Controversial Michael Moore Flick 'Sicko' Will Compare U.S. Health Care with Cuba's

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pickledpepperRN

4,491 Posts

Nurse Alert: Michael Moore's documentary SiCKO opens in theaters nationwide the weekend of June 29th and I believe it's imperative that all nurses see this film. It is a graphic and transparent documentary that exposes the most heinous of crimes against humanity...HMOs and insurers who torture the vulnerable people who should be our patients, by denying them the care they need to satisfy their monstrous and evil greed!

What have we become as a society, when in the richest nation on earth, we allow insurance companies to profit by denying care and hospitals to "dump" disoriented, sick and dependent patients on the street? Why does the question, "What kind of insurance do you have?" preceed, "Why are you here and what can we do to help?" in hospitals and emergency rooms, and clinics?

I watched the film with nurses from Maine, Illinois, Texas, Missouri, Arizona, New York, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, Vermont; as well as other members of the California Nurses Association and the National Nurses Organizing Committee which has members in every state. We all agreed, this film not only broke our hearts, but it ignited our passion for health care reform: Guaranteed healthcare for all! We don't need more insurance. We need to enact a single-payer system similar to what exists in Canada, France, and England.

We don't have to reinvent the wheel to make universal health care a reality in our country. It's going to take all of us as patient advocates and social advocates to remove the barriers and restore our public health system so that we can provide safe, therapeutic and effective care for our patients. What we do as nurses was described by Florence Nightingale as, "the finest of the fine arts." With education, experience and passion, Michael Moore has created a work of art that nurses will recognize as brilliant, sweet and funny, incredibly sad at times. Mr. Moore has poured his heart and soul into his art, in the same way nurses care for their patients. Ultimately, we'll all be better for his advocacy.

There's a Dutch proverb that says, "if it's wrong today, it won't be right tomorrow!" Incremental reforms and individual mandates that leave insurance companies in place will only serve to enrich the insurers and will do nothing to solve the crisis. As nurses we understand that there's no room for profit in health care. As nurses we understand that we cannot separate patient advocacy from social advocacy. As nurses we understand that we need to take control of our profession and engage in participatory democracy, like our historical forebearers, Lavinia Dock, Lillian Wald, and Florence Nightingale, in order to control the delivery of healthcare. We should not delegate that responsibility to someone else.

If you've seen the film, please post your thoughts and comments. If you haven't, please make plans to go opening weekend and join in!

http://www.michaelmoore.com

http://www.singlepayer.com

According to this article the leading candidates for President are avoiding any mention of the film.

'Sicko' leaves top Democrats ill at ease

Leading candidates are sidestepping direct comment on filmmaker Michael Moore's proposals for universal healthcare.

With the release of Michael Moore's "Sicko," a movie once again is adding sizzle to an issue that's a high priority for liberal politicians-this time comprehensive health insurance for all. But unlike Al Gore's film on global warming, which helped rally support on an equally controversial problem, "Sicko" is creating an awkward situation for the leading Democratic presidential candidates.

Rejecting Moore's prescription on healthcare could alienate liberal activists, who will play a big role in choosing the party's next standard-bearer. However, his proposal-wiping out private health insurance and replacing it with a massive federal program-could be political poison with the larger electorate...

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-movie22jun22,0,5962985.story?coll=la-home-center.

honey10ms

6 Posts

Michael Moore's new film SICKO will be selectively released on June 24 and then be fully released on June 29th. I was privileged to see a private showing of the film in Sacramento a couple of weeks ago along with a thousand other nurses in the CNA.

The film does not put down our healthcare system but shows what the USA could have--healthcare for everyone--if only the people demanded it. As a nurse I feel that nurses nationally need to talk up this film. The American people do not understand that they are an accident or illness away from complete financial ruin because of the way our health system is.

Please everyone take some time to see this movie and tell everyone you know to see it as well.

ariansas

10 Posts

Check with the government, you can't file for bankruptcy anymore because of medical bills, King Bush changed the laws a few years ago, why? Because there were too many people with medical bills filing for bankruptcy.

Maybe we need to listen to King Bush and do what he says, have a medical savings account. Now I had breast cancer a few years ago, so let's see, all I needed to have in the bank was $180,000.00 for the first year, that is. Now I am sure this is much more realistic than what MM is saying, wouldn't you agree?

MM is telling it like it is. Is he left? Is he liberal? Sometimes that is what it takes for people to understand. This documentary is not political it is informative and shows the real picture. Like it or not, it is the truth.

What has been done in the last 6 years to help the health care system, .........UH......NOTHING!

kaitsmama

55 Posts

Would you simply dismiss as jingoism the fact that a child died from complications of a rotten tooth because MM told you that? MM didn't tell me that -- I read it in either the Chicago Tribune or the NY Times a few months ago. If the boy had had early preventative care -- he would be alive today.

