“That was a string of misrepresentations about me and about the systems in other countries,” Clinton began. “Number one, I have never advocated socialized medicine and I hope all the journalists here heard that loudly and clearly because that has been a right-wing attack on me for 15 years. ”

There she goes again with her “right wing attack” rhetoric.  It’s a known fact that Hillary’s poll numbers go up whenever she’s seen as a victim, which is why she portrays herself as one so often.

“Do you think Medicare is socialized medicine? Clinton asked, turning the tables on her inquisitor, who did not identify himself.

“To a degree,” he responded.

“Well, then you are in a small minority in America,” Clinton said to applause, before explaining that Medicare allows patients to choose their doctors even though the federal government foots the bill with money deducted from workers’ paychecks.

Hmm.  A system whereby the government pays for the healthcare through taxation.  Sounds like socialized medicine to me.

Clinton then asserted that “on balance” countries with uniform national systems of health care, including Japan, Australia and Canada, offer their citizens better health care than the U.S. The answer left her questioner shaking his head in disagreement.

“I can give you the statistics and you can shake your head,” Clinton said sharply. “You come and introduce yourself to the staff. And we’ll try to give you some information if you’re interested in being educated instead of being rhetorical.”

Notice the “on the balance” qualifier.  That makes this a value judgment and not something which can be quantified.  It’s a very important qualification, because it means that no matter how many horror stories people come up with about the degree of service a patient might receive under a socialist system, or in how many areas the US system is superior, Hillary can claim that “on the balance” the other nations give better care.  And, on the balance, there’s no way to disprove that.

I do that from time to time… just come up with some concept I think is funny, and make a little one-shot strip.
I’d like to be more regular about it, but frankly… well… I’m wayyy too lazy and not nearly enough of a disciplined
writer, either…
But still, on the occasion that I do pop one out, I’d really like to have a title for the strip.
Think you guys can give me a hand, there? Puh-leeeeez? Any suggestions would be appreciated, thanks.

Oh, and please keep in mind that it’s not a Moore-centric strip, either. A few have featured him, but they won’t
always. (Those are just the ones that I post, here, for obvious reasons.)
So, a Moore-related title wouldn’t really work.

Thanks, gang!

Hi I’m from England and I have just watched Sicko. I personally find Michael Moore VERY condescending and preachy however I do have some problems with your take on medcine.

Fair enough.

I cannot see how it can be a problem for the government to pay for medicine. You state that you have paid more than $250 for a meal but this does not make it ok to pay that much for health care.

I put that in there for foreign readers who might not be aware of how much $250 dollars is.  The reality is that it’s not very much.  The minimum wage here in California is $7.50, so even with taxes taken out $250 is roughly what the poorest-paid workers in the state make in a week.  $250 is $150 less than an XBox 360, roughly the same price as a Nintendo Wii, and about twice the cost of a Playstation 2.  It’s in the same ballpark as what the latest and greatest pair of basketball shoes will cost you.

Let me tell you something.  In America you see a WHOLE lot of poor kids wearing $200 basketball shoes. 

As America is the economic powerhouse of the world it is unthinkable that they could nt setup a very effective health care system and why should people pay.  The reason that people pay taxes is to have their basic needs paid for by the state surely medicine is included in this.

Perhaps in the UK people pay taxes to have their fundamental needs met, but not here.  Let’s assume, however, that this is true.  Isn’t food the most fundamental of all needs?  Why doesn’t the state provide everyone with food?  Why are there supermarkets where people are forced to pay for that most basic of needs?  And what about a place to live?  Why isn’t the government paying for everyone to have a place to live?  Why are you allowed to choose where to live?  To rent or buy?  Why should capitalism be allowed to enter into these transactions, for food and shelter, two needs which are far more immediate than medical care?

Simple.  The free market is the most efficient means of equitable distribution of wealth that has ever been devised.  Period.

“But Lee!  The government does give food and shelter to poor people, so you’re not making much sense here!” The operative word there, of course, is poor.  If the government provided everyone with a house they’d all be identical gray cinderblock buildings with square apartments.  If the government provided everyone with food it would be a flavorless gruel of some kind.  In fact, if you want to see what these services are like when provided by the state, look at North Korea.  The best thing to do is to give help only to those people who actually need it and let everyone else be free to do as they choose.  So the poor get food stamps and live in a council flat, while the rest of us buy cars and houses.

Why should healthcare be any different?

Also there are many people who cannot afford $265. What do they do? Its an unfortunate fact of life that many people do not earn enough to be able to afford these fee’s and it seems that your attitude is “well the system works works for me so there is nothing wrong with it.”

As I said before, $265 is not much money.  Most people, even those of modest means, could afford it.  Yes, not everyone will be able to.  Then again, not everyone will choose to , either.  When healthcare is paid for by taxes you’re forcing people to buy health insurance, and there are some people (usually young, healthy people) who skip the insurance because they’d rather have the money. 

I know that the NHS (english national health service) is in a **** state at the moment but that is down to EU beaurocracy and there are many countries where a NHS works well.

Thank you for proving my point.  You know what I do when I deal with a shit doctor or a shit hospital or a shit insurance company?  I go somewhere else.  You, I’m sorry to say, are stuck with the NHS.

