One stunt is detailed in the NY Post. Get ready for some single-payer love in his upcoming film:
Filmmaker Michael Moore’s production company took ailing Ground Zero responders to Cuba in a stunt aimed at showing that the U.S. health-care system is inferior to Fidel Castro’s socialized medicine, according to several sources with knowledge of the trip . . .. . . But the sick sojourn, which some say uses ill 9/11 workers as pawns, has angered many in the responder community.
“He’s using people that are in a bad situation and that’s wrong, that’s morally wrong,” railed Jeff Endean, a former SWAT commander from Morris County, N.J., who spent a month at Ground Zero and suffers from respiratory problems.
(via a reader tip)
Update:
Coverage for Sicko continues with here on Kevin, M.D. more discussion and debate:
Sicko: Real health care in Cuba
Health insurers are bracing for Michael Moore
Update 2:
More coverage from around the blogosphere.
Michelle Malkin:
“While we’re on the subject of Cuba, Michael Moore, and far Left propaganda, Cuban bloggers are exposing the lies about the Castro regime’s Communist health care system.”
Captain’s Quarters:
“This movie seems to be a paranoia-fest beyond Moore’s previous accomplishments. Does he wants to prove that the American health-care system is somehow in cahoots with the Bush administration over the 9/11 attack, or does he just want to show that American health care is incompetent? Certainly, he’s looking to boost the tired leftist propaganda that Cuba’s free health-care system is a model for America to follow. One might think that Moore’s argument here would have been undermined by Fidel Castro himself, who had to import Spanish physicians to treat him in his extremity earlier this year.”
The Opinion Mill:
“After decades of paralysis brought on by conservatives screaming about socialized medicine, the country finally seems ready to talk about a rational health care system for America. If Sicko turns out to be more schmuckery along the lines of Bowling for Columbine, the movie will only help to muddle a long overdue debate.”
Health Care BS:
“As it happens, one of my colleagues at the hospital is a Cuban-American whose father fled to the U.S. after Castro’s takeover. She has many relatives still there, and it is impossible to exaggerate the contempt she has for Americans who think Cuba’s health care system is superior to ours.
In her eyes, the only thing more despicable than Castro’s regime is the “progressive community” that continues to lie on its behalf.”
Six Meat Buffet:
“Who knows, taking on Bush is popular. HMOs? Maybe not. The newness was exciting with “Roger and Me”. But this “man of the people” schitck probably won’t play well outside the college demographic.”
Lerterland:
“It’s one thing to make the case for a single-payer health care system. But when you consider the effects of arbitrary arrest and imprisonment on the health and welfare of an individual, it is perverse to laud Cuba for its social services.
Moore, as always, is catching hell from right-wingers. For this reason, he will feel vindicated. He shouldn’t, because his apologetic stance toward Castro runs afoul not of conservative principles, but liberal ones.”
The Spine:
“As it happens, Moore went to Cuba with sick Americans who can’t — because of not having health insurance or other reasons — get treatment for their illnesses. Cuba, as you may recall, is a medical care paradise. Just like the old Soviet Union was, and — of course — China.”
Fictions and musings, with a side of yuca:
“Whatever that film claims, the truth is that while Cuba may have the lowest infant mortality rate in the Americas, it also has the highest abortion rate (32 out of 100 pregnancies are aborted). And while healthcare is certainly free to everyone, Cuban hospitals lack simple drugs like aspirin for their patients.”
Blog For Cuba:
“One of Fidel Castro’s biggest propaganda successes has been the acceptance as fact his lie that Cuba has the best healthcare in the world. I could link story after story that proves Cuba does not provide good healthcare for its citizens, but the most telling proof of all is the fact that after his emergency surgery, Fidel Castro himself chose not to trust Cuban healthcare providers, but instead arranged to fly in a prominent Spanish physician along with the latest equipment to tend to his medical needs.”
Update 5/20 -
The Toronto Star:
“We Canucks were taking issue with the large liberties Sicko takes with the facts, with its lavish praise for Canada’s government-funded medicare system compared with America’s for-profit alternative.
While justifiably demonstrating the evils of an American system where dollars are the major determinant of the quality of medicare care a person receives, and where restoring a severed finger could cost an American $60,000 compared to nothing at all for a Canadian, Sicko makes it seem as if Canada’s socialized medicine is flawless and that Canadians are satisfied with the status quo.”
The Boston Herald:
“But possible Republican presidential contender Fred Thompson is already having some fun at Moore’s expense. The “Law & Order” actor and former Tennessee senator has Web-posted a video clip of himself sitting in a big leather chair, puffing a cigar and reminding Moore that Cuban dictator Fidel Castro once dealt with a documentary filmmaker by locking him up in a mental institution.
