Sicko' Stars Thank Moore for Cuba Trip

[cal04]

It could have been a college reunion: hugs, tears, laughter, photos, and a big friendly guy in shorts and sneakers organizing it all. But the guy in shorts was Michael Moore, whose new documentary, ''Sicko,'' takes aim at the U.S. health care industry with the same fury -- laced with humor, of course, and plenty of statistics -- that he directed at the Bush administration in his hit ''Fahrenheit 9/11.''

And the people who'd flown in for this intimate first screening, a day after the film had been shipped to the Cannes Film Festival, included grateful Sept. 11 ''first responders,'' suffering lung problems or other ailments 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.

The Cuba trip actually accounts for just a small part of ''Sicko,'' which aims its wrath at private insurance and pharmaceutical companies and HMOs, while praising socialized medicine in countries like France and Britain. Moore fills it with stories like that of a woman whose ambulance ride after a car crash wasn't covered -- because it wasn't ''pre-approved.''

(snip)

''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.''


http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/arts/AP-Michael-Moore-Cuba.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

[jilln]

1. Hmmmm

It's hard for me to believe the Guantanamo victims are getting good healthcare, considering what else goes on there.

[zanne]

2. He dares to be outrageous.

His visit to Guantanamo--pure genius. I hope he never goes into politics to become useless.