Basically what I am saying is that healthcare is a human need and it does seem that the USA denies this to many people and that is wrong and I do not think you should at the very least be able to accept some of the intelligent critisism from Moore’s film.

Healthcare is a human need.  It is not a human right, and that is the distinction.  Neither Jim nor I nor the vast majority of Americans have any problem providing healthcare to the poor.  We already do this through programs like Medicaid.  What he and I are opposed to, and will fight tooth and nail, is single-payer healthcare like in the UK.  It’s a disaster, and I want no part of it. 

Helping people who need help is one thing.  Doing so by lessening the quality of the care you receive yourself is another thing entirely.

However I will agree that the man is a complete nob jockey but people should not have to pay for medicine

Well, I’ll agree with you on the nob jockey part.  :)

I recently changed jobs.  As most of you know, in the US you get your healthcare as a benefit from your employer.  (It’s an asinine system which has its origins in FDR’s price controls during WWII and it should be scrapped, but for now that’s the way the system works.) When you leave your job you have an option of keeping your currect insurance through a plan called COBRA, which allows you to keep your medical benefits until you find a new job.  The cost of the COBRA insurance is dependent on the plan your employer offered.  For example, I once worked for a company with an astonishing PPO health benefit plan, absolutely top of the line.  Just about everything was a covered benefit, including—I shit you not—aromatherapy, foot reflexology, and acupuncture.  So when I left that company and went on COBRA, I had to pay almost $800 a month to keep that level of coverage.  (For what it’s worth, I think that level of coverage is fucking asinine, but this was a very liberal company and it was attracting liberal employees, so they had to cover all this stupid shit.)

The company I left recently offered an HMO.  Yes, yes, the evil HMO’s from Moore’s movie, who routinely let people die of organ failure.  It offered solid, but not exorbitant coverage.  When I left the company their COBRA rate was $265 a month.  I am currently working freelance at my new company, and freelancers don’t qualify for the company benefit plan, but I made them pay me extra so I could pay for my COBRA.  In other words, I get pretty decent coverage for a very affordable $265 a month.

I went to my local doctor (my GP) because I had a weird rash on my fingers and on my thigh.  He didn’t know what the rash was, so he ordered the routine battery of blood and urine tests, and wrote me a prescription for some lotion to rub on the rash.  The doctor’s visit cost me $20, and the lotion was $15.  The next day he called me and said that they had discovered trace amounts of blood in my urine.  I have a 20 year history of kidney stones, so I knew that in all likelihood I had another stone.  My doctor recommended a urologist in my area, and I made an appointment for the next day.  That’s right, not three weeks from now, but the very next day.  They also said that they were going to need a CT scan of my abdominal area, and made the appointment for me at the x-ray and imaging center.

On the day I went, got my films taken, then walked with the films over to the doctor.  The films cost me nothing, they were 100% paid by insurance.  Sure enough, I had a 1.5 cm stone in my right kidney.  The doctor said I would be a good candidate for lithotripsy, and I agreed.  We looked at the schedule, and he told me that I could get in the next day if I wanted.  I had some stuff at work that needed to be taken care of, and could we schedule it for a few days later?  No problem.  So the surgery was scheduled for July 31, with a quick pre-procedure check in with the doctor the day before.

On the 30th I went to the doctor ($20) and we went over everything.  It all looked good, all systems were go.  Yesterday I went to the hospital with my girlfriend, and we went to the admissions desk.  They checked me in, and told me that there was a $250 deductible for the procedure.  In other words, a day in the hospital, with doctors and nurses and anesthesiologists and everyone else, was going to cost me the whopping sum of $250.  (For comparative purposes, for my girlfriend’s birthday I bought her a handbag which cost more than that.  I’ve spent more than $250 on meals before.) I didn’t have my checkbook on me, but they told me they’d send me a bill. 

The lithotripsy was a complete success, the stone was pulverized completely.  The doctor left a stent inside me to assist in expelling the debris from the stone.  I was written prescriptions for painkillers and antibiotics.  These were $10 each. 

Today the doctor’s nurse called me to check and see how I was doing.  I told her that pain-wise I was fine, but that I still had quite a bit of blood in my urine.  She said that I shouldn’t be bleeding that much, and that I should come into their office right away.  An hour later I was being seen by the doctor ($20).  He thinks that the bleeding is being caused by the stent irritating my bladder and isn’t really anything to worry about.  Nonetheless, he’s scheduled me for a follow-up on Monday.  I’m going to go back in for another series of films (which will cost me $0), which I will then walk over to his office for review ($20). 

As for the original skin rash issue, my GP recommended I see a dermatologist.  He said it was a strange type of eczema, and wrote me a prescription for a different type of cream, which cost me $15.  The rash has almost completely cleared up.

Unlike most people participating on this blog, I have experienced socialized healthcare up close and personal.  I’ve lived in the UK, Noway, Australia, and numerous other countries with single-payer systems.  I’ve had to wait weeks to see a doctor.  I know what it’s like.  I’ve also been on the receiving end of some of the worst issues of the American system, with claims being denied and benefits changing.

