Michael Moore's recent documentary, Sicko, is a damning indictment of the United States health care system (or lack there of). But, while there's a number of things people can do over the long-term to tackle the issues he addresses, what about the people who are being denied treatment today?

In a recent interview on MSNBC's Hardball, Moore proposed an interesting solution:

"...what I tell people is, if you're having trouble right now with your insurance company, and they won't pay for something, go ahead and use my name ... Say that I'm coming, that you have talked to me personally. You have my permission to do that."

Plus, just to make you seem more authentic, Moore created a Sicko insurance card that you can print out from his website, laminate, and use to threaten any doctor who refuses treatment.

How did he come up with such an ingenious idea? Apparently people have already been doing it without his permission, so -- rather than try and stop them -- Moore decided to make it easier.

Not that I'd normally advocate blackmail, but if you've run out of options, this seems like it might actually work.

Source

Michael Moore's Sicko film opened this past week to both fans and non-fans of the universal health care promotion he highlights in the film. When CNN investigated, it found that much of the information in the film was indeed accurate, although some was dramatized in perfect Michael Moore fashion.

Is universal health care needed in the U.S.? The numbers themselves do not lie -- over 40 million uninsured in the U.S. along with health care rates that are higher than anywhere in the world. Is something broken in our health care system?

That seems like an obvious statement -- health care in the U.S. is the laughing stock of the world. But what is the answer? Universal, government-funded health care? Sicko will certainly bring this question and others back into the limelight when it's needed most -- in time for next year's presidential elections. Timing is everything.

Source

Michael Moore -- whose movie Sicko is set for release this month -- isn't known for backing away from an issue, and either is animal rights group PETA. So when Ingrid Newkirk, president of the organization, wrote Michael Moore a letter, he had to know that he may not like what she had to say. Newkirk took Moore to task on his "weighty health issue" and challenged him to take up a vegetarian lifestyle so that he could "become less reliant on the government's shoddy healthcare system," himself. Newkirk urged the filmmaker to take up the 30-day Veg Pledge and take some personal responsibility in creating his own healthy lifestyle by eliminating animal products from his diet.

Will Moore take her up on it? He hasn't said, but he is working on losing a few pounds. What do you think? Was Newkirk's letter over the top or an appropriately worded wake up call?

Source

Filmmaker and activist Michael Moore has a reputation for making outspoken documentaries highly critical of big corporations, gun violence, and the current administration's handling of 9/11. As Brian mentioned in a previous post, Moore's current cause is health care.

His latest documentary, Sicko, is a scathing attack on a US health care system that leaves 50 million Americans uninsured. In the film, Moore takes patients from the US to Cuba, in an attempt to prove that they could receive better treatment outside the country.

Sicko hasn't been released yet, but it just received a huge endorsement. Moore appeared on Oprah yesterday to promote the movie, and the talk show host called it "the one film you must see this summer." Apparently Oprah was so moved by the the message, that she intends to make health care for all one of her main missions this year.

I haven't seen Sicko, but for the sake of those 50 million Americans, let's hope its message continues to inspire people to take action.

Source

Is the health care system in the U.S. substandard to a communist nation's health care system? controversial filmmaker Michael Moore will examine that question when hid "Sicko" film is released this year.

Moore took patients from the U.S. to Cuba (he's under investigation for that) to prove that they could receive better (and less expensive) health care outside the U.S. than inside it.

While I don't think any country's medical system is advanced as the one Americans enjoy, access to that system and the money needed to take advantage of it (when needed) is out of reach for millions of people. Due to that, I'll probably watch Moore's film with a scrutinizing eye but with an open mind as well. Will you?

Source