by Aday Del Sol
Reyes
Filmmaker
Michael Moore The film which has been successfully shown in New York and in almost 300 movie theaters throughout the United States reveals how 250 million US citizens, who pay medical insurance, are swindled by the insurance industries. Contrary to what is expected of them, these institutions deny their clients the necessary money for clinical treatments, surgery and emergency medical attention. For these multimillion-dollar industries, a good doctor is one who saves the company money. According to Sicko, they are not only killers who, strongly armed and dressed in camouflage, sacrifice civilians in Iraq. White-cloaked health professionals do the same to their compatriots in their own US cities. Doctors who work for insurance companies deny treatment and surgery to save the company money. Dr. Linda Peeno, previously medical reviewer for the Humana insurance company, reveals this issue in the documentary. She quit her job and appeared in Congress in May of 1996 confessing her responsibility for refusing surgery which cost the life of a man and resulted in her immediate promotion to an executive position. Pen denounced that her only objective as doctor in this kind of industry was to work for financial profit of an organization that forced her to deviously manage health, ignore and kill people. Examples which corroborate Dr. Peeno's accusations are widely shown in this material by the filmmaker who won the 2003 Oscar for Bowling for Colombine. In Sicko he uses the material with intelligence, irony and even humor accusing the United States health system through heartrending testimonials of the “happy clients” insured by Blue Shield, Horizon Blue Cross, BCS, Mega, Humana and other companies. The health structure, like any system that moves across corruption of its policies and responds to the only governing party which rules the powerful nation of the north: money. Everyone has a price. Comparing the health system of the United States with that of France, Great Britain, Canada and Cuba, Moore demonstrates the higher quality of life of the citizens of those countries. A logical conclusion if we consider that these institutions center their work in disease prevention and in curing the greatest number of persons without considering their social position. The state owns the hospitals, employs its medical personnel and guarantees protection to the persons through a reliable and free health system. Cuba offered attention with its best medical technology to the 9/11 rescue workers whom the United States government abandoned. In search of justice, the US filmmaker captains a ship which carries some of the workers who participated in the 9/11 rescue mission. His destination was the Guantanamo naval base in Cuba where, according to Bush propaganda the terrorists, instead of being tortured, receive all kinds of medical attention. Convinced that this is the only United States territory where universal health attention is offered, captain Moore demands the same privileges for his crew. Defying mines which protect the illegal base, the documentary producer announces with a loudspeaker the purpose of his visit. From the watchtower he receives the only answer: the sound of a siren. The vulnerable castaways of the US health system have no other choice but to dock on Cuban soil. In the small underdeveloped island that the United States insists on presenting as a danger, the 9/11 rescue workers receive the best specialized attention. In one of the interviews granted before the premiere of his film in his country, Moore declared, “It is a poor nation that greatly impressed me because the little they have they use in health system; they live longer than we do, they have a lower infant mortality rate than the United States and also send many medical graduates to help the countries of the Third World in need.” The US heroes embraced Cuban firefighters. A memorable moment in Sicko is the meeting of these heroes with a group of Cuban firefighters. Together they toast a tribute to those who fell in the attack of September 11, share anecdotes, experiences and embrace like brothers. “If this is what happens between two alleged enemies, if an enemy can lend a hand and also cure you, then what is not possible?” asks the director of Sicko. The latest documentary by Michael Moore clearly demonstrates that socialization of medicine is not as bad as the US media claims but quite the contrary. Where were they who did not see this? Blindness is the fruit of imposed ignorance, Moore tells us. For almost a century, Hollywood was intent on making them and us believe that the United States is superior to the rest of humanity in all spheres of life. In addition to revealing the deplorable US health system, Sicko is, above all, a hole in the myth of the American dream. The deplorable Yankee nightmare will conclude when “we live in a world for us and not for the me, when we copy countries who have found a better way of caring for its sick, of educating its children and of being better with their fellow men. Imperial forces hope we never make it and that is why the United States is the only country without universally free health care,” Michael Moore concluded in his film. |
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