The point of this post was to show those of you unfamiliar with American healthcare what a typical experience is like, even for those of us with a dreaded, evil HMO.  Considering the costs associated with the care I received, I don’t think for a second that what I was charged was unreasonable, quite the contrary.  I’m astounded that, for the sum total of a few hundred dollars, I was able to get this amount of care.  In a couple of weeks I’ll have to have another minor procedure to remove the stent, which will cost me nothing since I already met the $250 deductible.

A few things to point out for our European readers:  everything you saw here took place in a matter of days, not months.  There were no waiting lists.  I walked in and got fixed, and all I have insurance-wise is a regular old crappy HMO.  Oh, another thing—every one of my doctors was American, trained at American colleges.  My GP and dermatologist both went to University of California in Los Angeles (UCLA) medical school, and my urologist went to the University of Texas, two of the finest medical schools in the country.

Is there room in the US system for improvement?  Absolutely, without question.  But, having had numerous hospitalizations and surgeries in my life, the episode detailed here is pretty typical of what most people experience.  Which is why the United States healthcare system has the highest level of customer satisfaction of any country in the world.

I strongly encourage you all to read the whole article, but here are some highlights for your perusal.

On the subject of Moore’s claim that Cubans live longer than Americans:

In “Sicko,” Moore parrots the Castroite claim that Cubans live longer than Americans. In fact the figures are practically identical, which actually casts Cuba’s vaunted health care in a negative light. In all nations with high emigration rates, longevity rates skew high. This occurs because the birth is recorded but the death gets recorded in the nation migrated to. So it seems like fewer people die. Naturally, the opposite effect appears in nations with a large influx of immigrants. The death is recorded but the birth was recorded in the nation immigrated from. So generally speaking, a nation with high longevity but known to hemorrhage its people has little to boast about with regard to longevity figures. All they’re proving is that theirs is a miserable place to live and from which massive numbers of people flee.

And few nations hemorrhage people like Cuba—almost 20% of its population since the glorious revolution. This 20% represents those who got out with the clothes on their back and against enormous odds.

This, of course, makes complete sense when you examine it. If a Cuban is born in Cuba but dies in the US, the death is never recorded in Cuba but rather in the US. This makes it seem as if fewer people are dying in Cuba, but all it really means is that massive numbers of people are fleeing the oppression of Castro’s regime. No matter how you look at it, this is a lose-lose situation for Moore - the facts are squarely against him.

On the quality and state of Cuban doctors:

A few years back Castro launched his “Doctor Diplomacy,” wherein he started sending Cuban “doctors” to heathen lands (though their spouses and children were held hostage in Cuba) to heal the sick and raise the dead. This was coupled with “free” treatment of poor foreigners from the Caribbean and Latin American nations in Cuban hospitals. The scheme has gotten no end of gushy reviews in the major media…

Brazil also got a birds-eye view of Cuba’s vaunted “Doctor Diplomacy.” The April 2005 story from Agence France-Presse titled “96 Cuban Doctors Expelled from Brazil” reported: “Federal Judge Marcelo Bernal ruled in favor of a demand by the Brazilian state of Tocantins’ Consejo Regional de Medicina (Regional Council on Medicine) that Cuban doctors be prohibited from practicing in their state.” Based on the results they’d achieved with Tocantins’ residents, the judge referred to the Cuban doctors as “Witch Doctors and Shamans. We cannot accept doctors who have not proven that they are doctors.”

According to a report by the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons, more than 75% of “doctors” with Cuban “medical degrees” flunk the exam given by the Educational Commission for Foreign Medical Graduates for licensing in the U.S. This exam is considered a cakewalk even by the graduates of Mexico’s Tec de Monterrey School of Medicine. Most Cuba-certified doctors even flunk the Educational Commission for Foreign Medical Graduates’ exam for certification as “physician assistants,” making them unfit even as nurses.

So much for those vaunted Cuban doctors we see in Sicko. These are people who do not have the knowledge or skill to pass the exam to become a nurse practitioner, let alone a doctor. Would you want to entrust your health with doctors with reputations such as these? I know the LAST thing I would think of doing is bringing 9/11 rescue workers to a country whose doctors who are routinely expelled from other countries as being too incompetent to practice medicine.

And, finally, on the Cuban infant mortality rate:

In April 2001, Dr. Juan Felipe García, MD, of Jacksonville, Fla., interviewed several recent doctor defectors from Cuba. Based on what he heard he reported the following: “The official Cuban infant-mortality figure is a farce. Cuban pediatricians constantly falsify figures for the regime. If an infant dies during its first year, the doctors often report he was older. Otherwise, such lapses could cost him severe penalties and his job.”

Cuba’s infant mortality rate, though it plunged from 13th lowest in the world pre-Castro to 40th today—is also kept artificially low by an abortion rate of 0.71 abortion per live birth—the hemisphere’s highest by far, which “terminates” any pregnancy that even hints at trouble.

More interesting (and tragic) still, the maternal mortality rate in Cuba is almost four times that of the U.S. rate (33 versus 8.4 per 1,000). Peculiar how so many mothers die during childbirth in Cuba, but how many one- to four-year-olds perish, while from birth to one year old (the period during which they qualify in UN statistics as infants) they’re perfectly healthy.

