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SiCKO’s Impact

By A Guest Commentator | July 6, 2007 |

We’re here today to discuss the impact SiCKO is having on the health care debate in this country.  To date, we have appeared in Congress to discuss the need to get rid of private health insurance.  We testified before the legislature in California in support of a reform effort to protect Californians from for-profit health insurance.  We have done events with mayors, with leading members of Congress, on Wall Street and with progressive groups.  We have stood shoulder to smock with the 2.9 million California Nurses, as well as other working Americans such as the U.S. Steelworkers - the people who have helped build American beam by beam, rivet by rivet, floor by floor.

And to date the public has responded to our collective action.  We opened in over 400 theaters last week and had a great turnout.  More impressive, over the last five days the momentum has continued to grow - while others have gone down in the box office - we have actually gone up - which is virtually unheard of.

However, the most compelling evidence that we are making a difference is found in the response of the health care industry itself.  For the first few weeks after the movie premiered in Cannes, the industry did their best to ignore the film - no doubt at the behest of their lobbyists, the industry’s political muscle - who were likely counseling them not to engage.  Well, over the last three weeks, the industry appears to have changed its strategy as it has become clear that SiCKO poses a real threat.

First, we had front groups and conservative think tanks - both of whom appear to get their funding and support from the health care industry - sponsoring events and trying to influence the press.

Second, we have had the industry itself begin trying to issue their own video press releases and industry fog machine.  But no matter how hard they spin, the American people understand something is wrong when we pay more for health care and get far less back. We don’t live as long AND our children aren’t born as healthy as other developed countries.

And, now, we have an internal, confidential memo from an executive at Capital Blue Cross - a major Pennsylvania health care insurance company with over a billion dollars in revenue. The memo discusses the impact and threat of SiCKO and what needs to be done to combat the movie.  Ironically, one of their strategies is to try to distinguish themselves from strict for profit insurance companies - never mind the $795 million the company has ‘on reserve.’  They also seem to believe that we - the American people - deserve the blame for our quality of health care, pointing to our diet and exercise regimes.  I suggest that they go to France where people eat cheese by the wheel, drink wine by the bottle, smoke like chimneys and are still healthier than we are.  It is not our diet.  It is not our exercise.  It is our health care system.  The memo is ironic for three reasons:  first, it would seem to confirm the notion that for profit health care and quality health care are incompatible. Second, so-called non-profits like Blue Cross are non-profit in name only - their CEO makes over $800,000 a year. If that is non-profit, I am sure a lot of people would be interested in working for that kind of pay. Where is all that money coming from? Third, when the companies start pointing fingers at each other, you know they are on the run - like rats fighting to stay afloat.

Now that we have them on the run, it is critical that we don’t let them hide.  Today, in light of the Blue Cross memo, I call on the Capitol Blue Cross CEO to meet me at a debate sponsored by the U.S. Steelworkers - who are headquartered in Pittsburgh, PA.  You can run - but you can’t hide.

After a few words from the Steelworkers and the Nurses, I’d like to open the forum up to fellow Kossacks. Let’s go!

The United Steelworkers of America

The United Steelworkers union historically has done the heavy lifting in America.  We helped build this country - and we continue to do so.

The Steelworkers union also historically has led the fight for social justice for working people and the middle class in this country - from fair wages to safe working conditions to strong pensions.

Today, it is the Steelworkers union out there hammering away for quality, affordable health care for all, after watching one employer after another raise the premiums that workers must pay so high that coverage no longer is affordable to the middle class in this country.

The USW and Michael Moore challenge Blue Cross executives to swap their pinstripes and Bruno Malis for coveralls and steel toes and spend a day in a USW steel or paper mill, a tire plant or copper mine and then blame the American people for our health care system.  While they are at it, they can trade salaries too.

We are proud to host the hard hats vs the pinstripes debate featuring on one side, Michael Moore and USW International President Leo Gerard, a native of Canada, land of National Health Care, and on the other side, Capital Blue Cross CEO and whoever he might choose as a tag team partner.

We will do the event in Pittsburgh. If the CEO doesn’t have the guts to show, we’ll put up an empty chair. It will be a well-padded wingback, in keeping with what they are no doubt used to, and we will hold an old fashioned screening and town hall instead. - Leo W. Gerard, USW President

California Nurses Association/National Nurses Organizing Committee

From Day One, the registered nurses of the California Nurses Association/National Nurses Organizing Committee have been proud to have worked with Michael on this fight.

