Sick-o - US need - spin/propaganda - terrorists - various

[Guest guest]

--> July 6, 2007

Guest: Steve Benen

 

 

NATIONAL HEALTHCARE = TERRORISM....Conservatives want Americans to fear a

national health care system. Conservatives also want Americans to fear Muslims.

What better way to demagogue two birds with one stone than to connect the two in

a transparently ridiculous discussion on Fox News?

[Yesterday] on Fox News's Your World With Neil Cavuto, National Review

Online columnist Jerry Bowyer attacked Michael Moore's movie SiCKO and its

positive portrayal of the health care in countries such as Britain and France.

He argued that national health care systems are breeding grounds for terrorists

because they are " bureaucratic. " " I think the terrorists have shown over and

over again ... they're very good at gaming the system with bureaucracies, " said

Bowyer.

 

The chyron, by the way, told viewers during the segment, " National Healthcare:

Breeding Ground For Terror? " It was in all caps, and it wasn't trying to be

funny.

 

Indeed, Bowyer added, " f one of your guys is a jihadist, if one of your

doctors is spending all the time online reading Osama bin Laden fatwas,

someone's going to notice that. But the National Health Service is more like the

post office, you know there's a lot of anonymity, it's easy to hide in the

bureaucracy. "

To which FNC personality Cavuto responded, " The fact that we may be looking to

go this way in the United States, you're saying one of the potential

consequences -- without judging national health care one way or the other -- is

that this could happen. We have to be at least aware of the distinct possibility

that in such a system, we would have to recruit outside doctors, and where we're

getting the most of them these days seems to be from the Muslim world. "

Of course, this was not to " judge " the merits of a national health-care plan;

it was just Cavuto's way of alerting FNC viewers that advocates of such a plan

are undermining national security by inviting terrorists into the country. That

is not, Cavuto told us, a value judgment on his part.

What's more, this seems to be a new talking point, particularly this week,

among conservatives who no longer worry about appearing credible. National

Review's Iain Murray argued a couple of days ago, " The socialization of medicine

in the UK is responsible for a lot of problems. The importation of terrorists is

just one of them. "

So let this be a lesson to all of us. National health care may offer better

care to more people for less money, but that won't matter because your doctor

will be an al Qaeda mole.

We've been warned.

—Steve Benen 8:55 AM

http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2007_07/011634.php

----------------------

Doctors wary of 'socialized medicine'

Movie renews debate on whether government should run health care By DEBBIE

GILBERT

The Times

GAINESVILLE

Last week's debut of filmmaker Michael Moore's latest documentary, " Sicko, "

has reignited debate over whether the United States should have universal health

care. Moore argues that there should be a single-payer, government-run system,

which theoretically would solve two problems. It would cover the 45 million

Americans who don't have health insurance, and people would no longer have to

depend on their jobs for medical coverage. But many doctors in Northeast

Georgia think it's a bad idea. " Single-payer health care would do more harm

than good. It's not going to do anything to contain costs, " said Dr. Jack

Chapman, a Gainesville ophthalmologist who is president-elect of the Medical

Association of Georgia. Dr. Rodney Smith, a Gainesville general practitioner

who helped start Hall County's Health Access Initiative for the working poor,

believes America " desperately needs " universal coverage. " But the tricky

aspect is how exactly that gets done, " he said. " I

certainly do not want a single-payer system, because customer satisfaction

would go down. In a government-run system, there's less of a work ethic. " Even

physicians who hate insurance companies aren't thrilled about the feds getting

involved in health care. Dr. Gary Berliner runs a Dawsonville clinic that

circumvents insurance by offering affordable care on a cash basis. " I'm not a

big fan of insurance companies, because 'managed care' means 'no care,' " he

said. " But with a national health system, you'd be back to managed care. Both

systems work by denying service. " Doctors wary of 'socialized medicine'

Berliner said he has worked as a physician in Germany, Israel, and England, all

of which have some form of nationalized care. " In all of those places, the

political elite gets the best service. No one else gets care except on the most

basic level, " he said. In the admittedly one-sided " Sicko, " Moore travels to

England, France, Canada, and even Cuba to show how

the citizens of those countries benefit from having free access to care. But

critics say he fails to mention the disadvantages of such systems. In Canada,

the situation has gotten so bad that it's driving doctors to practice elsewhere,

including Gainesville neurosurgeon Dr. Bruce Nixon, who moved to the United

States in 1993. " Things aren't perfect in the U.S., but it's far better than

what Canada has, " he said. " Doctors there have no control and aren't able to do

anything for their patients. It's basically wait-in-line medicine. You have to

wait up to two years for joint replacement surgery. " Far from being

egalitarian, Nixon said the Canadian system is just like any other: The richest

people will always find a way to get top-notch care. " When I was practicing in

Toronto, people who did not want to wait eight months for an MRI would go down

to Buffalo (New York) or to the Cleveland Clinic and pay for it themselves, " he

said. Nixon said in Canada it's illegal for

a citizen to pay for an MRI, even if they can afford it. The national health

system does not allow any for-profit competition. " My brother is an

ophthalmologist, and he's still practicing in Canada, " Nixon said. " He's thought

about leaving, but he's been able to make a living because he can do procedures

(such as laser eye surgery) that aren't covered by socialized medicine. " Nixon

said the single-payer model has been " a disaster " in every country that has

tried it. " It doesn't work, " he said. " It bankrupts the government, and people