This is just simply tragic now matter how you look at it. Forced abortions, high maternal death rates, artificially skewed infant mortality rates… this is simply an abhorrent system run by an abhorrent man, Fidel Castro. How Michael Moore could stomach praising this man and this regime after the crimes against humanity Castro continues to commit to this day astonishes me. All I can hope is that more people begin to call out and question Mr. Moore on his words and actions in regards to Cuba. In the face of facts such as these… how can Michael Moore support Cuba or Castro in any way???

A fascinating article [$] in today’s Wall Street Journal reveals that Massachusetts residents wait an average of seven weeks for an appointment with a primary-care physician. The queues apparently have nothing to do with the new Massachusetts health plan — aside from illustrating that a paper guarantee of “health coverage” does not necessarily translate into health care:

What?! You mean universal coverage is not universal coverage? Never! Next you’ll be telling me people in single-payer system have to wait for cancer surgery!

Anyway, he then goes into the reasons we have long primary care waits, something a little too sophisticated for Michael Moore. He talks about licensing - a subtle swipe at the AMA’s government-assisted efforts to stop nurses practitioners from becoming primary care providers. But there’s also this, quoted from the WSJ:

The limited number of endocrine specialists is a not a consequence of limited demand — everyone is aware of the epidemic of diabetes we are facing. There are also shortages of generalists and other specialists, and the reason is the absence of market signals — i.e., market-based prices — for influencing the supply of physicians in various specialties…

The essential problem is this. The pricing of medical care in this country is either directly or indirectly dictated by Medicare; and Medicare uses an administrative formula which calculates “appropriate” prices based upon imperfect estimates and fudge factors. Rather than independently calculate prices, private insurers in this country almost universally use Medicare prices as a framework to negotiate payments, generally setting payments for services as a percentage of the Medicare fee structure.

Many if not most administratively determined prices fail to take into consideration supply and demand. Unlike prices set on the market, errors are not self-correcting. That is why, despite an expanding cohort of patients with diabetes, thyroid disease and other endocrine disorders, the number of people entering this field is actually dropping. Young physicians are accurately reading inappropriate price signals.

What they’re talking about is RBRVS - the Resource-Based Relative Value Scale. This is a scheme concocted at Hah-vuhd University in the 1980’s that Medicare, Medicaid and most HMOs now use. It essentially assigns a value to every medical procedure, supposedly taking into account how much it costs to run a practice, and then reimburses based on the region. The pay scale is then calculated for every doctor individually to the nearest penny. Such efficiency is why Medicare has to siphon off 1-3% of the budget to administer the administration.

RBRVS has been a problem from the second Medicare embraced it and I know a number of doctors who dropped out of the AMA because they went along with nonsense. I can get into specifics—how primary care physicians are impoverished because checkups don’t use many “resources”; while heart surgeons do well because their procedures do. But you don’t need to know that. All you need to know is that the market is being dictated by a small panel of “experts” and has had the same happy effects that price-fixing always has.

People forget what a price is: it’s not really a factor of how much it costs to provide a good or service; it’s a way of communicating to the entire nation the supply and demand for a good or service. If demand goes up, prices go up so that more people are drawn to provide the service. By setting prices based on complex (and incorrect) formulae for how many resources are used, RBRVS takes that information out of the system. The price no longer reflects demand and so physicians are not drawn to specialties that are in high demand - they’re drawn to ones that use lots of resources.

Right now, I’m reading The Wisdom of Crowds, a fascinating economics text that talks about how experts can go badly wrong while large groups can find good answers. This is especially true on extremely complicated problems.

Medical care pricing is a perfect illustration of the Wisdom of Crowds—or more accurately, the Doltishness of Experts. In a true free market, primary care physicians could charge more—or nurse practitioners could serve as less expensive alternatives. Either way, wait times would eventually plunge. But in our government-controlled system, the prices are dictated by 29 “experts” and are badly distorting the market.

RBRVS is just one of many many examples of how Medicare directly interferes with the sound practice of medicine. And if Moore and his ilk get their way, there will be no corrective mechanism, none at all. We’ll all be trapped and still waiting seven weeks for an appointment.

The solution to our healthcare crisis is to get the government less involved, not more.

The sun was hot and the water was warm in the summer of 1973. Reinaldo Arenas and his friend Pepe Malas were enjoying a swim at Guanabo Beach when they discovered that they had been robbed off all their belongings, including their clothes and bags. Against Reinaldo’s protestations, Malas called over a nearby police officer and reported the theft. The young thieves were quickly apprehended by the police and both Arenas and Malas were requested to appear at the Havana police department the following day.

Reinaldo Arenas was filled with apprehension; he feared a police trap. Unfortunately for him, his premonition was correct. The young thieves accused Arenas and Malas of being homosexuals who had tried to fondle their genitals. Because under Castro’s law “in the case of a homosexual committing a sexual crime, anyone’s accusation was enough to prosecute”, both Reinaldo Arenas and Pepe Malas were immediately arresting for the corruption of minors and brought to the Guanabo jail.