We hosted the first premiere screening in the US.  We sent a Nurse honor guard to the other premieres.  We marched with Michael and the stars of the movie in Sacramento and DC.  We appeared on Wall Street and called for socially responsible divestment from the health care companies.  And last week we organized events with Nurses in 46 markets all across the country to coincide with the opening.  To us, this is a movement for fundamental reform plain and simple with guaranteed healthcare for all – that ends the disgrace of insurance company denial of care.

No one knows the true state of America’s health care system better than the Nurses.  ”SiCKO” brings to life the experience American’s RNs live every day. Our patients and our communities need real, systemic reform, not incremental change, not tinkering.  The foundation is flawed - and we need to fix it at the most basic level.

When Michael shared with us the Capitol Blue Cross internal memo - we recognized the momentum “SiCKO” has helped ignite and the growing power of our movement. The insurance industry is afraid. The game is up for them.

It is time for all of us to write our own memo to these insurance companies - and the memo should have two words: YOU’RE FIRED.

We look forward to this debate – and we hope that Blue Cross will stand up to this challenge. They have a lot of explaining to do about their policies and practices that have inflicted so much pain and suffering on so many people. The American people deserve better, and soon we will have it. - Deborah Burger RN, President, California Nurses Association/National Nurses Organizing Committee

This was originally posted by Michael Moore at Dailykos and republished with their permission.

About Michael Moore

Michael Moore is an Academy Award-winning film director, producer and author. His outspoken left-wing views on such issues as globalization, large corporations, gun violence, the Iraq War, George W. Bush and health care have led to him being known as a political activist, although he rejects the label. His newest movie Sicko is currently playing in theatres

Sections: Arts and Leisure, Issues
Topics: Blue Cross, Healthcare, Michael Moore, Sicko

4 Responses to “SiCKO’s Impact”

1. Beaz Says:
   July 17th, 2007 at 6:06 pm

   I heard Moore took a different approach with this film. I heard the same about the other movies he did, and although he brought up some good points, much of the Columbine and Fahrenheit movies were propaganda. I look forward to seeing it.

2. Bill Larson Says:
   July 17th, 2007 at 7:32 pm

   I think he carries things too far for his own good a lot of the time, but generally he has a point to make in the end. I think that’s a signature of his films, but the core information generally is at least somewhat reasonably accurate, at least compared to other similar works by other documentary filmmakers…

3. Beaz Says:
   July 18th, 2007 at 4:59 pm

   Bill I agree he is accurrate on most of his information, but let me explain what I am talking about. Bowling for Columbine addressed the issue of gun control. My general assessment is associating guns to being the “cause” of deaths by using a statistic such as gun related deaths, would be the equivalent of associating lighters with arson.In Fahrenhite 9/11, he asks congressmen, “would you sacrifice you child to secure Baghdad, or Fallujah?(I can’t remember which)” and shows them stumbling through the answers. The problem is that it is an obviously loaded question, let’s face it, WHAT WOULD you sacrifice your children for? Most people focus on their replies and how uncomfortable Moore makes them instead of realizing what is actually transpiring. To be honest I didn’t have much interest in politics until my late 20’s. One day I was made aware of the amount of waste that was happening at TDOT and that planted the seed. When I saw Bowling for Columbine, I had NEVER owned a gun, but I saw how Moore had manipulated statistics to promote his agenda and ON MY OWN, I made a conscious decision regarding how I feel about gun control. I am no member of any political organization such as the NRA, but I have my gun carry permit and now have an extensive gun collection. I can honestly say I probably never would have taken the stance I have now, had it not been for Michael Moore. He’s a very sharp man, too sharp to be polarizing the country as he does and I KNOW he’s intelligent enough to know what he’s doing and a better way of getting his views across. I heard he did this with Sicko, but I will have to wait and see before making an analysis of the film.

4. Bill Larson Says:
   July 18th, 2007 at 9:35 pm

   I have seen the film and feel he did an excellent job on it. I hope you will be open minded when you see it. On the issue of health care I see the lack of a single payer health care system being something hurting our nation competitiveness in the world economy. Why hire an American when you can hire someone from one of the other major industrialized nations and not have to bear the expense of paying for the employees health care. Which is far from being insignificant. And we wonder why companies are moving their factories overseas.

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