abuse it. " Insurance: government-controlled or for-profit? Instead of the

government automatically insuring everyone, Nixon believes people should be

forced to take responsibility for their health care. " Most people who are

uninsured got into that situation because of poor choices they've made, " he

said. " We require people to have car insurance; why can't we require them to

have health insurance? " Nixon would get no argument from

Gary Reynolds, a Gainesville insurance broker. " I don't deny that there are a

very large number of people without insurance. But many can afford it and choose

not to buy it, " he said. " I can't see changing the system for everybody just

because a few people have a need. " Reynolds believes a nationalized system

would create " an awful mess. " " You would have no control over who your doctors

are or what kind of care they provide, " he said. " The current system may be

confusing, but that's the way competition is. " Moore contends that the problem

with health care in the U.S. is that it's profit-driven. And on that point,

Berliner agrees. " If your sole goal is to make a profit, you end up with

managed care, which rewards doctors for doing less and saving the company

money, " he said. " The goal should be good patient care. " Yet governments,

which are always constrained by budget limitations, could end up rationing care

in much the same way. And Chapman believes the

overall quality of care would be worse. " There's no consumer choice, no

incentive for innovation or cost control, " he said. " And individuals aren't

motivated to improve their health because they're not paying the bill. " Smith

said in some cases it's clear that competition has been beneficial. " Northeast

Georgia Medical Center now has the No. 1 heart center in Georgia, " he said.

" That would not have happened if we had had to apply to the state for money. So

we do want to preserve the free-market system. " ER substitutes for universal

coverage But while the Gainesville hospital has won awards for its cardiac and

cancer programs, it also struggles to treat thousands of uninsured patients who

come to the emergency room with non-life-threatening ailments. A federal law

requires hospitals to treat everyone who comes to the emergency department. And

that, in essence, has become America's default national health care system. But

it places the burden on hospitals instead

of on taxpayers. Cathy Bowers, spokeswoman for Northeast Georgia Medical

Center, said the hospital spent $47.5 million on uncompensated care last year.

When the number of uninsured patients exceeds the number who are able to pay, a

hospital begins hemorrhaging money. That's a major reason why Atlanta's Grady

Memorial Hospital is in danger of closing. " There are currently about 1.7

million uninsured Georgians, and it costs more than $1.2 billion a year to care

for them, " said Glenn Landers of the Georgia Health Policy Center at Georgia

State University. " But it's not clear that we would save any money if there

were a single-payer system. There's a lot of debate right now about whether

health care is a right. And even if it is a right, how much are we willing to

pay for it? " What critics of government-subsidized health care may be

forgetting is that the U.S. already has two enormous, federally run programs:

Medicare and Medicaid. " People who have Medicaid are

actually in pretty good shape (in terms of access to care), " said Smith. " And

Medicare is better now that it has prescription drug coverage. " Smith believes

universal coverage might be achieved by a combination of public and private

plans. " We should keep the free market, but have a way for government to step

in for people who can't get any other coverage, " he said. " If Medicaid could act

as the insurer of last resort, I think it could work. It's such a large

organization that its overall administrative costs are low. " Insurance plans

mired in bureaucracy But Medicaid, a joint state/federal insurance program for

the poor, has its own difficulties. " There's a lot of negatives in dealing

with only one or two payers, because you're at their mercy if something goes

wrong, " said Mimi Collins, chief executive officer of the Longstreet Clinic,

Gainesville's largest multi-specialty practice. " But purely from an

administrative standpoint, having a single payer would make

things easier. " Last year, Gov. Sonny Perdue decided to move Georgia's

Medicaid patients into a system much like the HMOs (health maintenance

organizations) that privately insured patients are familiar with. Collins

thinks these CMOs, or " care management organizations, " may be worse than having

a single-payer system. " The problems we've experienced with the Medicaid CMOs

have been a nightmare, " she said. " There is a lack of accountability. I spend so

much time on the phone arguing with insurance companies, and I'm very

frustrated. And now we're starting to see the same issues with the new Medicare

Advantage plans. " Any benefit that government-run health care might have

offered is negated if it's outsourced to for-profit companies, Collins believes.

" My fear is that instead of a universal payer, the government would just

privatize their programs to existing insurance companies, " she said. So

Longstreet would still have to employ a whole office full of people to

handle insurance claims. " I've got a team that does nothing but Medicaid,

another team that does nothing but Medicare, and another that does commercial

insurance, " said Collins. " That's because the rules for each type of insurance

are different, and it's so complex that no person can be knowledgeable about all

of these plans. " Collins said the people who are employed by the insurance

plans don't seem to know much, either; she said she encounters incompetence in

both government-run and private programs. " There are some good trends in the

insurance industry, such as wellness programs and evidence-based medicine, " she

said. " But there are still a lot of reforms that need to be made. The only way a

physician gets paid is by doing something, which has led to overutilization of

tests and procedures. They still get paid very poorly for an office visit. "

Equal coverage for everyone? Chapman agrees that there's not enough incentive

for preventive medicine. But he thinks

that in order to take responsibility for their health, patients need to

understand how much things actually cost. " Right now, health care is like

flying on an airline, " Chapman said. " Your plane ticket may have cost twice as

much as the guy's in the seat next to you. Similarly, you can have two people

with appendectomies at the same hospital and one paid a lot less, because their

plan negotiated a better deal. " That inequity, with patients being penalized

for having bad insurance or no insurance, is what leads advocates like Moore to

call for universal coverage. After all, not everyone who lacks insurance is

just too lazy or cheap to buy it. " This is a big problem for people who get

sick with cancer or another serious disease and lose their jobs, " said Collins.