After Reinaldo Arenas was released on bail he met with his appointed lawyer… and realized the situation was far more dire than he could have ever guessed. His terrified attorney showed him an overflowing file filled with information about Arenas’ illegal overseas publications and statements against him from some of his closest friends. Because Arenas had published overseas without Castro’s permission he was seen as a counter-revolutionary and a threat to Castro’s regime. Between these publications and the sworn statements by his friends against him, Reinaldo Arenas was now facing charges for political crimes and was looking at eight years or more in jail. 

Arenas was arrested again the next day and was taken to the Patu Miramar police jail. Shortly after his arrival at the jail, there was a brief commotion and his cell door was left unlocked. In an incredibly daring move, Reinaldo slipped the lock off the door, quietly left the station and dove into the water nearby. It was an amazing escape, and Arenas was able to swim to a distant beach where he wouldn’t be quickly apprehended.

His situation now turning more desperate by the minute, Reinaldo Arenas decided to risk an escape to Guantanamo Bay in the hopes he could reach US soil. He shaved off his long hair, donned a set of threadbare clothes and took a three day long train ride to Guantanamo. Under the cover of night, Reinaldo Arenas set out for the first river crossing that would take him to safety. However, when he reached the river he heard strange crackling noises in the water. Suddenly, bright green lights appeared around him and machine gun fire rang out in the night. The lights were infrared sensors – the Cuban border patrol had sensed an intruder and began hunting him. Terrified, Reinaldo scaled a tall tree and hid there for two days and nights until the search was over.

When Arenas finally descended from his hiding place in the tree he tried again to cross the river. It was only after he began his swim across the dark river that he discovered the source of those odd crackling sounds. The river was filled with alligators – the cracking sound was the gnashing of their teeth. With so many predators in the water there was simply no way to cross. Defeated, Reinaldo Arenas was forced to return to Guantanamo.

After wandering through Guantanamo for three days with no food or money, Reinaldo Arenas joined up with a group of draft dodgers who were planning on jumping trains to get to Havana. Upon his return to Havana Arenas hoped he would be able to find refuge with some of his friends and try to escape Cuba through the French Embassy.

Reinaldo managed to get his friends Juan and Jose Abreu to deliver a letter to the French Ambassador begging for asylum. The Ambassador refused to help, but Reinaldo’s loyal friends the Camachos sent Juan Lagaurde to try and smuggle Arenas out of Cuba. The plan failed as well, and a desperate Arenas began to write letters to the Red Cross, The UN, UNESCO and foreign dignitaries. Laguarde was able to smuggle these letters out of Cuba and they were published in newspapers around the world:

I wanted to report all the persecution I was being subjected to, and began as follows: “For a long time I have been the victim of a sinister persecution by the Cuban Regime.” I went on to list the censorship and the harsh treatment that we Cuban writers had suffered and to name all the writers who had been executed… In one paragraph I explained the situation I was in and how, as persecution was escalating, I was wiring those lines in hiding, while waiting for the most sinister and criminal state apparatus to put an end to my existence. And I stated: I want now to affirm that want I am saying here is the truth, even though under torture I might later be forced to say the opposite.

Yes, this is the Cuban regime Michael Moore praises. How wonderfully Castro treats his people! How kind and benevolent he is! Look at how well he treats his gifted writers and artists! Michael Moore, how can you read these desperate words and still find the gall to praise Castro’s regime that hunted this man simply for being a writer?!?

But I digress once again. Back to Reinaldo Arenas….

After the publication of his letters, Reinaldo Arenas found himself in a desperate situation. The majority of his friends either exiled or informed on him and one burned the whole of Arenas’ written work that he had been hiding. A total of twelve books were lost forever. The Abreu brothers remained allies and told Reinaldo that Castro had put out an order to have Reinaldo Arenas captured immediately due to the international scandal his letter had caused.

There was nowhere to hide anymore. After ten days without any real food or water, Reinaldo Arenas emerged from the ditch where he had been sleeping to try to buy a bite of ice cream. He was immediately apprehended by the police and was transferred immediately to the infamous and deadly El Morro Prison.

Morro Castle had been a medieval colonial fortress at Havana Port that had been converted into a hellish jail. The cells were huge wards where up to 50 prisoners were jammed into one cell. The toilet was a hole in the ground and with no toilet paper and everything and everyone was covered in feces. The smell and the noise were overwhelming. The treatment of homosexuals was abhorrent. They were held in underground wards that filled with water at high tides, starved, and treated like beasts.

Perhaps the most shocking fact about El Morro was that everyone from mere traffic offenders to mass murderers were stuffed together in the cells. Some of the crimes for which people had been imprisoned seemed simply insane:

There was, for example, an unfortunate father with all his sons, who had been sentenced to five years because they had killed one of their cows to feed the family, something Castro’s laws did not allow… Many inmates in my ward said there they were in jail because they had committed ‘penicide’. This was the name they had given to the rape of women and minors. But penicide included almost anything. For example, one of my fellow prisoners was there because some old ladies had seen him taking a shower, in the nude, in his own backyard and denounced him.

Terrified of torture and the prison conditions, Reinaldo Arenas took an overdose of pills in a desperate suicide attempt. He woke up three days later in the prison hospital – it was in fact a miracle he survived. Back in Ward 7, Reinaldo learned to survive the worst of El Morro by writing letters for prisoners and giving French lessons. He also quickly learned to hide and ration his meager food to avoid starvation when the guards neglected to feed the prisoners.

