Fox News Review: 'Sicko' is "brilliant and uplifting," stars thank Moore

[Richard Tafoya]

Think Progress:
http://thinkprogress.org/2007/05/19/sicko-stars-thank-moore-for-cuba-trip/

Michael Moore yesterday held the first screening of his new film on the health care industry, Sicko, and there to see it were “grateful Sept. 11 ‘first responders,’ suffering lung problems or other ailments (http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/M/MICHAEL_MOORE_CUBA?SITE=DCUSN&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT) from their days at ground zero. In the film, Moore takes them to Cuba and tries to get them treated at the U.S. base at Guantanamo Bay - where, he contends, terror suspects were getting better medical care than the heroes of 9/11.”
Donna Smith, in from Denver with her husband, Larry, was in tears when she spoke. The film opens with their painful story: Plagued with health problems, they were forced to sell their home and move into the storage room of their daughter’s house because they couldn’t cope with health costs, even though they were insured.

“Health care is an embarrassment to our nation,” Donna told Moore. “You give dignity to every American in this film.”

Lost in all the publicity over Moore’s trip is the reason he went to Cuba in the first place.
He says he hadn’t intended to go, but then discovered the U.S. government was boasting of the excellent medical care it provides terror suspects detained at Guantanamo. So Moore decided that the 9/11 workers and a few other patients, all of whom had serious trouble paying for care at home, should have the same chance.


“Here the detainees were getting colonoscopies and nutrition counseling,” Moore told The Associated Press in an interview, “and these people at home were suffering. I said, ‘We gotta go and see if we can get these people the same treatment the government gives al-Qaida.’ It seemed the only fair thing to do.”

[DoubleEdgeSword]

Whether you agree or disagree with Mr. Moore's films, at least they get people talking. I don't think anyone will disagree that the state of healthcare in the US is truly in need of an overhaul. It's taxed to the limit.

I see it everyday in the Emergency Room. Patients inappropriately use the ER for minor complaints because a) they do not have or cannot afford insurance, b) their primary physicians are so booked up that the office staff tells them to come to the ER, c) their physicians fail to educate patients on chronic illnesses, so they end up coming to the ER with complaints that could easily be managed at home, d) the red tape and parameters for being seen at the county health department excludes a great number of patients, e) "nobody dies in a nursing home." Even a patient who has a DNR (Do Not Resuscitate) is sent to the ER when it's very obvious that it's just thier time.

And when they get here, they bitch about the wait to be seen, the wait for testing, the wait for results, the wait for treatment, the wait for discharge instructions, and then get doubley angry when we refer them back to their primary physicians for non-emergency care or for outpatient testing such as colonoscopy, or admit them for further testing. It's a no-win situation.

And then there are the people who are just plain ignorant, the ones who come to the ER at 2 a.m. with an abcessed tooth that has been festering for months and expect us to pull it. We aren't dentists.

[tiger_rascal]

Our local hospital is such a joke, nobody would even take a pet there, let alone a human.

Our ER used to run under a first come first served basis rather than the severity of injury. About 4 years ago my nephew accidentally ran his hand through a glass door and it cut his hand wide open. Blood was going eveywhere. I acted very fast, wrapping his hand up and driving him over to the ER. What happened? They asked us to set down, fill out papers and then be seated in line. Thankfully the other patients did not have such serious injuries and they stepped up and got a doctor so that my nephew could be seen right away.

Sometimes an ER is one big fat joke. But its not the doctors or nurses fault, its the hospitals procedures.

Its frightening to know that if we want good medical treatment we have to go either 50 miles north to Parkersburg or 50 miles south to Charleston. Our local hospital needs a major overhaul. In fact, it was almost shut down a few times in the recent past.

[DoubleEdgeSword]

Our local hospital is such a joke, nobody would even take a pet there, let alone a human.

Our ER used to run under a first come first served basis rather than the severity of injury. About 4 years ago my nephew accidentally ran his hand through a glass door and it cut his hand wide open. Blood was going eveywhere. I acted very fast, wrapping his hand up and driving him over to the ER. What happened? They asked us to set down, fill out papers and then be seated in line. Thankfully the other patients did not have such serious injuries and they stepped up and got a doctor so that my nephew could be seen right away.

Sometimes an ER is one big fat joke. But its not the doctors or nurses fault, its the hospitals procedures.

Its frightening to know that if we want good medical treatment we have to go either 50 miles north to Parkersburg or 50 miles south to Charleston. Our local hospital needs a major overhaul. In fact, it was almost shut down a few times in the recent past.

I can't imagine an ER that sees patients based on first come first served, unless there is a fast track system for minor complaints. In that case, it's up to the triage nurse to decide whether or not a patient belongs in the ER or in fast track. It sounds like a triage mistake to me. Any ER that would put a minor stuffy nose ahead of a bleeding patient deserves to be shut down.

[Richard Tafoya]

Fox News:
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,273875,00.html

Filmmaker Michael Moore's brilliant and uplifting new documentary, "Sicko," deals with the failings of the U.S. healthcare system, both real and perceived. But this time around, the controversial documentarian seems to be letting the subject matter do the talking, and in the process shows a new maturity.

Unlike many of his previous films ("Roger and Me," "Bowling for Columbine," "Fahrenheit 9-11"), "Sicko" works because in this one there are no confrontations. Moore smartly lets very articulate average Americans tell their personal horror stories at the hands of insurance companies. The film never talks down or baits the audience.

"This film is a call to action," Moore said at a press conference on Saturday. "It's also not a partisan film."

Indeed, in "Sicko," Moore criticizes both Democrats and Republicans for their inaction and in some cases their willingness to be bribed by pharmaceutical companies and insurance carriers.

In a key moment in the film, Moore takes a group of patients by boat to the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba because of its outstanding medical care. When they can't get into the U.S. naval base, Moore proceeds onto Havana where the patients are treated well and cheaply.


This has caused a great deal of controversy, with the federal government launching an investigation into the trip, which officials say was in violation of the trade and commerce embargo against the Communist country.