I'm sorry, but a single anecdotal case does not prove that universal health care would be of benefit. In my state, Oklahoma, we have a large population of patients on medicaid that are offered free and total access to preventative care and come to the PICU when it is much too late to save the person, limb, etc. Not because they didn't have access, but because the parents chose to not take advantage of the access.

Now considering your source was a very liberal newspaper I doubt that they mentioned the fact that the kid's parents probably had the ability to qualify for or apply for some assistance.

Then again, dentisty is a racquet that has some to do with medical, but has a few more problems than I care to deal with in this discussion.

Tweety, BSN, RN

34,248 Posts

Specializes in Med-Surg, Trauma, Ortho, Neuro, Cardiac.
I'm sorry, but a single anecdotal case does not prove that universal health care would be of benefit. In my state, Oklahoma, we have a large population of patients on medicaid that are offered free and total access to preventative care and come to the PICU when it is much too late to save the person, limb, etc. Not because they didn't have access, but because the parents chose to not take advantage of the access.

Now considering your source was a very liberal newspaper I doubt that they mentioned the fact that the kid's parents probably had the ability to qualify for or apply for some assistance.

Then again, dentisty is a racquet that has some to do with medical, but has a few more problems than I care to deal with in this discussion.

You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make them drink. Even the insured have preventative measures but not everyone take advantage of them. People in this country do not appear to be interested in preventative medicine, I agree. But that's still no reason not to have universal health care and offer preventative medicine.

CRNI-ICU20

482 Posts

Specializes in ICU;CCU;Telemetry;L&D;Hospice;ER/Trauma;.

Hi there!!

I did see the movie....and posted a comment in the Break Room about it, but I have lost the thread....

Anyway...

I have to say the Michael Moore has struck a chord with ALOT of Americans as well as citizens of other countries.

To HUSHPUPPY: yes, Cubans do get as good, if not better care...ALL OF THEM....I just heard an interview yesterday by one of the 911 firefighter/emt's who said that she thought that maybe it was "all a show" since it was Michael Moore's movie project, so she decided to go out in the middle of the night, and leave the entourage, and walk into a hospital in Havana, and ask for help....she was pleasantly surprised to find that THEY TREATED HER IMMEDIATELY FOR HER BREATHING PROBLEMS...ORDERED TESTS RIGHT AWAY....AND SHE WAS NOT CHARGED A DIME. So, I have to say, it's a sad state of affairs when our own people who served this country, who faced the terrorists in the face at Ground Zero, cannot walk into ANY HOSPITAL IN THIS COUNTRY AND RECIEVE TREATMENT FOR FREE. Others here have mentioned the birth survival rates in the socialized medicine countries of the world, we are nearly at the bottom.....the reason is obvious, many women and children do not have access to proper pre and post natal healthcare, even under medicaid....because, again, OUR GOVERNMENT AND THE HEALTH CARE INSURANCE COMPANIES DECIDE WHICH DOCTOR YOU SEE AND FOR WHAT PURPOSE. In England, for instance, you can see whom ever you decide to see, and in some instances, DOCTORS STILL MAKE HOUSECALLS!

TO HOSPICE: I thought your statement about "putting down" this country as interesting. I wondered if you would consider ANYTHING about this country as needing improvement, or would you just prefer to believe that "all is well", as nearly 13 Million children go completely without health care access in this country a year! Some of the most patriotic and patriot minded people of this country were the most critical of it....ie Thomas Jefferson, Patrick Henry, all the way up to the VietNam era, where THOUSANDS OF COLLEGE STUDENTS BURNED THEIR DRAFT CARDS IN PROTEST AGAINST AN IMMORAL AND UNJUST WAR. Does this make them people who are putting down the country, simply because they saw what many did not see, and that was a country that had become misguided and misdirected by greed and selfishness.....I think that Michael Moore is showing the other side of the story here. The one that many of us don't want to admit to ourselves. We like to believe that this country is ONLY GOOD....that it would never do anything like this to it's own citizens....that is myopic and naiive thinking. If anything, the 1960's taught us to question authority, to question our government, and to trust no one over thirty!! This might be a good time to re-trace some of that true patriotism.

to DARREN: You seem to be caught up in the idea that the statistics people mention for un-insured citizens of this country are wrong, or a least skewed, and therefore, none of what Michael Moore says or anyone who quotes those stats, can be believed....you state: "I'd like to point out that those stats took place over a two year period" (I am paraphrasing you here).my question to you is: Why should even ONE PERSON in this country go without healthcare? Who cares if it is 20 million or ONE PERSON? the point is that BILLIONS of dollars goes in the pockets of the haves, while the have nots work their butts off in a job that offers no health care benefits, and provides no access for them or their families to survive a health care crisis.

Do you and your family have health care provided? What would you do if that 'benefit' suddenly was taken from you?