" Then they can't get coverage anywhere. " Reynolds acknowledged that it's tough

for people with pre-existing conditions to get affordable insurance. But he said

that's an unavoidable fact of life in the

United States, where the health care industry is big business. " Insurance

plans can't accept everyone who applies, " he said. " If they did, the companies

would go bankrupt. " And, as Nixon has pointed out, budget crises are already

occurring in countries that have tried to provide coverage for every citizen,

regardless of their health status. But local doctors still hope that

politicians will be able to come up with a solution that balances compassion

with financial stability. " Sometimes, you have to look at what's the right

thing to do, " Smith said. Contact: dgilbert; (770)

718-3407 Originally published Sunday, July 8, 2007

http://www.gainesvilletimes.com/news/stories/20070708/localnews/183829.shtml

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Weekend Edition

July 7 / 8, 2007

A Film, Militant Nurses and a New Opportunity for Single Payer Health Care

Will " Sicko " Spark a Movement? By ALAN MAASS

At sneak previews across the country last month, the red carpet outside the

theater wasn't for preening and paparazzi, but picket lines.

Members of the California Nurses Association (CNA) traveled to the premieres

on a bright red bus that let them off to hold protests and pass out information

before each screening. Also on the bus were representatives of Physicians for a

National Health Program and a number of other unions, including state chapters

of the American Nurses Association, the United Steel Workers and the

Communications Workers of America.

The tour was capped off with a turnout of nurses and doctors at theaters in 30

cities when the film officially opened to sold-out audiences June 29.

Some reporters from the mainstream media complained that chanting nurses

interfered with their red-carpet interviews of Moore, but the activists got a

warmer greeting from audience members.

" I think that one of most notable things was how universal the response was,

no matter which city we went to, " said Jan Rodolfo, a CNA member and nurse at

the Alta Bates Summit Medical Center in Oakland, Calif., who traveled across the

country on the bus.

In Los Angeles and Washington, D.C., said Rodolfo, the first five rows of the

theater were reserved for nurses, and in New York, the CNA members escorted

Moore into the theater and stood with him as he introduced the film. " In every

premiere, there were people weeping, " she said. " And when the film was over,

there were people walking out of the theater, just demanding to know what they

could do to change things. "

According to the CNA, at least 10,000 nurses have signed up to help in a

campaign to win legislation from Congress creating a " single-payer " system that

would cut out private insurance companies, and expand a vastly improved Medicare

system to cover every person in the country.

" There were huge numbers of nurses, in particular, coming out in the different

cities, who had never been involved in unions or health care reform activism

before, and who were just beyond excited to be there and wanting to get involved

for the first time, " Rodolfo said.

The impact of the movie was felt beyond the theaters where the activists

turned out.

A movie reviewer in Dallas--the heart of Bush country--described how he

emerged from the bathroom after a screening to find that " [t]he entire Sicko

audience had somehow formed an impromptu town hall meeting in front of the

ladies room...[H]ere these people were, complete strangers from every walk of

life, talking excitedly about the movie. It was as if they simply couldn't go

home without doing something drastic about what they'd just seen. "

The meeting ended, said the reviewer, with an exchange of e-mail addresses and

plans to " get together and do something...It was like I was standing there at

the birth of a new political movement. "

* * *

SICKO IS perfectly made to give form to the simmering bitterness with U.S.

health care system. Its focus is on the victims of the system--in particular,

people who thought they were fully covered, but discovered they really weren't

when they needed it.

That's a familiar story--as Moore learned when he made an appeal on YouTube

for people to reach him with their " health care horror stories. " In the first 24

hours, he got than 3,700 responses. More than 25,000 people had contacted him by

the time a week had passed.

People often live through their own health care nightmares without a sense

that the system is a source of frustration for millions of other people

throughout U.S. society. Sicko is changing that.

Politicians of both parties are alert to the discontent. But their rhetorical

flair in sympathizing with victims of the health care system hasn't been matched

by action.

The latest mantra among politicians of both parties is " universal health

coverage. " Republican presidential contender Mitt Romney claims he achieved it

with a Massachusetts law passed while he was governor, and Oregon's Democratic

Sen. Ron Wyden says this is the goal of his Healthy Americans Act, proposed in

Congress late last year.

But in reality, these bipartisan proposals would be a cash cow for the

insurance industry--and would worsen the health care crisis facing working

people.

In Massachusetts, for example, Romney's " universal coverage " proposal requires

all residents to be signed up with a health insurance plan by the beginning of

this month, or face a stiff penalty on state income taxes. On the other hand,

fines for companies that don't meet requirements for providing health coverage

for employees are a drop in the bucket.

The effect of the law will be to undermine the already ailing

employer-provided insurance system, while driving the uninsured into

stripped-down insurance plans, with high deductibles and out-of-pocket

costs--the very plans that Sicko took special aim at.

Instead, Sicko stakes out the case for a real alternative--a single-payer

system that eliminates private insurance and covers everyone.

That's created an awkward situation for the leading Democratic presidential

candidates, who have put forward health care proposals that, on closer look,

have a lot in common with the " universal coverage " shell game. As the Los

Angeles Times reported, Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama and John Edwards " all have

staked out positions sharply at odds with Moore's approach. But none of them is

eager to have that fact dragged into the spotlight. "

The liberal Internet network MoveOn.org tried to blur the differences between

Moore's call for fundamental change and the Democrats' proposals.

" Several 2008 candidates--John Edwards, Dennis Kucinich, and Barack

Obama--have plans to guarantee affordable health care for everyone with a public

insurance option, " MoveOn said in an e-mail to members. " These are the most

forward-thinking proposals ever seen in a presidential race. "

But only Kucinich supports single-payer legislation. Edwards' and Obama's

plans fall short of " guaranteeing affordable health care for everyone. "

As for these being the " most-forward thinking proposals ever seen in a

presidential race, " Democrat Harry Truman backed a far more radical national

health insurance plan in his 1948 presidential campaign, and for decades after,

Democrats regularly affirmed their commitment to this goal--though they didn't

do much to work toward it.

