AP's first salvo against Sicko: break out the tiny violins for the poor, voiceless health care indus

[n2doc]

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: June 30, 2007
Filed at 5:17 p.m. ET

WASHINGTON (AP) -- In many respects, Michael Moore's new movie, ''Sicko,'' is like a trial for those who oversee health care in the United States.

The industry -- doctors, drug makers, hospitals, insurers -- is charged with greed and putting personal interests above patients'. Moore heard from thousands of people who had maddening and heartbreaking brushes with this system.

As chief prosecutor, Moore lets them do most of the talking and weaves their stories into the film with wit, compassion and humor.

But one aspect missing from the film is the defense. Do not expect to hear anyone speak well of the care they received in the U.S. On the other hand, patients and doctors from Canada, Britain, France and Cuba marvel at their health care.

Moore tells viewers there are about 50 million people in the U.S. without health insurance.

Just this past week, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimated there are about 43.6 million uninsured people in the country. In March, the Census Bureau put the number at 44.8 million.

Moore noted that about 18,000 people die each year as a result of the lack of health insurance. That number comes for a January 2004 report from the Institute of Medicine. The report said the uninsured do not get the care they need and are more likely to die prematurely.

Taking on the pharmaceutical industry, Moore says it spent millions of dollars lobbying Congress for a Medicare prescription drug benefit.

''Of course it was really a bill to hand over $800 billion of our tax dollars to the drug and health insurance industry,'' he said.

http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/us/AP-Sicko-US-Fact-Check.html

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[Maat]

1. I'll get out the tiny violins right away ....

:nopity:

[Donnachaidh]

2. sounds like the health care industry needs a WAAAHmbulance.

:nopity: :nopity: :nopity: :nopity: :nopity:

[Fridays Child]

3. Haven't seen the film yet but I doubt that Moore condemns doctors--not as a group, anyway.

Drugmakers and insurers, yes. And probably even hospital corporation. But doctors? I doubt it.

[proud2BlibKansan]

9. No he doesn't condemn doctors

He goes after insurance companies, politicians and drug makers.

[geomon666]

4. That's bullshit. He doesn't attack doctors.

Unless they're the ones denying essential healthcare. And the hospitals he does attack, he attacks for a good reason: denying healthcare.

What a hit piece.

[wtmusic]

5. Oh goody. Another op-ed without a byline.

The latest trend in "reporting". :eyes:

[MountainLaurel]

6. You can bet

It came straight off of some PR flack's desk.

[Cleita]

8. At the end of the article is this:

Linda A. Johnson reported from Trenton, N.J.

[wtmusic]

11. I saw that. It doesn't count.

The piece is obviously an editorial but AP is trying to pass it off as news.

She's not reporting, she's giving us her unexpected, unasked-for opinion.

[Cleita]

15. Delete

Duplicate

[Cleita]

16. I did a little googling and she does write on health matters for

AP, however, most of her articles seem to show up on the Fox News website so it might give you some idea as to whose side she is opining on. I would like to find a biography. There is a Linda A. Johnson who was a TV reporter on Fox News in New Jersey, but can't pin it down as the same one.

[wtmusic]

18. Nice work!

She's certainly entitled to her opinion, but this conservative slant appears with disturbing regularity in AP articles.

FYI [e-mail]

[Cleita]

7. Here come the PR people for the health care industry lobbyists.

Be prepared for reams of this astroturf to be spread throught the media both print and video. I haven't seen the movie but I did see an interview with Michael Moor on PBS's NOW. The host specifically asks Michael why he doesn't target doctors and other health care givers. Michael answered that it was because it was the middle men, the insurers and HMOs that were the problem siphoning off health care dollars for profit that he was focusing on. The doctors and other care givers are as much a victim of the system as the patients.

I see the writer threw out that old canard about long waits in Canadian emergency rooms. My personal experience here in the USA is that the wait was proportional to the population of the town or city. Large cities, long waits. Small towns, shorter waits. I assume it's probably the same in Canada. However, every Canadian I ever questioned told me that if their condition was critical they got seen right away.

Yet in Los Angeles, both in the UCLA emergency and Kaiser permanente, I have seen people bleeding in the waiting room waiting their turn, people with broken bones waiting and of course there was the story a couple of weeks ago about a woman dying in the waiting room in Martin Luther King hospital in Los Angeles. I have never heard the same thing about Canada.

I believe if you google the writer you might find out what her credentials are and that they aren't in reporting health care.

[whistle]

10. I hope everyone realizes that this mile may cause the sale of luxury automobiles

...in Amerika to plummet as the incomes of doctors, pharmaceutical industry executives, insurance lobbyists, hospital administrators and HMO executives drop because of Michael Moore's film "Sicko". :sarcasm:

[SeattleGirl]

12. Well, cry me a river. Big, bad Michael Moore is beating up on the

poor widdle insurance companies. :nopity: :nopity: :nopity: :nopity: :nopity:

This really caught my attention:

"Ignagni said decisions about which treatments are covered by a plan are made by the sponsor, such as an employer, not by the insurer."

That does not ring true. Yes, employers choose which plan(s) to offer their employees, but employers do not deny treatment, medicine, etc., based on pre-existing conditions or whether someone stubbed their toe when they were 5 years old. The insurance companies do. One more example of corporations blaming those they purport to serve.

[dkofos]

13. Sorry. The truth is not always fair and balanced.

They don't mention that Moore tried to get interviews from insurance execs.
They refused

[sicksicksick_N_tired]

14. "The industry",...I do believe the AP is mischaracterizing the point.

As usual.

BUT, at least the media "pretends" to expose THE POINT: that profit takes priority over life.

BAH!!!

[WinkyDink]

17. Ummmm....It's Moore's movie. Let Big Pharma and AMA make their own.

And while I'm at it---Since when are the MSM concerned with "both sides" to this issue?

WHY, IOW, did it take MICHAEL MOORE to show us THIS side?????