“Mental institution, Michael, might be something you ought to think about,” Thompson deadpans.
Somehow we think the ever-tedious Moore has finally found a worthy adversary – one who can put nonsense into perspective.”
Update 5/22 -
Lynn Davidson:
“Moore started with a stunningly stupid statement that essentially told these socialized medicine ingrates to quit their whining about 18 month-long waits for gallbladder surgeries because it means they apparently live three years longer…somehow. Moore lashed out at these legitimate questions about his habit of propping up an unrealistic portrayal of a socialist utopia (or communist, in Cuba’s case) by minimizing the citizens’ hardships.”
Rich Lowry:
“Cuban health care works only for the select few: if you are a high-ranking member of the party or the military and have access to top-notch clinics; or a health-care tourist who can pay in foreign currency at a special facility catering to foreigners; or a documentarian who can be relied upon to produce a lickspittle film whitewashing the system.
Ordinary Cubans experience the wasteland of the real system. Even aspirin and Pepto-Bismol can be rare, and there’s a black market for them. According to a report in the Canadian National Post: ‘Hospitals are falling apart, surgeons lack basic supplies and must reuse latex gloves. Patients must buy their sutures on the black market and provide bed sheets and food for extended hospital stays.’”
Related posts:
- Sicko: Real health care in Cuba
- Michael Moore loses it on CNN
- What Michael Moore left out of Sicko
- Sicko: "The perfect Michael Moore situation"
- Moore and Stossel go at it
- Time softballs Michael Moore
- The meltdown of Michael Moore
{ 23 comments }
I wonder if Hollywood’s hero will wait 18 months in honor of Canada’s system when he needs new knee replacements from carrying all of that extra weight. His own and that of being the official spokesman for the downtrodden.
He should move to Cuba. He would no longer have to worry about how to pay for his bariatric surgery after a few months of rice and beans.
LOL … 18 months wait in Canada eh! Spewing rumors like this only adds to the US health system mess. These are the stories that some people like to spread, but they are simply untrue. As a Canadian, I know that some medical procedures might take a bit longer in Canada than in the US, but not 18 months! Thats’s pure propaganda. At least everybody gets care in Canada. If you want examples of a broken health system, look no further than the USA!
All I know is pick up a Canadian newspaper any day of the week and there is an article about some patient traveling to the States for care that is unavailable in Canada. And I sure know a lot of Canadian expat physicians practicing south of the border.
At least their children have health care. Ask your self one question. Why is our infant mortality lower than Cuba. In the richest most powerful country in the world it’s a scandal.
I’m a doc in Canada and I would never practice in the United States. I can’t imagine having to turn away a patient for lack of funds to pay. There are plenty of expat American physicians here too; and personally, if YOU were on the poor side of the fence, you’d have way more health problems and no way of paying. Health care should be based on need, not on ability to pay.
There are pros and cons to a national health care system like the one in Canada. At the same time, there are also pros and cons to the one we have here in the U.S. However, I think it is morally reprehensible that the U.S. health care system is primarily driven by reimbursement regulations. The insurance companies (including Medicare) are ultimately the ones deciding patient care rather than the practitioners.
I have been to cuba several times, and have spoken with an anthropologist who did his PHD thesis on the advances in health care in cuba – it’s true, it’s a police state, and it sucks, but everybody gets health care and cared for! The attitude towards healing is holistic and community centered. Everybody gets involved in healing the sick.
I had a close friend (a cuban) who’s brother was schizophrenic. The whole community made sure that he was cared for – making sure he took his meds, getting him to the doctor, helping him integrate into society after he was hospitalized and stabilized on meds. When I told my friend how canada (and the US) treat the mentally ill: “If they’re able to wipe their ass when they shit, use a fork and know how to tell time, we send them out to subsidized housing because there is no more room in our hospitals to care for the mentally ill” (which was told to me by a canadian doctor), he was in tears saying that even stray animals are treated better than that.
The US has a lot to learn from Cuba – the big one is compassion for the sick, and the importance of community and its power to heal others…
a cuban at heart from Montreal
The evidence is plentiful & solid that 9/11 was perpetrated by criminal elements in the US government with the help of Bush and Cheney:
http://home.comcast.net/~plutarch/911.html
I remember watching William Buckley responding in a debate (back in the 1980’s) that when America gets a better health system, he hoped it would be somewhat better than the Canadian system. Well, that was about 20 years ago, and both systems are still really ugly, and I think have gone backwards. Now Cuba is quite amazing. The US Government has been trying to destroy the economy there since the 1960’s. As well as assassinate Fidel Castro, invade the country, and the fact that Cuba has any kind of medical system at all is something of miracle, given the kind of destructive interference America has been running for the past 55 years.