On its bus tour, the CNA challenged not only Democrats but other unions that

have made concessions to the health care industry, rather than commit to a

single-payer proposal.

CNA Executive Director Rose Ann DeMoro accused the Service Employees

International Union (SEIU) in particular of giving cover to politicians who

refuse to support legislation for a single-payer system. " t makes [the

politicians] look like they are accomplishing something when in fact they are

accomplishing nothing, " DeMoro told the Corporate Crime Reporter.

The proposals put forward by Clinton, Edwards and Obama are the product of 30

years of retreat and rightward shifts in official Washington politics.

By contrast, ordinary people are clearly ready for much stronger measures.

According to a CNN poll in May, 64 percent of people said they thought the

government should " provide a national health insurance program for all

Americans, even if this would require higher taxes. " A New York Times/CBS poll

in February found that six in 10 people were willing to pay higher taxes so that

everyone had insurance.

According to the Public Policy Institute of California, its survey found that

" by a two-to-one margin, most prefer 'a universal health insurance program in

which everyone is covered under a program like Medicare that is run by the

government and financed by the taxpayers' nationally to 'the current health

insurance system in the United States, in which most people get their health

insurance from private employers, but some people have no insurance.' "

As Rodolfo pointed out, " The public in general in the U.S. is ready for some

kind of universal health care, but it isn't clear enough about what that needs

to look like. " If a case isn't made for a genuine alternative, she said, it's

easy for people to be pulled toward one of the more " realistic " proposals.

" [M]y sense is that up until this movie came out, you could be Hillary Clinton

or Barack Obama or John Edwards--or even Rudolph Giuliani or Mitt Romney--and be

out there talking about supporting universal health care, and the folks you're

talking to weren't looking for a distinction in terms of what that actually

meant, " Rodolfo said.

" So my hope now is that any time one of these politicians stands up and

advocates for health care reform that would expand the private health insurance

industry, people are going to stand up and go, wait a second, the health

insurance industry is the problem, not the solution.

" I'm hoping that the movie is going to bring a new consciousness about the

role of insurance companies, in particular, as the root of the problem, and it

will really refocus things on single-payer. "

* * *

THE SINGLE-payer legislation sponsored by Reps. John Conyers and Dennis

Kucinich is a stark contrast to the half-measures and concessions to industry

floated by other politicians.

Known as HR 676, it would create a comprehensive system under which

everyone--all U.S. residents, regardless of immigration status, from cradle to

grave--is covered by a single, government-administered health program. The

proposal would forbid " a private health insurer to sell health insurance

coverage that duplicates the benefits provided " under the government system.

The bill would allow a mix of private and public health care providers, but

all private companies would have to convert to not-for-profit status--though

over a too-generous 15-year " transition " period.

Estimates of funding for the program are $1.9 trillion a year--to be raised

through the already existing Medicare tax on employees and employers, an

additional payroll tax on employers (which nevertheless would still pay less per

worker for health care than under the current system), and increased taxes on

the wealthy and big corporations and banks.

Mainstream politicians claim that a single-payer system is a pipe dream--and

that their " universal coverage " proposals are more " realistic. "

But the problem, as Sicko makes clear, is built into the fabric of a

privatized system. As Nation reviewer Christopher Hayes put it, Sicko shows why

" if single-payer is ever going to come to America, it's going to be over the

insurance companies' dead bodies. "

A single-payer system would be only a first step toward truly rational health

care. For example, though the government system would negotiate a better deal on

drug prices, pharmaceutical companies would remain private. And in other

countries with national health care, any restrictions in coverage have served as

the means for private insurers to undermine the state system by " supplementing "

it.

But a single-payer system in the U.S. would be a huge advance. Above all, it

would establish in the U.S. the principle that exists in other industrialized

countries--that health care is a right, guaranteed to everyone. The fundamental

priority, as left-wing British Labour Party leader Tony Benn says in Sicko, " is

solidarity. "

The health care industry won't give in without a sustained struggle--one that

organizes health care providers as part of a broader political mobilization to

demand change.

It will take more than a movie to win the kind of dramatic change that's

needed to begin fixing the American health care system. But this movie--along

with the efforts of the activists who greeted viewers outside the theaters with

information on how to get involved--could be the first spark of a new movement.

Alan Maass is the editor of the Socialist Worker and author of The Case for

Socialism. He can be reached at: alanmaass

http://www.counterpunch.org/maass07072007.html

----------------------------

Declaration of Independence Day Edition

July 4, 2007

Aren't We All Like Marie Antoinette? Is My Doctor a Terrorist? By CLAUDIA

JOHNSON

Doctors involved in London terror plot!

Registrar at a Gold Coast Hospital arrested at Brisbane airport!

The thought hit right when I heard the radio news: Is my psychiatrist a

terrorist?

Criminal profiling has found that young professionals from good backgrounds,

often engineers, (and now doctors), living away from their home countries were

typical terrorists. Workmates usually describe them as model citizens.

On the first visit to my psychiatrists' fusty consulting room, some Islamic

pictures on the wall suggested to me that his background was other than

Christian. He came from a country where Islam was the majority religion. But as

our relationship needed to be scrupulously professional I knew it was

inappropriate to engage him in chat. Curious as I am about most peoples' lives,

this was one person who must remain a mystery to me.

I moved right along to the serious problems in the world: my feelings. My

depression, my sense of failure at not having won a Nobel or a Booker prize. My

husbands' Narcissistic Personality Disorder. My problems wrestling with the

constant upkeep of the McMansion. I was so middle-aged, so disempowered. My

suffering was immense and my depression was assessed as serious and

chronic--requiring a high dose of anti-depressants.

