“Sick and Sicker” to answer Moore’s movie
I had actually been wondering how long it would take before we began to see new documentaries to counter Michael Moore’s claims in Sicko. Apparently we won’t have to wait too long:
Moore’s premise--that over-reliance on third-party payers results in bureaucratic interference in medicine--is sound. But his remedy--to create one colossal Third-Party Payer in the federal government--will only make the existing problems that much worse.
The Consumers for Health Care Choices (CHCC) Foundation has arranged to be the fiscal sponsor for a new movie being produced by Logan Clements that will answer Moore’s charges. Clements is actively filming in Canada right now, exploring the disastrous results of Canada’s system.
Deaths from neglect, two-year waits for basic services, and long waits for critical consultations such as oncology that delay treatment until it is too late are common in Canada. The Canadian Supreme Court actually ruled the Canadian system violates the Canadian Charter because it denies the human right to use one’s own resources to save one’s own life. Many people are dying as a direct result of that system.
I find it especially interesting to note that this is a Canadian production being filmed in Canada about the deep flaws in the Canadian health care system. Because, after all, according to Michael Moore Canada’s health care is beyond reproach… right? Here’s my favorite quote from the article:
The American people need to know that although our insurance system is flawed and needs a good injection of consumerism and transparency, replacing it with Canada’s approach will make a sick system much sicker. Access to a long waiting list is not access to care.
Excellent. If we are to have a debate about health care in this country it needs to be a well-seasoned debate with good, strong facts on all sides. I will be interested to see how this movie portrays the Canadian health care system and I hope it presents its story with hard facts, not well-worn anecdotes, half-truths and political homilies.
Comments
Good catch! I read that article as well and found it to be fairly well balanced and inviting responses from all sides of the debate. It’s a refreshing change, to say the least.
On the matter of Flinn’s trip to a Cuban hospital versus the one Moore showed us in Sicko, I’ll quote the relevant portion of the article here:
In the most attention-getting segment of the film, Moore takes a group of ailing 9/11 rescue workers to Havana for treatment denied by their insurance companies. The hospital is crisp and sparkling and equipped with the latest technology; it could pass for UCSF or Stanford Medical Center.
But I’d bet my last convertible peso that this particular hospital is reserved for high-ranking party officials and their families, and that if Moore was aware this was a propaganda set-up, he willingly went along with it.
The Cuban hospital I saw in 2002 was in the colonial city of Trinidad, down the coast from the Bay of Pigs, and everything, from the waiting-room benches to the laboratory equipment, looked as rusty and ramshackle as the vintage Studebakers rumbling through the streets. Its pharmacy shelves were nearly bare. The place looked like something you might have seen in rural Mississippi in 1958. This, I had to believe, was a hospital for rank-and-file Cubans.
‘Nuff said, methinks. ;)
high-ranking party officials and their families
It seems Castro uses his hospital system to two contradictory ends.
He shows people like Moore Hermanos Almejeiras Hospital, and he shows people like the American Association for World Health the other side of Cuba’s health care.
The Impact of the U.S. Embargo on the Health and Nutrition in Cuba.
Dr. Melgar pointed out that Castro’s embargo was selective, “only affecting the average Cuban. As a doctor I felt ashamed when visiting hospitals such as Cira Garcia, Hermanos Almejeiras, or Topes de Collantes where foreigners and Castro’s elite enjoyed the use of the most advanced medical equipment available.” He and others express their frustration in their practices outside the privileged hospitals, where they have to struggle to combat lice and hepatitis epidemics, among others, because of the rampant poor sanitation. “It’s frustrating not to have the means to cure a simple lice epidemic while in the privileged hospitals, you find plenty of antibiotics, interferon and the latest equipment such as CAT scan and MRI machines.”
I heard about Sick and Sicker a few months ago, I was going to post something about it on this site.
fangbeer,
Great article . . . dead on!
All this nonsense about the U.S. trade embargo being the root of Cuba’s problems is a total fallacy. Cuba cannot pay for medicine whether it comes from the U.S. or from European countries that have placed no embargo on Cuba. Cuba is dirt poor, and they will remain that way until they accept economic reforms.
"I find it especially interesting to note that this is a Canadian production being filmed in Canada about the deep flaws in the Canadian health care system.”
Logan Clements is a California businessman and political activist.
And the
CHCC The Consumers for Health Care Choices is based in MD.
Well I guess they are filming in Canada.
“I will be interested to see how this movie portrays the Canadian health care system”
Well....
“Third-Party Payer in the federal government--will only make the existing problems that much worse.”
I think we all know already how it will be portrayed.
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John Flinn has been around as editor at “Travel” mag. He paints a slightly different picture of Cuban hospitals.
(Of course this means John Flinn is a quisling bootlicker for the Bushitlerian oil war machine. Boycott “Travel”, regardless of his position that our HC system indeed needs positive change)