cannes, France - The larger-than-life figure of US filmmaker Michael Moore jetted into Cannes this week stirring up the film festival with a screening Saturday of his latest polemic - a scathing look at the US heath service. Moore told a packed press conference that he could face jail or a hefty fine after taking sick 9/11 volunteer workers to Cuba for health treatment as part of his movie, Sicko. 'They were abandoned by their government,' Moore said. Indeed, as part of his film Moore sets out the illnesses many of the volunteers have faced since the attacks on the World Trade Centre in New York on September 11, 2001 and which they say they cannot have addressed adequately under the costly US health system. Moore, who won Cannes' coveted Palme d'Or prize three years ago for his critically examination of US political life surrounding the September 11 attacks and the Iraq war as portrayed in Fahrenheit 911, said Sicko was 'a call to action.' With the question of healthcare already emerging as an issue in next year's US presidential campaign, Moore told journalists that what was needed was a candidate who said, 'Private health insurance companies have to go.' To make his point about the crippling effect that the high cost of healthcare can have on the lives of average US citizens, Moore said he had donated 12,000 dollars to one of his fiercest critics after he said he was being forced to close his virulent anti-Michael Moore website because of his wife's health bills. Moore, whose other films include Roger and Me as well as Bowling for Columbine, said he had decided to send the man the money because closing the site and stamping out his views were not part of the US way of life. He said he planned to telephone the man before the movie's premiere in Cannes Saturday and tell him that he had been the anonymous person who had donated the money to help meet the hospital bills. In Sicko, Moore assembles a stream of people to tell their personal horror stories about life under the US healthcare service, including an elderly couple whose massive healthcare debt eventually forced them to move out of their house and into their daughter's basement. There were also tales about a young man whose health cover was allegedly rejected because he was too thin and a young woman rejected because she was too fat. Another woman reported how she had emerged from hospital after a head-on collision in her car to find the cost of the ambulance from the accident had been rejected by the insurance company because she had not arranged prior approval. In his film, Moore takes his audience on a journey not just around the failings of the US health service, but around the world comparing the US system with other nations - in neighbouring Canada, France and Britain, which have universal coverage. But Moore was also forced at the press conference to defend Sicko for painting a somewhat rosy picture of how the health service works in other nations, especially in Canada and in particular the somewhat brief waiting hours in public hospitals. He admitted that there were flaws in other nations' health services, but insisted that when it came to healthcare other nations seemed to 'be doing it right' as US citizens tended not to live as long as those in other nations. Unlike in his past movies, Moore steps back from confronting the health insurance bosses and laying the complaints before them. Moore said he wanted to use different tone to 'state things in a different way.' In the meantime Moore is under investigation for possible violations of the US trade embargo restricting travel to Cuba. But the filmmaker insisted that, as shown in the movie, his original plan had to be try to take the 9/11 workers to the Guantanamo Bay prison camp where US authorities claimed top medical services had been provided to the inmates, some of whom are suspected of having links to the global terrorist network al-Qaeda. However, the risks of trying to enter the waters surrounding Guantanamo Bay appeared considerable, so Moore and his group of workers headed to Cuba. Asked how he thought the US public would react to his movie, Moore told the press conference he believed they would say, 'You are telling me that al-Qaeda are receiving better healthcare than those who suffered and died on 9/11.' © 2007 dpa - Deutsche Presse-Agentur

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JoyceMay 19th, 2007 - 13:35:50

You go Michael. I hope the film also talks about the excellent and much less expensive health care available today in Mexico, Thailand and South Africa. Some have discovered that the cost of airfare + medical care in other countries is still less than the costs in the U.S.A. I had an comprehensive eye exam for possible retina detachment while visiting Thailand, with a specialist using the most advanced state of the art equipment: Cost: $35 and he gave me all of my medical records. Cost in the USA would probably have reached $500 after the visit to the doctor, the exam, then the charge for reading the exam, then the charge for writing the report, etc. Soon everyone will be voting with their feet and leaving the expensive U.S.A. system in dust.

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Micky MooreMay 19th, 2007 - 19:38:53

An honest, truthful, objective examination of a critical issue from Michael Moore? Looking at his latest work we can expect more fiction and fabrication. I will keep him in mind if I need my toilets cleaned though. He seems more than qualified for that.

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Voting with your feetMay 19th, 2007 - 19:42:40

The immigration numbers don't seem to agree with you Joyce. I wonder why? I guess most people don't want to live in Thailand to take advantage of the 'state of the art' health care that you described. I like the way you described the U.S. health care system you have never used by your own admission in your post. You might 'try' the U.S. health care system before you knock it. I've lived in the states all my life and and no complaints whatsoever. I couldn't tell you a thing about Thailand except I have no desire to live anywhere else on the globe and people risk their lives everyday crossing deserts and such to get here.

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pudentaneMay 19th, 2007 - 20:56:09

Michael Moore is the bomb. He's a genius. Everything he does is excellent.

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plach72May 19th, 2007 - 23:01:31

I can't wait to see this. Michael Moore is our last best hope in waking up the lawmakers and others about the reality of our nightmare healthcare system. There are still a lot of people out there who don't believe it is a government's 'job' to make sure that healthcare is available. Yet, the courts have already ruled on this matter. Prisoners must receive healthcare. I've heard too many jokes from honest citizens saying 'maybe I should commit a crime so my illness will be treated while I'm in prison'. Now, the ultimate in ironies. Prisoners in Guantameno receiving better care than the 9/11 workers. I haven't seen the film, but everything I've read about the 9/11 workers health problems, the lies that were told about the air being safe-----------that whole issue is a major scandal just waiting for attention. The crimes just never end. Looking forward to seeing 'Sicko', and hoping it becomes a catalyst for change.

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pbMay 19th, 2007 - 23:05:51

Just when we thought things were exciting enough, a new film arrives from Michael Moore.

If the government prosecutes him, complete with public trial, it does nothing but publicize the movie. I'd guess they'd fine him, if that, just to be done with it.

I suppose it's a momentary distraction from Gonzogate, but not on the same scale at all. Moore represents American dissent, as protected by the Constitution. If Newsmax can publish, Moore can make movies.

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FountainheadMay 20th, 2007 - 06:50:51

Michael Moore is a genius? I guess that is why his brilliant fiction 'Fahrenheit 911' got Bush re-elected. It would be nice if he didn't substitute fiction for fact. I heard he went to Cuba to film the Cuban health system. I don't have much faith in a Cuban health system that has patients arriving in cars built in America a half-century ago. If they have such an advanced health care system why can't they get some advanced automobiles that don't contribute so much pollution to global warming? I wonder if Michael Moore gets his health care in Cuba? Why did Fidel fly out of Cuba for his own health care?

pb-The United States doesn't prosecute filmmakers. We don't even kill them. We aren't the Netherlands for goodness sake where filmmakers die for what they put on screen. Michael Moore made his 9-11 movie and America yawned.

I don't know about the 'nightmare' of the American health care system. Is there a wave of deaths in America I haven't heard about? I'm not rich and I have health care for a family of three, own my own home, two cars, etc. I love America. I wouldn't trade living here for anything. It seems like illegal immigrants risk everything to get here. If America is so bad and are health care such a nightmare why are their millions of people in the U.S. illegally and more arriving every hour? I'm stumped! It sounds like some people have been seeing too many Michael Moore movies and have lost contact with reality. What a shame.

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