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Health Access Weblog
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We'll always have Paris...
Friday, June 29, 2007
Michael Moore's SiCKO is out today, and many health care activists are leafleting moviegoers at a theater near you. It only adds to the momentum to reform, not just now and its run in theaters, but into the next year, with DVD sales, cable TV showings, etc. On The Daily Show with Jon Stewart earlier this week, Michael Moore complained that he was all set to have the hour with Larry King, but then he was bumped for Paris Hilton. For those excited by the power of Moore's fame and media savvy to focus on health care issues, we learn that celebrity-driven attention can cut both ways. That's the second or third time Paris Hilton has provided a useful lesson in health care politics recently. Earlier, her stint in jail for driving while intoxicated put a spotlight on the personal driving records of LA City Attorney Rocky Delgadillo and his wife, who didn't have car insurance, despite the fact that its mandatory. Just a reminder that a plan with an "individual mandate" isn't universal, just like mandatory care insurance isn't universal, even to a well-educated, top-ranked lawyer. What else can Paris Hilton teach us? A visit by Paris to Paris to learn more about the French health system? An investigation to whether her family's hotel empire provides coverage to their workers? I see a health policy beat for the tabloids... Labels: IndividualMandate, InTheNews, SiCKO
posted by Anthony Wright |
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8:33 PM
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Seeing SiCKO Saturday?
Friday, June 22, 2007
Health care activists are putting out the word that Michael Moore's "SiCKO" is playing this Saturday, June 23rd, at key locations around the country. The attendance and response on Saturday may very well have an impact on how wide the movie opens next week, on June 29th. Since many see that the film will propel the health care reform discussion forward, health care activists are urging folks to go see the film, at the following "selected" locations: Here are the list of theaters in California: * Pacific ArcLight Cinemas, Hollywood * AMC Santa Monica 7, Santa Monica * Edwards University Town Center 6, Irvine * Pacific Galleria Stadium 16, Sherman Oaks * Century 9 San Francisco Centre, San Francisco * AMC Bay Street 16, Emeryville * Century Stadium 14, Sacramento * AMC Mission Valley 20, San Diego * Landmark La Jolla Village Cinemas 4, La Jolla Labels: InTheNews, SiCKO
posted by Anthony Wright |
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9:48 AM
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From "me'' to "we''
Thursday, June 14, 2007
A number of users have posted clips on YouTube of Michael Moore's appearance in Sacramento to promote his new movie, SiCKO. Here's a link to one of them, which will link you up to a whole mess of snippets from his press briefing, rally, legislative briefing and premiere. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=khZz0PtR8dE. Labels: InTheNews, SiCKO
posted by Hanh Kim Quach |
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12:43 PM
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Two thumbs up...
On Tuesday, the festival atmosphere in Sacramento around the movie "Sicko" was the biggest media frenzy since the potent combination of celebrity and politics came together during the recall campaign. Folks in Sacramento are still talking about the movie, but the focus is on the actual movie. A few reactions. I don't want to spoil the movie for those who may go see it after it opens on May 29th. So instead of saying what the film is, I'll say what it is not: It isn't too sad, or too serious: While I have my own critique of Michael Moore's style and politics, I have followed him closely throughout his career, not just Roger & Me and Farenheit 911, but The Big One and Bowling for Columbine, and, most importantly, his TV ventures TV Nation and The Awful Truth--which were precursors to the "fake news" satire now provided by Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert. Throughout his work--even on a subject like Columbine--there's been a wit and a humor in showing the absurdity of our situation, and that as true with Sicko. In a film that has wrenching health care horror stories--several people I know in the audience cried--it's punctuated with several laugh-out-loud moments. Some are profound, some are simply silly. For a serious subject, and in a film with deadly serious moments, there is welcome room for levity and fun. It isn't about the uninsured. The opening credits starts with some examples of uninsured people and the tough choices they have to make. But Moore's narration is clear: the film isn't about them. His focus is on the problems facing the insured, and underinsured, and then an explanation of the health systems of other countries. As a political strategy, it's understandable: over 90% of voters are insured. This doesn't mean that Moore doesn't believe that insurance doesn't matter. He was clear Tuesday that people should be covered, and that not having coverage has a real cost to people, including in lives. But he also offers a damning indictment of insurance companies. It really isn't even about health care. As a consumer advocate on health care issues, I tend to stay focused on the topic at hand. Moore, on the other hand, perhaps as he is firmly identified as an icon on the left, deliberately wades indiscriminately into the minefields of recent American politics: President Bush, Soviet-era communism, 9/11, France, Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, Castro, Che Guevara, taxes, and the "nanny" state (literally!) and European-style socialism. It's the luxury of communicating in a 2-hour movie rather than a 10-second soundbite. But these sojourns aren't digressions from his main point: he ultimately is trying to make a much bigger point about "America's soul." Moore is trying to convince people of something more than just the need for a universal, even single-payer, health care system. He's advocating a different way to view government and society. He merely uses health care as an example for a much broader discussion, that encompasses education and child care, how we treat the homeless and mentally ill, and about our society focused on "me, not we." That said, health care is a useful issue to make these points. Health care works best in group coverage, when we share the risk and cost of care, knowing regardless of how healthy we are, that one day, by age or accident, we will need significant care ourselves. Health care works worst--and is most expensive--when the individual is left alone, at the mercy of the big insurers and providers. And that's a lesson for the health reform discussion in both California and the nation. Labels: InTheNews, Sacramento, SiCKO
posted by Anthony Wright |
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1:02 AM
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Moore momentum for health reform...
Tuesday, June 12, 2007
Bill Ainsworth at the San Diego Union-Tribune has a quick report on Michael Moore's day in Sacramento. Frank Russo at California Progress Report has a more detailed report, with pictures and video. Juls Rosen at Calitics also has her take. My colleague Hanh will post additional coverage later. This is obviously more momentum for health reform, broadly. As the quotes in these press reports indicate, Moore recognized there's no contradiction between full-throated advocacy for universal, single-payer health care as the solution, and recognizing and encouraging progress toward that goal, including covering children, regulating insurers, outlawing and criminalizing certain industry practices, and even acknowledging a Republican Governor for highlighting health care an issue--something, he noted, was not a focus of the presidential candidates in the Republican Party. The coverage around universal health care was national: I just saw Moore's testimony on CNN. Labels: InTheNews, SiCKO
posted by Anthony Wright |
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3:23 PM
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Calling in Sicko...
Senator Sheila Kuehl is hosting an informational hearing featuring filmmaker Michael Moore, being carried on the California Channel. He has a full entourage of TV cameras and photographers following him, as he came from a meeting with Speaker Fabian Nunez. Later, he will go to a rally for SB840 (Kuehl), to create a universal, single-payer health care system. Previewing the American premiere of his movie later in the day, he did mention that California is featured in the movie, although for the wrong reasons: the film features a case of a hospital dumping a patient on skid row in Los Angeles, and another insured patient who had their coverage rescinded after using it. More to come... Labels: Sacramento, SiCKO, YearOfReform
posted by Anthony Wright |
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1:08 PM
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Webmaster: webmaster@health-access.org
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Anthony Wright is the executive director, |
| with a background as a consumer advocate and community organizer on many issues, including health issues for the last ten years in California and New Jersey. |
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Hanh Kim Quach is the policy coordinator; previously serving as |
| a newspaper reporter covering the Capitol for the Orange County Register and other papers for eight years |
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