It troubles me that the thinking this leads to is the further division between the haves and have-nots.

a country that provides for its citizens is a healthy country....a strong country....just think through what happens to a society where there are no strong support systems in place for mothers, babies, and elderly people.....you might think Darfur.....I THINK INNER CITY CHICAGO. The reality is that Stroger Hospital, (formerly Cook Co. Hosp) in downtown Chi-town is closing whole units right now because there is NO MONEY to run it....this is the ONLY HEALTH CARE FACILITY FOR THE NEEDY IN SOUTH CHICAGO....where do these MILLIONS of people go now?

The Chicago Board President, Todd Stroger, is the son of the man for whom this hospital was named....he recently was diagnosed with prostate cancer....his predecessor had a massive stroke and is living in a health care facility.....but neither of THEM were having to bang on a door to get health care....because the COUNTY provides their care, ie through OUR TAXES...and they just happen to be lucky enough to recieve their medical care for free, via pension plans and former employment....they are the HAVES....but there is a whole population of people who are the HAVE NOTS... what about them???

As a country....as a strong and vigorous country, can we , are we prepared to just IGNORE THOSE PEOPLE?

We can drop tons of food and water on Darfur, but we cannot give a bandaid to our own??? WHAT KIND OF SKEWED THINKING IS THIS??? This is a definite misguided priority, in my book.

to RNFORMERCY: all of what you say is true. You clearly see the picture.

NOW: a little history:

My own son is an authority on this subject. He was one of the people, college students, involved in getting OREGON to adopt a universal health care ammendment a few years ago....He has studied this problem inside and out....believe me, what Mr. Moore tells you in his movie, is only a tip of the iceberg to the problems that people face with the current "system"....the only people who are getting rich are drug companies and insurance companies....it isn't about HEALTH CARE people...it's about making LOTS OF MONEY.

My son's work has led other states to consider doing the same, although Oregon did not pass the bill....Massachusetts is one who is looking at something similar.

The one thing that struck me as wonderful regarding the health care system in England, was what the interviewees had to say about how their system was one in which 'EVERY BODY WAS EQUAL'.... and that it united them as a community, as opposed to division and labeling...

TO ME, THAT SAYS ALOT...about a country that actually values it's people enough to make sure the beggar on the street has just as much coverage as the rich old dog in the castle....

just my opinion. crni

ariansas

10 Posts

Another compassionate nurse!

battpos

71 Posts

I'm sorry, but a single anecdotal case does not prove that universal health care would be of benefit...

Now considering your source was a very liberal newspaper I doubt that they mentioned the fact that the kid's parents probably had the ability to qualify for or apply for some assistance.

quote]

I mentioned a single anecdotal case; but the problem isn't a single anecdotal case.... it's thousands, hundreds of thousands perhaps...

I also never said that I know the solution to the problem....

And you would be wrong about the paper's coverage of the story. It was mentioned that the parent's qualified for some type of assistance. However, the assistance was so riddled with obstacles to the point that they were unable to avail themselves of the necessary fundamental preventive care.

You remind me of Newt Gingrich when he lashed out at the Katrina survivors... blaming them for not leaving the city in time.

Right. Blame the victim

Here is my question: If our country is so terrible, why are there millions of people each year, including Cubans where they supposedly have great healthcare, trying to get here???

ariansas

10 Posts

No one is saying that this country is so terrible. What I am saying is it could be so much better. We don't take care of our own. Everyone seems so scared of universal healthcare, they start talking about socialism but no one seems to mind that we have the same systems as socialism with our police and fire departments. They are paid out of our taxes for the good of everyone and no one complains.

There are so many people out there who need healthcare, I see it every day, and it is horrible. The richest nation in the world and we have people dying at home because they can't afford healthcare. We should all be ashamed.

sbic56, BSN, RN

1,437 Posts

Specializes in Obstetrics, M/S, Psych.

I just rec'd a promotion in the mail sponsored by the California Nurses Association/National Nurses Organizing Committee asking nurses to host a screening of the movie near them. Michael Moore. Our spokesman. I love it.

Long Term Care Columnist / Guide

VivaLasViejas, ASN, RN

22 Articles; 9,987 Posts

Specializes in LTC, assisted living, med-surg, psych.
I just rec'd a promotion in the mail sponsored by the California Nurses Association/National Nurses Organizing Committee asking nurses to host a screening of the movie near them. Michael Moore. Our spokesman. I love it.

I got the same thing in the mail a couple days ago, and was immediately put off.:angryfire I lived in California many years ago but have never in my life practiced nursing there, so why is their nurses' union sending me this piece of propaganda urging me to promote a movie, just because I have the initials "RN" after my name?

This is the sort of thing that gives nursing unions a bad name........I happen to be a VERY strong supporter of universal health care, but does embracing a far-left agenda and promoting Michael Moore's film have to be part of the package? I'd like to think there's room at the discussion table for nurses with ALL kinds of viewpoints, not just those who worship the quicksand MM walks on.

But, that's just me.:madface:

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