Unfortunately, we always have to have the SFA (Smartass Fundamentalist American) who adds in the comments that other countries systems don’t deliver, and if you don’t like it here, go live in Iraq or Mexico(or some other country where the CIA and US Government have been running major interference for the past 50 years).
OK, So Michael Moore has gone to Cuba. Perfect place to study the impact of American foreign policy. And to get some real footage of what is happening in the health world in Cuba.
And if somebody could tell me of any American documentaries made about Cuba in the past 15 years (I am sorry: falling off my chair here laughing at the idea that America can any longer produce news reports.)
Oh dear. My aching sides.
I wasn’t supposed to take any of this seriously was I?
One filmmakers take on Moore:
We made our film Love & Suicide in Cuba without permission from the U.S. or Cuban Governments. Moore had full support with “Sicko” from the Cuban government. That’s why one of the many reasons the content of Sicko documentary is grossly erroneous.
We made a narrative feature film based on true events. Moore made a documentary based on lies and half truths. (See the Cuba hospital photos of filthy conditions)
Cuban photos
Ironically our feature film has more truth about Cuba, than Moore’s documentary.
http://www.EverythingCuba.com
I do agree with Moore; that the embargo should be abolished. But his embellishing by saying Cuba has a better medical system than the United States is grossly inaccurate.
The fact is, what Moore says in Sicko is not the total truth. And his method of using documentaries to deliver a tainted message is embarrassing to any true filmmaker team.
Luis Moro, Filmmaker
Moore loves to cite that cubans also live longer than the average american, as evidence of Cuba possessing a better healthcare system. However, longevity has to do with a myriad of factors wholely divorced from the healthcare system. The typical diet (or lack thereof in Cuba), ethnicity, number of drivers, and much more all play a role in determining the average life expectancy of a population. His lies aren’t always by commision, but often by omission.
J.J.
More on Moore
http://www.newmediajournal.us/guest/m_westfall/04142007.htm
http://westfallmike.tripod.com/Page10.htm
http://michaelwestfall.tripod.com/id104.html
Well Kevin, looks like you’re missing the point in your rush to discredit Moore. I can see you now, sitting with a smug look and crossed arms, satisfied to take a jab at your favorite “america hater”.
The problem is, people like my family and I live in the constant knowledge that we’re getting screwed by America’s health care system. It took me 6 months of calls to get my son’s birth costs to be paid under my employers plan. Now (as I’m self employed), my second largest annual expense is healthcare for my family – and for that, I get almost no service whatsoever, just a prayer that if something goes really wrong, the provider won’t deny me on some technicality.
The health care system and washington are letting hard working americans down. Youre welcome to blast Moore all you want, but he’s on the right side of this issue by me.
Believe it or not, I happen to enjoy Mr. Moore’s films, and am looking forward to see “Sicko”.
You have no dispute from me that our current health care system is in disarray.
However, Mr. Moore’s solution (I haven’t seen the film, but I think it’s safe to say) – that of a government-run single-payer system – simply exchanges our problems for a whole new set of problems. Which may be even worse.
Thanks,
Kevin
The problem I see with letting the government pay for health care is that we won’t know who is deciding what quality of life is and if they will or won’t pay for certain things. I don’t want george bush’s croney’s or any other politicians telling me what’s good for me and my body. Also, it might be a way for the government to control reproductive rights. I think that system is way messed up but the government will mess it up more.
This is a reply, paragraph by paragraph, to the extremely dishonest anti-Cuba propoganda piece by Mr Lowry in the National Review.
Moore demanded the 9/11 responders be treated like regular Cubans, and it appears they were. Moore says the trip was not about making Cuba out to be “better” than the US, but ask why we can’t make the same committment to health care as Cuba has – available for everyone?
While there are indeed several profit-making facilities aimed primarily at health tourists in Cuba, the profits are funneled back into the national health system, unlike in other countries where private firms take the money. Cuba makes about $40 million a year off Presidents (like Haiti’s Preval) and sports stard (like Maradona), which helps offset the added costs related to the embargo.