I think he was an excellent psychiatrist, rarely commenting as I burbled. When

he did intrude, his remarks were so incisive they were like bolts of lightning.

When I saw him again after the summer holidays, he had been visiting India when

the tsunami had hit, and had seen the terrible suffering. I extracted this

information from him. In view of the world-shattering nature of the tsunami, I

feel so stupid twittering on about my tiny problems, and told him so, but he

brushed this aside. We continued with the monthly appointments.

I always wondered how we all must appear to him: us spoilt fortunate Westerners,

suffering the curse of Western culture--depression. Did he secretly despise us,

as we poured out our pathetic innermost secrets? Could he not, possibly, even

begin to hate us? That would be understandable.

In the country my psychiatrist came from, most people live hand to mouth, they

sleep under cardboard. Even under our organic feather doonas after our Sleepy

Time Tea in silk teabags drunk from our fine china mugs many of us can't get to

sleep, we have so many worries, so much stress. This is one of the thoughts that

troubles me when I can't get to sleep: as we order newer, wider flat screen

televisions, aren't we like Marie Antoinette before the French Revolution? And

most of the luxuries with which we pamper ourselves--our fine china, embroidered

sheets, our soft fluffy pajamas-- aren't they made by underpaid workers cruelly

repressed in Third World countries? Yes they are, that's why they are so cheap,

and that's why we can afford to buy so much stuff.

In the second year when I saw him again after the summer break I asked, " How was

your holiday, did you go to Queensland? " We had been getting personal to the

extent that we exchanged summaries of holiday plans.

" No, " he said, " I went on a group pilgrimage to Mecca. "

What a barbecue-stopper! I was taken aback big-time. Having met people who have

been just about every single place in the world including the top of Everest and

the tip of Patagonia, a Mecca pilgrimage was a first.To my fascination I

realised I was still unsophisticated and a racistthat I felt some sort fear of

what is fashionably called " the Other " . But I did not want him to sense this, to

feel hurt or insulted, or not accepted.I did not want him to think I was one of

those crass John Laws-worshipping Aussies discombobulated by anything other than

the straight-forward love of ball sports even though I was much closer to being

that than I had realised. And I couldn't ask: " How was the food? " or " Did you

have a lovely hotel? "

But as I was curious, I said, " Can I ask you what were the other pilgrims saying

about what they feel about Australia and the reactions here to Islam? " (The

usual debates had been going on.The usual ill-chosen mullahs had been making

ill-chosen remarks to which all sorts of unhelpful responses were made. The

whole scenario was a mess.)

" They were not talking about Australia " he replied, " All they thought about

was God, and asking forgiveness from Him. "

Right. OK.

So on hearing that Islamic doctors practising in the West were apparently

involved in the latest terrorist bombing attempts, I thought about Dr Ali. And

wondered, just for a second, could my psychiatrist be a terrorist?

As I had just proved to myself with my jokey but kind of serious mental

queries about Dr Ali, (in whose consulting rooms I have never seen so much as a

single packet of fertilizer) all Muslims are under suspicion, a

situation which must make those younger wilder engineers more prone to

catching the Jihad bug. And make all the others, even more enraged than

they already were about Palestine.

Us bourgeois leftie whiteys are tearing our hair and doing the sackcloth and

ashes thing. We confess the obvious that Westerners are greedy over-consumers,

that much of our culture and media is crass, that we have polluted the planet

and plundered and colonised many a country and that Israel is a big problem. So

we have sinned, and fallen short etc. As Palestine is attacked, and thousands of

Iraqi and Afghanis civilians burn, that creates thousands of reasons why groups

of religious extremists could egg each other on to visiting a symbolic revenge

by laying plans to eviscerate the innocent on the streets of Britain. Does that

explain the silence about the Jihadists on the part of the general Muslim

population themselves?

When born-again Bush and his administration unleashes carnage in the name of

freedom and democracy, millions of Westerners protest, and have continued to do

so ever since the mystery of his so-called election. Is there an equivalent

protest by the educated Islamic community against the theories and actions of

those who pack cars with explosives and nails , in the hope of achievingwhat?

And what on earth do doctors, with their revered profession, have to do with

this madness?

There are many questions I would like to discuss with my psychiatrist , but

it's probably safer to stay on tried and true ground: me, me, me ....

Claudia Johnson is the pseudonym of a writer who wants to maintain good

relations with her psychiatrist. She is associated with

http://www.homepagedaily.com.

http://www.counterpunch.org/johnson07042007.html

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'Sicko' tells only part of health story

(Original publication: July 8, 2007)

If you believe the horrific statistics, 69 million American adults are

obese, or severely obese.

Among them are 3.8 million who weigh more than 300 pounds and 400,000 who

weigh more than 400 pounds. Forty-five years ago the number of people considered

to be dangerously overweight amounted to 13 percent of the population. As of the

year 2000, it stood at 31 percent.

I could go on and on with this.

But you already know the score: Obesity is a national crisis that correlates

with the rise of diabetes, heart disease and other ailments. The strain this

puts on the cost of health care is nearly incalculable.

I'll bet Michael Moore would be considered obese - though I have no idea what

his body mass is. But he's unquestionably fat, and certainly does not look

healthy by any objective standard.

Moore's corpulence stopped me short every time he appeared on camera in

" Sicko, " his seriocomic indictment of the American health-care system. As a

satirist, Moore never lets the facts get in the way of his message. But in the

case of " Sicko, " the fact of his obviously large belly couldn't be ignored, at

least not by me.

It was the one joke in the film that was unintentional. For nowhere in " Sicko "

does Moore even make the slightest reference to preventive measures like diet

and regular exercise as an important piece of the overall health-care puzzle.

