SiCKO’s Impact

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. «Read the rest of this article»