John Conyers: "Sicko" is one of the most important developments in the national debate....

[marmar]

from the SF Chronicle, via MichaelMoore.com:


June 13th, 2007 3:42 pm
Moore lobbies Sacramento for healing
Filmmaker, health care activists promote 'Sicko' while demanding reforms in industry

By Joe Garofoli / San Francisco Chronicle

Sacramento -- As Michael Moore stood on the west steps of the Capitol on Tuesday and led 1,000 activists in chanting "It's time for them to go" -- health insurance companies, that is -- he looked less like a Hollywood director promoting his new takedown of the health care industry and more like the frontman of a national political campaign.

That's because he is both.

In the days before Moore's film "Sicko" opens June 29 in 3,000 theaters nationwide, the director will be the centerpiece of a campaign that melds activism, policy, politics and Hollywood into a media force like no other widely released film. The campaign premiered Tuesday in Sacramento -- complete with nurses wearing red surgical scrubs and chanting "Hey-hey! Ho-ho! Private health care is sick-o!"

Moore's day started with a closed-door tete-a-tete with Assembly Speaker Fabian Núñez, D-Los Angeles, followed by a joint news conference before 15 TV cameras, where Núñez was flanked by posters for the movie and Moore diplomatically praised their "excellent meeting," even though Núñez supports a plan that doesn't immediately offer universal coverage, as Moore wants.

Then it was off to an "unofficial" public briefing led by state Sen. Sheila Kuehl, D-Santa Monica -- whose single-payer plan Moore supports -- followed by a Capitol rally and march anchored by 1,000 members of the California Nurses Association, whose anecdotes over the years helped to inspire Moore to make the film. Then Moore screened the movie.

The word echoing around the Capitol building Tuesday wasn't "movie." It was "movement." Funny, Moore said, "how they both have the same root word: 'movie,' 'movement.' "

...snip

Rep. John Conyers, D-Mich., whose congressional health care bill the campaign supports, said Tuesday: "The release of Michael Moore's 'Sicko' is one of the most important developments in the national debate on our health care crisis since the Clintons attempted to pass universal health care legislation in 1994.".....(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.michaelmoore.com/sicko/news/article.php?id=9896

[depakid]

1. "Oh, come on," DeMoro said. "Who likes the insurance industry?"

From a read of their health care plans, the 3 "top" Democratic candidates do....

[burythehatchet]

11. and THAT is what is going to make this an interesting struggle...against the DLC

[janetblond]

2. Our healthcare IS awful

Meredit Viera recently broadcast a video where a woman died while "waiting" in an emergency room.
She'd been there for over an hour lying on the floor, throwing up blood and nurses ignored her.
The video shows her husband calling 911 and begging for help. 911 did not help.
After over an hour of waiting, and wasting his time repeatedly calling 911, his wife died on the floor IN THE EMERGENCY ROOM!

[marmar]

4. "The video shows her husband calling 911 and begging for help"

That's infuriating :mad: ...... Welcome to DU, BTW. :hi:

[Tigress DEM]

14. A bystander called too

http://kutv.com/topstories/topstories_story_164153604.html

A second 911 call was placed eight minutes later by a bystander who requested that an ambulance be sent to take Rodriguez to another hospital for care.

“She's definitely sick and there's a guy that's ignoring her,” the woman told a male dispatcher.

During the call, the dispatcher argued with the woman over whether there really was an emergency.

“I cannot do anything for you for the quality of the hospital. ... It is not an emergency. It is not an emergency ma'am,” he said.

“You're not here to see how they're treating her,” the woman replied.

The dispatcher refused to call paramedics and told the woman that she should contact hospital supervisors “and let them know” if she is unhappy.

“May God strike you too for acting the way you just acted,” the woman said finally.

[Greyskye]

10. minor correction

The police finally came, and took the sick woman off to jail, as she evidently had an outstanding warrant. She died within about 15 minutes of that.

Not only is our medical system broken, our justice system is as well (at all levels).

:grr:

[Tigress DEM]

15. ABC does the subject injustice - Misquoting AP too I think.

http://abclocal.go.com/wjrt/story?section=local&id=5393085

<snip>
LOS ANGELES (AP) - - (06/13/07)-- When no one would help a woman who lay bleeding on the floor of a troubled Los Angeles hospital's emergency room, several people called 9-1-1 to get her moved to another hospital.

But dispatchers refused to send paramedics or an ambulance, with one operator telling a caller she was being "negative."

The woman, who was only 43, died of a perforated bowel that experts said could have been treated if caught early.




FACTS:

Boyfriend (who did say he was the husband) and 1 bystander called the police.

SINCE most hospitals don't let people die on their emergency room floors 911 really doesn't have a policy about how to deal with it.

AND the 911 didn't tell the female bystander who called that she was "being negative" he basically told her that God should strike her, not him... in reply to this statement..


{{{{"May strike you too for acting the way you are," the caller responds.}}}}
{{{{ The operator says, "No negative, ma'am. You're the one." }}}}

[EFerrari]

3. K&R. Man, we need 50 more like Mr Conyers.

:)

[Solon]

5. We need 534 more like him....

We have him in Congress, so let's clone him to take up all the other seats, and then have Kucinich as President.

[EFerrari]

6. Okay!

:)

[GreenPartyVoter]

7. I'm with ya there. Clone all of the progressive caucus

[malaise]

8. Kick and recommend

Can't wait to see this and get my copy.

[mzmolly]

9. I can't wait, I bet this is one powerful film.

:toast:

[burythehatchet]

12. My posse to go watch the film is growing daily

:bounce:

[StarryNite]

13. I'm anxious to see this one too.