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GUEST: Jerry Flanagan, Health Care Policy Director at the Foundation for Taxpayer and Consumer Rights

SiCKO, Michael Moore’s documentary about the state of health care in the US opened last weekend to full houses across the country. It was the second biggest grossing debut for a documentary in US film history, after Moore’s own Fahrenheit 911. Many are lauding the film as Moore’s best yet, and, after watching the film myself, I have to say I agree. In SiCKO, the US’s shambling, complex, and cruel health care system of private health insurance, is compared to nationalized health care in Canada, England, France, and even Cuba. Canadian health care enables citizens to walk into any health care facility and, with little or no waiting, get immediate, comprehensive health care. In Britain, the National Health Service will go as far as reimbursing patients who may need to take a cab to the hospital. The French health care system even offers free house calls any time of the day or night, within an hour of calling a doctor. In Cuba, the same prescription drug costing an American over a hundred dollars, is available for 5 cents. Sicko traces the origins of private health insurance industry to the days of the Nixon presidency and profiles many heart breaking stories of American lives destroyed and even lost because coverage was denied to cut costs. The film is being used as a tool for change and first premiered in Sacramento at a screening sponsored by the California Nurses Association. Moore has also testified at a state Senate briefing in California on health care reform, urging this state to lead the way on health care reform.

For more information about AB 1554, the California Assembly bill to regulate health insurance premiums, visit www.consumerwatchdog.org/healthcare/
helpputcostcont_hc_fullsenate/.