Nor for that matter does he mention cigarette smoking, drug abuse and alcohol.

Now, I should say here that I enjoyed " Sicko. " As I said on my blog, Moore

provides a service in his opinion-documentary - let's call it an opinumentary -

by exposing the corporate greed of the health insurance industry, whose

bottom-line raison d'etre is to come up with new and ever-corrupt ways to deny

sick people adequate care. He takes a well-aimed shot at the forked-tongue

politicians like former Louisiana Rep. Billy Tauzin, the sleazeball architect of

the Medicare prescription drug bill whose reward was to get a $2 million-a-year

lobbyist job with the pharmaceutical companies. Though it clearly grieves him to

do it, Moore even singles out his heroine, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, for

ridicule, revealing that she's second only to Rick Santorum in accepting

campaign donations from health-care special interests.

The passing slap at Hillary is Moore's idea of " balance, " and is probably one

of the reasons why " Sicko " hasn't sustained as many apoplectic attacks from the

right as " Bowling for Columbine " and " Fahrenheit 911 " did.

For instance, when I saw " Fahrenheit 911 " at the Bronxville movie theater, the

police were summoned because somebody was staging some kind of minor protest

either against or for Moore's statement. I couldn't be sure. In any case, I saw

" Sicko " at the same theater and there was no excitement afterward, unless your

definition of " exciting " is a guy on the street handing out fliers for

moveon.org.

Former New York City Mayor Ed Koch, an online film reviewer, who gives out

plus and minus ratings, told me on my WVOX radio program last week that he would

probably see " Sicko " because " he did something he normally doesn't do - he

stated facts. " At the same time, Koch pretty much summed up the feelings of many

Moore-bashers when he said, " I don't like him. He is the pits, in my judgment. I

believe he is so filled with hate of America, I don't want to contribute to his

fortune. " (That shouldn't be a problem since Koch gets to review movies without

having to pay for his tickets.)

Moore is preaching to a larger choir this time. After all, just about

everybody has a complaint about the health-care system, even the lucky ones

among us who have insurance.

But even with " Sicko, " Moore is more punch line than " Frontline. " He relies on

his usual bag of tricks - the wacky, Looney Tunes-type graphics, entertaining

outakes from President Bush's vast trove of bloopers and blunders, and, of

course, pathos provided by truly heartbreaking stories from bereaved victims of

a cold, heartless world. Is there a Michael Moore movie that hasn't had a

tearful, " Queen For a Day " moment?

In his moralizing, Moore oversimplifies a complicated issue. His essential

message is that Western European countries and Canada have socialized medicine

and so should we, though he conveniently leaves out all the bad parts. When I

watched " Sicko, " with all its appealing propaganda about free prescription

drugs, doctor house calls and the like, I thought perhaps the answer to our

health-care problems is to simply let the 40 million uninsured Americans

illegally immigrate to, say, France. Lafayette, we are here!

Not that France doesn't already have an immigration problem, but you won't

know that by watching " Sicko. "

Finally, Moore travels to Cuba with some ailing 9/11 rescue workers who are in

desperate need of medical treatment. Lo and behold, they get first-rate care in

the land of Castro, of all places!

What Moore neglects to report is that the average Cuban has to beg for

medicine while top government officials, military personnel and tourists like

Moore and his entourage receive top-drawer care. Indeed, Cuba actually boasts

" health tourism. " In one account I've read, Cuba especially attracts foreigners

seeking cosmetic surgery like liposuction and tummy tucks.

This leads me back to Moore and his weight problem. As it turns out, reports

have it that Moore actually took this problem in hand and got highly specialized

treatment. He lost 50 pounds.

No, he didn't waddle up to Canada. He didn't sashay to France. Or swim to

Cuba.

He enrolled at the Pritikin Longevity Center & Spa in Aventura, Fla., where

rates start at $3,500 a week (double occupancy) to lose weight.

See, this is a great country.

Reach Phil Reisman at preisman or 914-694-5008. Read his blog,

Extra, at http://reisman.lohudblogs.com/

http://www.thejournalnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070708/COLUMNIST08/70\

7080380/1018/NEWS02

Posted by: Fit on Sun Jul 08, 2007 12:22 pm

The glaring light that Michael Moore shines on the greed and corruption that

infect our health care industry in his movie “Sicko” should make us cringe with

embarrassment. As should our low rating for providing health care as compared to

the rest of the world. But this light is way too bright for those who are

blinded with hubris, they must attack the messenger. I can almost hear them say

“Heal thyself, thou hypocrite” regarding Moore’s weight problem, implying fat

people shouldn‘t be allowed to make a movie about health. It is a childish but

all too typical reaction when someone is getting uncomfortably close to exposing

the truth to resort to character assassination and I’m getting sicko of it. And

I’m sicko of those who need to drape themselves in the flag and accuse our

heroic whistle blowers of being unpatriotic. God forbid that someone find out

that the USA isn’t perfect.

Mr. Moore could not have possibly covered every aspect of the problems we have

with health care. Maybe his next movie will be about prevention. I hope it’s

about brainwashing and mass media. Until then cannot the questions he has raised

stir a dialogue among reasonable people without all the personal attacks?

Mike Fitzpatrick

Briarcliff Manor

Cell 914-552-4533

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LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

An American problem COMMENTS FROM READERS

Saturday, July 07, 2007

I recently went to see Michael Moore's movie " Sicko, " and I hope it will bring

much-needed attention to the irony that we have a health care system in the

greatest country in the world that is based on profit rather than need. I'm glad

health care is finally getting attention, but I am disappointed to hear

opponents and supporters of this critical issue dividing along party lines.