Indeed, the guards at El Morro were sadistic. They routinely gang-raped the young prisoners and those who fought back were mutilated. The guards regularly beat the prisoners for no reason and without any mercy. Needless to say, many of the inmates were driven crazy by the routine torture and conditions. They manufactured weapons from sticks, nails and razors to defend themselves from the guards and other prisoners. Suicides were all too common. The prisoners were allowed access to the roof about once a month, and many used that opportunity to throw themselves over the edge, dashing their bodies on the rocks. Others hung themselves, and still others would kill other prisoners simply so they would be executed for it.

The horrors and atrocities that occurred within the walls of El Morro cannot be conveyed with words. Indeed, I find myself now at a loss to continue to describe the beatings, torture, mutilation, isolation, degradation, and murder of all those poor souls. Reading these stories and thinking about these horror fills me with a rage and sadness I can barely contain.

But what I need to understand is how Michael Moore could know of such atrocities and *STILL* lavish praise upon Castro and his regime! Mr. Moore… how could you possibly condone such atrocities against humanity? Reinaldo Arenas was an artist, a writer. He was thrown into a hellish prison and subjected to incredible violence SIMPLY FOR BEING AN ARTIST.

Mr. Moore… do you not realize that if you were Cuban your work and actions would have you in the same place as Reinaldo Arenas? You take pride – as well you should – for being able to create art that makes political statements. Reinaldo Arenas and countless other artists, writers, and dramatists were thrown in jail, tortured, forced to recant their work and then executed for doing exactly that. Do you not see that if you were Cuban you would have suffered the same fate as these poor Cuban artists? You say you are a defender of humanity and that you want all humans treated with dignity and care. Why are you not denouncing these horrors? How could you possibly defend a system where you yourself would ultimately meet your death for the type of work you create? Do you not understand that if you were Cuban and made a version of Fahrenheit 9/11 about Castro you would have been executed? Knowing this… how can you possibly defend Castro in any way?

I have let my anger impede this story again. Back to Reinaldo Arenas….

It had been six months and Reinaldo Arenas had still not been brought to trial. One day he was abruptly taken to a “penalty cell” – a tiny box less than a meter high with a dirt floor and a hole for a toilet. He was held there for days without food or water before being brought before Lieutenant Victor, the man in charge of Arenas’ case.

Arenas’ often brutal interrogations began. He was grilled all day about how he got his work out of Cuba and sent back to the penalty cell at night. After a week of the interrogation and torture Reinaldo became afraid he might break and give up the names of his friends. Rather than risk that happening Reinaldo Arenas attempted to hang himself. He was saved and transferred to the State Security Headquarters as Villa Marista – Castro didn’t want Arenas dead before he confessed.

At Villa Marista Reinaldo was thrown into a small box of a cell with constant light and a hole in the ground for a toilet. He was starved for days before the interrogations began again. Lieutenants Victor and Gamboa told Arenas they could make him simply disappear. They were right and Reinaldo knew it – there was no way out anymore.

Reinaldo Arenas was questioned and tortured all day and night. He was often left without food or water and was subjected to steam burnings, what he called “torture similar to fire”. Neither Lieutenant would believe anything Arenas told them.

Finally, after weeks of endless torture and imprisonment, Reinaldo Arenas broke and confessed:

My confession was a long one; I talked about my life and my homosexuality, which I detested, about having ideological weaknesses and my accursed books, the likes of which I would never write again. I actually recanted all I had done in my life, my only hope for redemption being the possibility that in the future I could join and become part of the Revolution and work day and night on its behalf. Needless to say, I was requesting rehabilitation, that is, to be sent to a labor camp; and I committed myself to work for the government and write optimistic novels.

Once again I feel myself brimming with anger. Mr. Moore… read these words. Reinaldo Arenas, one of the greatest writers to ever emerge from Cuba, was tortured endlessly and forced to recant his life’s work because Castro demanded it. You have whined incessantly to the press about how the Bush administration has tried to oppress you and suppress your work. Tell me, Mr. Moore… how does it feel to read the words of an artist who was *truly* oppressed? Do you not feel shame in touting the wonders of Castro after reading about how Castro destroyed generations of great artists who, just like you, simply wanted to create art and speak openly about their government?

Back to Reinaldo Arenas…

Reinaldo Arenas’ confession appeased the Lieutenants. After four months in isolation Arenas was transferred back to El Morro to await his trial for the corruption of minors. The political charges were not taken to trial due to his confession. In a shocking turn of events, both men who Reinaldo was accused of “fondling” them recanted their testimony at trial, and Arenas was only sentenced to two years for “lascivious abuses”.

Shortly after the trial Lieutenant Victor paid Arenas a visit at El Morro. Reinaldo Arenas’ novel “The Palace of the White Skunks” – the second installment in his “pentagonia” – had just been published in France. Now the world knew Reinaldo still lived and Castro could not simply execute him. However, as punishment, he was transferred to Ward 1 – an underground dungeon filled with sewage and filth. The others in the ward were transferred out and Reinaldo Arenas – one of the greatest writers in Cuba – was left in squalor and in despair over his confession:

Before my confession I had a great companion, my pride. After the confession I had nothing; I had lost my dignity and my rebellious spirit… Now I was alone in my misery; no one could witness my misfortune in that cell. The worst misfortune was to continue living after all that, after having betrayed myself and after having been betrayed by almost everyone else.

