"SiCKO": The Profits of Life and Death

From Truthout:

"The release of Michael Moore's "SiCKO" is one of the most important developments in the national debate on our healthcare crisis since the Clintons attempted to pass universal healthcare legislation in 1994."- Representative John Conyers (D-Michigan)

With one week till its national debut, documentary filmmaker Michael Moore has been on the move with his new film "SiCKO."

Moore began in New York on Sunday with a screening to honor 9/11 first responders. On Wednesday, he showed his film to Congress and testified about healthcare, and later that day he had a showing for pharmaceutical and insurance lobbyists. Thursday, Moore went to New Hampshire to give a private screening to members of the California Nurses Association, and later he arrived in Chicago to rally around healthcare change in Millenium Park.

The movie's national release date is Friday, June 29, but Moore's web site advertises tickets to a sneak preview this Saturday, June 23, in select cities.

"SiCKO" focuses on the more than 250 million people who have insurance, but highlights those who are betrayed by it in their time of need. Moore's film shows the American healthcare system's dangerous focus on profits, exemplified in the stories of average Americans such as Donna, 52, and Larry Smith, 62, who were forced to file bankruptcy as a result of her cancer and his heart problems. They had health insurance, but it hardly paid for everything.

Moore shows the American healthcare system thru the lens of insurance company whistleblower Dr. Linda Peeno, who testified before Congress that she "denied a man a necessary operation and thus caused his death." She went on to say that her actions were rewarded: "This secured my reputation and it ensured my continued advancement in the healthcare field."

And, finally, Moore puts the American healthcare system into perspective by traveling to hospitals in Canada, Britain, Cuba and France - countries which have government-run programs. Scenes showed the expressions of doctors and patients who laughed or looked quizzical when Moore asked about the cost of visits to the doctor.

Moore's film contains humorous moments, such as his search in a London hospital for a billing department, only to find that the only place that deals with money is actually dispensing it to those patients who qualify for travel expenses. But the humor hardly covers up the starkness.

The horror of Moore's expose is not that health insurance companies are posting too much of a profit; it's that they are doing so at the expense of American lives.

Healthcare is a life and death issue, says Moore, and it should not be based on profit.