The ills of our current health care system are indeed inconvenient truths, but

the state of this broken system is not a Republican or Democratic issue — it's

an American issue. I believe that we can confirm the greatness of our country,

not by dividing along political lines, but by coming together to solve the

problem.

JACQUELINE HILL

Austin

Health care – at what cost?

What was disturbing to me as I watched the new Michael Moore movie, " Sicko, "

was that it was entertaining and hit some honest sore spots. Also, it painted a

very appealing vision of the utopia of " free " and universal health care in

France, the United Kingdom and Canada. As with any of the Moore flicks, it was

also intentionally unbalanced.

Here's some of the balance that was missing:

1. Medicare underpays health care providers to a point that seniors are

shunned.

2. Medicare has vastly unfunded future obligations that will bankrupt our

federal government.

3. France, the United Kingdom and Canada are straining to maintain their

national health care programs in spite of much higher tax rates.

4. Half the people without health insurance in the United States should be

getting help from government programs but are not because of dishonest funding

levels.

5. Much of the difference in health outcomes in the U.S. is because of our

lifestyle choices.

Next time you want the utopia of " free " and universal health care like France,

be sure to ask them how it's going to be paid for and by whom.

DAVID CRUMP

davcrump

Austin

Separate but equal?

Re: June 29 article, " High court limits school desegregation plans " :

Once again, the Supremes defy all experience and logic as they decree that

school districts need not integrate according to racial guidelines. We still

have " separate but equal " public schools. I remember when white children first

were bused in Austin (years after their minority peers began busing) — their

parents were appalled by the physical plant of Martin Junior High. If anyone

doubts these conditions still exist, just compare the test scores at Casis

Elementary with those of Webb. It is no coincidence that minority children in

neighborhood schools have far fewer resources than the children in Tarrytown's

neighborhood school.

Maybe the justices need a little remedial education. I wonder if any of them

would be attorneys, never mind justices, had they been subjected to " separate

but equal " schools.

Of course, many of them went to private schools, which cater to the wealthy,

and they are ignorant of the many injustices which still prevail in public

education.

LYNN GOODMAN-STRAUSS

Austin

Looking past race

What progressive-minded person could not be pleased, if not thrilled, with the

Supreme Court's recent decision opposing race-based enumeration? This is long

overdue. I have often wondered why our society was discriminating to overcome

discrimination and engaging in racism to eradicate racism. All this obsessive

talk about people of color and people of non-color, and minorities and

majorities, is counterproductive, especially because there is so much blending

among the various ethnic and racial groups.

My only regret is that the Supremes were not unanimous in their eminently wise

decision. Make no mistake — this is a great decision in the history of the

United States. There is no turning back the clock.

RICHARD PENNINGTON

Austin

Protecting U.S. values

Americans stand for life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. That means

standing up and protecting the little guy. How little can you get when in the

womb (or Petri dish) — whenever human life begins?

The veto against taxpayer-funded stem cell research (experiments) was a shell

game in which everyone loses (June 21 article, " Bush vetoes stem cell bill " ).

n It didn't help anyone — not even the frozen embryos destined to die.

n The veto was meaningless and didn't prevent making more human life in

fertility clinics or corporate research labs.

n Medical experiments are going to get in the way of the lives of the unborn.

What Americans need is a consistent set of values, principles and policies to

protect human life while finding medical cures — but we cannot abandon the

unborn. We need elected officials with basic American values — life, liberty,

fairness and equality in order to achieve real happiness.

ROBERT J. TORRES

Colleyville

Cheney's 'Catch-22'

The vice president understood the meaning of " Catch-22 " long before most of us

of draft age really understood what Joseph Heller wrote. Though " Catch-22 " is

now confused with irony and paradox, the actual definition of " Catch-22 " is: You

can do anything at anytime as long as you can get away with it. So Dick Cheney

received five draft deferments during the Vietnam War while receiving two

citations for DWI.

It's certainly a good lesson for someone who would become a national leader

who understands how to dodge the Constitution, creates new constitutional

definitions for himself and his station, and knows he can get away with anything

he does and not pay the price. Cheney certainly should become the model of

citizenship and public service for our children to follow. Capt. Yossarian comes

to the realization that even " Catch-22 " does not matter when corporations

control the war. Surely, we Americans now realize Cheney's brilliance in leading

us where we are today.

BRUCE DAVIS

Austin

Undeserving of raise

Though unable to accomplish anything meaningful in almost a decade, the U.S.

House recently voted for a $4,400 pay raise for itself. Since when does doing a

horrible job warrant a raise?

The representatives need to remember that they work for us, and we are the

ones who should be determining whether they get a raise. I seriously doubt that

any of them would be getting one anytime soon. Maybe if we held the purse

strings, they would listen to us and actually get something done in non-election

years that truly benefits regular folks.

CHUCK NITRON

Hutto

http://www.statesman.com/opinion/content/editorial/stories/07/07/0707letters_edi\

t.html

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Posted on Fri, Jul. 06, 2007

Giving U.S. a headache 'Sicko' uses humor, heartbreak to argue that our

health care is seriously ill By Rich Copley RCOPLEY

Michael Moore's Sicko is an anti-American film.

Anti-American, that is, if you think love of your nation forbids you from

taking a hard look at the country and asking, can we do better?

The American health care system is in Moore's sights for Sicko, his best and

most persuasive film to date.

Over the years, taking on General Motors, guns and President Bush, Moore has

become the most polarizing figure in American filmmaking. And with Sicko, the

blogosphere is in full lather, denouncing the documentarian for his biases. The

big news right now is that some subjects of the film are, apparently, under

investigation for illegal travel in the course of making the movie.