Reinaldo Arenas was finally transferred to an “open prison” in Flores. It was an improvement over the hell of El Morro as you could at least be outdoors. The prisoners in Flores were forced to build houses and later schools from dawn until late at night. This intense forced labor had destroyed the body and health of most of the prisoners there, whose bodies were literally falling apart. Reinaldo himself could not obtain a simple dose of antibiotics to cure an infection because of the lack of medicine in Cuba.

Reinaldo Arenas was finally released in 1976 and briefly stayed with Norberto Fuentes, a State informant. Fuentes kept Arenas under constant watch and tested him repeatedly to see if he would break the promises he made in his confession. However, Arenas did manage to secretly make his way to his old house to attempt to retrieve his second version of “Farewell to the Sea”… only to find out it had been discovered by State Security and taken. Reinaldo would have to rewrite this critical third installment of the “pentagonia” for a third time.

After moving around a great deal, Reinaldo Arenas finally settled in a house with an odd woman named Elia de Calvo. She owned a typewriter – something Reinaldo had lost and desperately needed to work – and she agreed to allow Arenas to stay with her provided he fed her dozens of cats and write her memoirs. Reinaldo agreed, and while he typed Elia’s memoirs he secretly began rewriting “Farewell to the Sea” yet again.

Soon after settling in with Elia, Reinaldo learned his grandmother, who he loved deeply, had died. This news depressed him deeply, but a visit with his old mentor Lezama Lima raised his spirits. Virgilio Pinera also visited with Lima and Arenas that night and the three talked about literature for hours. Upon Reinaldo’s leaving, Lima took Arenas aside and told him that, no matter what happened to him or anyone else… keep writing!

Only a short time after this inspirational visit, Reinaldo Arenas was given a newspaper that simply read “Lezama Lima was buried today”. His friend and mentor had died and the public hadn’t even been informed of his death until after Lima’s funeral and burial. The death of both Lezama and his grandmother sent Reinaldo into a deep depression that lasted for months.

Reinaldo, hoping to find a new home, met Ruben Diaz who offered to sell Arenas a room at the Monserrate Hotel. The place was a dump; it was run down, had no toilets, water or electricity and was full of roaches. After coercing some money from his aunt Reinaldo bought the room and moved in. This was a dangerous move as Castro had forbidden the sale of property in Cuba, but Reinaldo simply wanted to be as free as he could be.

Arenas hadn’t been living at the Monserrate for long before receiving a visit from a couple from France sent by the Camachos to check on Arenas’ well-being. Needless to say, the couple was horrified to see the state in which Reinaldo was living, but the visit was a blessing. Arenas had finished rewriting “Farewell to the Sea” and the couple was able to smuggle it out of Cuba to France.

And then, something extraordinary happened to Reinaldo Arenas. He fell in love with a man named Lazaro Carilles. Lazaro had a terrible home life and had severe psychiatric problems for which he had been previously committed. Regardless, Reinaldo took him in to his home and Lazaro became Reinaldo’s friend and companion for the rest of his life.

In late 1978 Reinaldo Arenas made friends with an eccentric ex-prisoner named Samuel Toca. In a bold move in 1979 Castro decided to let some former political prisoners out of Cuba and Samuel Toca was one of them. Arenas gave Toca a secret message to deliver to the Camachos in France to try at all costs to get Reinaldo out of Cuba. Instead, upon his release Toca began to tell the foreign press all of Arenas’ secrets. A headline in a Spanish paper read “Reinaldo Arenas threatens suicide if not helped out of Cuba”. This scandal prompted a visit from Lieutenant Victor, who denounced Arenas as a counter-revolutionary and threatened him with arrest. Reinaldo Arenas was betrayed again.

In a horrible stroke of fate, Virgilio Pinera died shortly after this incident. Reinaldo was informed he wouldn’t be allowed to attend the funeral of his closest friend. Despite the warnings, he went anyway. At the funeral Arenas voiced the suspicions of many that Pinera’s death was suspicious, and these public pronouncements only tightened the security around him. Reinaldo Arena was facing imminent arrest simply for speaking his mind… and then his life changed forever.

In April of 1980 a bus full of passengers drove threw the gates of the Peruvian embassy begging for asylum. Castro of course demanded their immediate return but the embassy denied him. In an attempt to force the Peruvian’s hand, Castro withdrew his troops guarding the embassy. It did not have the effect Castro desired. Tens of thousands of Cubans flooded the embassy, all begging for help and asylum. This marked the first real uprising of the Cuban people against Castro.

A power struggle ensued between Castro and the Peruvians. Castro cut off the embassy’s food, water and electricity, but the Cuban people would not leave. There were 10,800 people locked inside the building and another 100,000 outside. The world press began to cover this incident in earnest, and Castro had many of the supplicants murdered or gunned down in the street.