Calling the Cuban national system a “wasteland” is beyond reproach. Every respected organization, from the WHO, UNICEF, Lancet, World Bank, Kaiser Foundation, the UK House of Commons Health Select Committee, etc. have give the Cuban system gold stars – one of the “world’s best public services” concludes the BBC. This is regardless of the fact that, indeed, some supplies are sometimes in short supply or missing – often as a direct result of the embargo. “Pepto-Bismol” and “Tylenol” are American products that are not allowed to be imported without a very complicated and bureaucratic licensing process that the Cubans normally choose to bypass because of the added costs and delays. The embargo “dramatically harmed the health and nutrition of large numbers of Cubans” says the American Association of World Health. Nonetheless, Cuba has learned to produce undisputable health results with a minimum of resources and today produces, on its own, much of its medicines and equipment.
These statistical manipulations are apparently based on data taken during the country’s “special period” when Cuba lost 85% of its trade (fertilizers, fuel, feed), which decimated food production and food imports dropped by ½. Today Cuba can report being fully recovered from what was like the “great depression” x2. Malnutrition rates (2%) have fallen to become the lowest in Latin America (WHO, 2006). Average caloric consumption is up above 2,600 a day, well in line with other Latin countries. As for as “development of electrical power,” Cuba ranks 3rd only to Chile and Uruguay in terms of access to electricity (97% – Earth Trends). In 1959, just 7% had access to electrical power. So this seems to be total crap.
The abortion rate is again, way off. I imagine the statistics were based on the high point of 209,000 abortions in 1996. In 2004, after a coordinated effort to combat the issue, Cuba recorded a drop to two-thirds – to 67,277 (a rate lower than the US). The infant mortality distortion is obvious, but it is worth pointing out that pre-1959 record keeping was not a priority of the Government. Many infant deaths went totally unreported. To say Cuba has lost ground to the likes of post WW II France and Belgium is disingenous. Again, Cuba ranks above the US in this crucial figure.
As for suicide, islands are well known to have higher suicide rates than not. Cuba’s last known figure, recorded during the “special period” found Cuba with better rates thank Japan, most of the newly capitalist countries, Finland, Belguim, (and Alaska, Montana and Nevada).
Michael Moore is a revolutionary and a true American patriot.
It would be interesting to see how well covered the Moore bashers are. If you are self employed or have little or no coverage, then you couldn’t possibly give the US healthcare system a thumbs-up.
You have to balance the “some come to America for treatment” with the commonly documented “some go to Canada so they can get treatment at all”. Even a self-employed lawyer from AZ had written about his family’s slide into poverty attempting to pay for his cancer treatments. This is fair?? Now try being poor.
If you think we have nothing to learn from other country’s successes, then you have your head in the sand (and are fully covered).
Dear Kevin,
Imagine the Health care system 200yrs. ago when doctors would go from patient to patient dripping infectuos blood, performing the most advanced surgeries of the time. Now look at our medicine. Now imagine our government evolving in the same way. The point is not to replace one set of problems for another but to take the good things of other health care systems and disregard the rest. I would think as a man of science you would believe in the method.
P.S. I can see your smug face to.
Michael Moore doesn’t say that Cuba’s health care system is better than America’s. He says it’s among the best in the Third world. In Sicko, he’s only projecting a sad irony that American heroes who are denied care from their own country can actually get treatment with the “communist enemy.” Why show this? To hammer home that something is terribly wrong with our health care system and it should be fixed. I don’t want to hear anymore about Moore saying Cuba’s health care is better than the U.S. He’s simply suggesting that we look at a whole slew of countries and use what works with those countries’ systems to make a bigger, better Americanized health care system that guarantees care for everybody, especially children. What in the heck is wrong with that?
Check out another great medical short film called “The Musician Physician” at uvu.channel2.org KEYWORD Musician Physician.
What is the real solution, if Michael Moore’s government sponsored universal health care is not the answer?
The crux of the “SICKO” documentary is the disconnect between our expectations and the reality of health care. We are expecting compassionate care from another human being, and instead we get a faceless corporation. The person behind the desk or window is an agent of a health care corporation, which is not a human being, whose primary goal is to increase corporate profit.
This is America, and corporate profit is good, the profit motive forming the basis America’s greatness. The basic problem is that a corporation is not a human being. Therein lies the fallacy of replacing a corporation with a government agency, neither of which is a human being, when what we really want is a human being to deliver compassionate health care, and assist in serious health care decisions.
Ultimately we must at some point ration health care to avoid national bancruptcy. We can’t provide everything for everybody. Moore’s film, SICKO replaces the corporate health company with the government agency as the agent of this care rationing.
My major point here, is that the larger issue which is ignored by the SICKO film, is the control of medical information, which then determines expenditure and rationing patterns. The control of medical information controls the money. This is explained fully at:
Review of “SICKO”, by Jeffrey Dach MD
Jeffrey Dach MD
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