A movie by Moore will never come to the screen quietly, but Sicko's detractors

probably will have a harder time mobilizing support for their side. Moore has

chosen what many see as a common enemy: health care providers, insurance

companies and pharmaceutical manufacturers that drive consumers crazy nitpicking

insurance claims and jacking up the costs of medicine and care.

The film will resonate with anyone who has tussled with an insurer or had to

budget for prescription medicine, and it makes you contemplate what could happen

if you are hit by a catastrophic illness or ailment.

Some of it is funny. There's the woman whose insurance company denied payment

for her ambulance ride from an accident scene to the hospital because it was not

pre-approved. Moore even gets some laughs with an uninsured woodworker who

accidentally lost the tops of two fingers to a circular saw and was given the

option of reattaching the middle finger for $60,000 or the ring finger for

$12,000.

But there's a lot of heartbreak, too: Los Angeles hospitals dump desperately

ill patients on the street because they can't afford to pay. A mother's

18-month-old daughter dies when she is denied care at an out-of-network

hospital.

Drawing on the subject of an earlier film, Fahrenheit 9/11, the attacks of

Sept. 11, 2001, become a centerpiece at the end of Sicko. Moore shows the lousy

care some Sept. 11 volunteers have gotten for medical problems they contracted

at Ground Zero, and then he details the fabulous care that detainees receive at

Guant‡namo Bay. The big stunt of the movie is taking those workers and some

others who've been shafted by the U.S. medical industry to Gitmo for care. When

they are denied access, they go to a Cuban hospital, where they receive free,

thorough treatment, and charges for medicine are minimal -- an inhaler that

costs $125 in the United States is 5 cents in Cuba.

Sicko is at its most serendipitous out of the United States, something that

will no doubt fuel his detractors. Canada, England, France and even Cuba are

portrayed as medical-care Nirvanas, where people received free treatment for

conditions that bankrupted and killed people in the American system. At one

point, Moore says he's becoming the butt of jokes walking around a London

hospital asking what people paid for their care. Answer: nothing, and the

hospital pays for your transportation.

A skeptical viewer gets the creeping sensation in this segment that it all

seems too good to be true. Any system will have flaws and cracks, and it might

help Moore's case to let one or two of those show.

But Moore also does a good job presupposing some arguments against the foreign

health care systems: long waits, poor care, doctors as working stiffs and

citizens drowning in taxes.

Moore keeps a relatively low and quiet profile in Sicko, avoiding the stunts

and " gotcha " interviews of his previous films. Sicko does glamorize medical care

in foreign nations, but Moore does not promote an exodus from the United States.

He's challenging America to do better.

Challenging the notion of a for-profit health care system, Moore says the

nations, with publicly supported government medical care, are worlds " of we, not

me. We will never fix anything until we get that right. "

Regardless of what you think of Moore's ideas, it is hard to come away from

Sicko without thinking that American health care needs to be fixed.

Film Review

'Sicko'

• 1/2

Reach Rich Copley at (859) 231-3217 or 1-800-950-6397, Ext. 3217.

http://www.kentucky.com/movies/story/116736.html

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Healthy Living: Lifelong Medical Care Weighs In On Michael Moore’s ‘Sicko’ By

Chris Kiefer

With the humor, realism, and moving imagery we’ve come to expect from Michael

Moore, Sicko is exactly the medicine needed by the public debate around health

care. The film has three simple messages: First, the American health care

“system” is utterly broken, not just for the 40 million uninsured, but

potentially for all of us. Second, this is totally unnecessary; other countries

have systems that work quite well. Third, this is far more than an economic

issue—the way we treat the sickest among us is a moral disgrace of staggering

proportions.

As a frequent speaker and teacher on health policy, I’ve learned that most

Americans, even the well educated, know very little about our health care

system. A popular view in the street or classroom is that anybody can get access

to care “if they’re sick enough,” or if they know who and how to ask for it.

Sicko fully explodes this myth, and identifies clearly the for-profit elements

of our system that are to blame—health insurance companies, drug companies, the

AMA, and private HMOs and hospitals. The film details how their lobbyists and

fundraisers corrupt national politics to keep their profits. Meantime, thanks to

80 years of propaganda by these sectors against government sponsored health

care, Americans also tend to be skeptical of universal systems such as Canada’s,

England’s and France’s, and the film’s tour of those generally well functioning

systems is a powerful antidote to the hype. Naturally, the for-profit health

sector is fuming about Sicko and have

already begun their counter-attack, leveling the usual charge against socially

responsible journalism, that it shows a “liberal bias.” The truth is that money

has assured this debate’s ultra-conservative bias for so long, that Moore’s view

is sorely needed to balance the picture. Christie W. Kiefer is professor

emeritus of anthropology at UC San Francisco and a board member of Lifelong

Medical Care. LifeLong Medical Care (www.lifelongmedical.org) was formed in 1996

as a merger between two clinics with deep community roots in Berkeley. The Over

60 Health Center began in 1976 as an outgrowth of the Gray Panthers, a senior

citizens’ advocacy organization. In 1989, Berkeley Primary Care was born in

response to citizen protest over the closing of Herrick Hospital and a lack of

prenatal care for low-income women. Since the merger, Lifelong has grown to

encompass five medical clinics, a dental clinic, an Adult Day Health Center for

elders with complex care needs, and a

Supportive Housing Program for formerly homeless adults. LifeLong is known as

the primary “safety net” provider of medical services to the uninsured and those

with complex health needs in Berkeley, North Oakland, downtown Oakland, east

Oakland, Albany and Emeryville. In 2004, LifeLong provided approximately 101,000

primary care visits to over 17,000 people, nearly half of whom were uninsured.

http://www.berkeleydaily.org/text/article.cfm?issue=07-06-07 & storyID=27465

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