Finally, after consultations with the Soviet Union, Castro decided to let some of his people go. He opened the port at Mariel and gave a speech vehemently denouncing those who wanted to leave:

I’ll never forget that speech – Castro looked like a cornered, furious rat – nor will I forget the hypocritical applause… The port of Mariel was then opened, and Castro, after stressing all those people were anti-social, said that precisely what he wanted was to have that riffraff out of Cuba. Posters immediately started to appear with the slogans LET THEM GO, LET THE RIFFRAFF GO.

Almost immediately thousands of boats began to leave Cuba for the United States, but the boats were mostly filled with common criminals, the insane, or spies. Because of his mental instability Lazaro got out quickly. Reinaldo applied for an exit permit at a local police station, hoping that the locals would not have his file from State Security. Reinaldo declared he was a homosexual and was granted an exit permit. He received a passport and, knowing his name would be on a list of those not to be let off the island, on his passport he changed the “e” in his last name to an “i”.

The ruse worked, and on May 4th, 1980, Reinaldo Arenas escaped Cuba on a ship called the “San Lazaro”. The ship’s captain got lost, and what should been a six hour voyage turned into a six day nightmare at sea. Nevertheless, on May 10th, the “San Lazaro” landed in Key West… and Reinaldo Arenas was at last free.

Reinaldo Arenas was finally free of Castro and was anxious to tell the world about the horrors of Cuban life. What Reinaldo Arenas never expected was that the world would not be ready to listen….

“Who would affirm that the light and the shadow do not speak? Only those who do not understand the language of the day and the night.” - Moursa-Ag-Amastan

… to be continued in part four….

The first article deals primarily with Moore’s assertions about the nature of Cuban health care, and then goes on to thoroughly fisk Moore’s depiction of European socialized systems. I highly suggest reading the whole article, but these quotes in particular jumped out at me. Be warned - the pictures shown on these links are both graphic and disturbing. Nevertheless, they are certainly things people willing to swallow Moore’s story about the glory of Castro and his socialist health care system need to see.  On the nature of Cuban health care:

I don’t believe Michael Moore is a mere liar. He’s quite well aware that Cubans aren’t as lucky as him to receive first-class treatment when they need it, but he doesn’t care at all, as his everyday sport is going after his native country and get the applause of silly Euro leftists. What “Sicko” purposely didn’t tell you about Cuba is that, other than being a Gulag police state, there are very few—if any—functioning health centers. The rest, as can be seen in these photographs taken and sent in by a non-governamental journalist, are collapsing structures that resemble recently-bombed buildings. This is just the exterior side. Entering a Cuban hospital may be an appalling experience. Hygiene is pratically non-existent, excrements and roaches can easily be found everywhere on the floors and medicines are rarely available for patients. I challenge Moore to support his claims about US healthcare with graphical evidence, but I doubt he’ll be able to find any picture comparable to plenty of others showing the third-world decay of Castroite health. To figure out which side of Cuba’s dual system Michael Moore experienced, you need to scroll down this page from “The Real Cuba.”

Another interesting paragraph from this piece breaks down the actual number of uninsured Americans - a number which is, again, vastly different from the picture Moore paints. These are figures I had been meaning to write about for some time which are appearing in more and more articles that are critiquing Sicko. See for yourself:

As an European fed up with socialized medicine, I would like to express my deepest admiration for American healthcare. Although not perfect and needing more effective free market reforms, the money factor—which “Sicko” lashes out at as source of all imaginary evils—is what keeps it innovative, competitive and efficient. We hear a lot about 45 million citizens who don’t have health insurance. But just who are they? The US Census Bureau couldn’t be clearer:

--38% of the uninsured (17 million) live in households earning over $ 50,000 in annual income

--20% (9 million) reside in households earning over 75,000 a year

--Over 18 million (40%), between the ages of 18 and 34, spend more on entertainment or dining out

--14 million ( 31%) are elegible for health government programs like Medicaid, but choose to opt-out.

So, how many are truly uninsured? Only 18% of Americans.

The second article is a short but again detailed fisking of Moore’s depiction of European health care. According to this journalist, it’s not all roses and sunshine in England and France as Moore would have us believe:

Moore interviewed a physician in the British National Health Service about how wonderful free health care is in Britain, and how satisfied the physicians are in the NHS. He forgot to mention that more than one third of physicians working for the NHS buy private insurance so they don’t have to rely on the “free” care, and that more than 6 million British citizens also buy private insurance for the same reason. He did not mention that this year the health minister admitted that one in eight British patients still wait for more than a year for treatment. He neglected to say that Britain has had to import more than 20,000 physicians in the past three years – chiefly from Middle Eastern and Asian countries – because so few of the British, after sixty years of experience with the NHS, want to enter or stay in the profession.

While praising the superiority of French medical care and the fact that French doctors make house calls – almost as an aside while praising the superiority of every element of French society compared with America’s – Moore forgot to mention that 13,000 Frenchmen died of heat prostration and dehydration during a heat wave in the summer of 2003, when most French physicians were on summer vacation and did not show up in emergency rooms, let alone make house calls.

Beautifully stated. I encourage everyone to read these articles in full and, once again, ask yourself - why isn’t Michael Moore telling us the whole truth?