"Sicko" Michael Moore

[Martin]

Looks like a great flick..showing how screwed up our health care system is here.

'Sicko' spawns Moore fever in Cannes - Yahoo! News

'Sicko' spawns Moore fever in Cannes

In Cannes, Michael Moore is a rock star — mobbed by fans, assailed by cameras and forced to wolf down a plate of pasta between his latest interview and his next live TV appearance.

Moore's documentary "Sicko" — a ferocious attack on the U.S. health care industry — is the talk of the film festival, and he is hot property. Moore caught his breath Monday to tell The Associated Press about the urgent need to reform America's health system, and why he thinks the Bush administration is out to get him.

"It's a government that's funded by the pharmaceutical companies and the health insurers, so I'm not surprised they're coming after me," said Moore, who is being investigated by the U.S. Treasury Department for traveling to Cuba for one of the segments in his film.

"I'm surprised they're doing it so soon. I didn't think they'd want to draw attention to the movie this early on."

Hurriedly eating spaghetti near the end of another whirlwind day, Moore said he was informed he was under investigation just days before the film's premiere here on Saturday. He was given 20 days to respond to questions about the trip, which he took accompanied by a group of sick Americans that included Sept. 11 rescue workers, to Cuba seeking treatment.

"They want me to name names," he said.

Moore says the group went to Cuba only after failing to gain admittance to the U.S. base at Guantanamo Bay — where, he claims, al-Qaida suspects receive better medical care than millions of Americans.

Treasury officials will not comment specifically about Moore's case.

The Cuba segment of the film has drawn most of the attention, but occupies relatively little screen time. Much of "Sicko" consists of moving testimony from Americans who have suffered at the hands of insurance companies, drug firms and HMOs. That includes a mother whose daughter died because the nearest hospital could not treat her, and a man who was told the cost of reattaching his two severed fingers would be $60,000 for the middle finger and $12,000 for the ring finger.

Several interview subjects died before the film was completed.

"It was pretty somber working on this film," Moore said. "We just kept thinking, the only reason this person is dying is because they hold American citizenship. If they lived in Canada or Britain or France, they'd have a chance."

"Sicko" has been rapturously received by audiences and critics at Cannes, where it is screening out of competition. Moore's last film, the President Bush-bashing documentary "Fahrenheit 9/11," won the festival's top prize, the Palme d'Or, in 2004.

The acclaim means Moore's schedule has been frenetic. Almost as soon as he sat down with the AP for a quick supper, he was hauled from the table and bundled into a van — reporter in tow — to head to a live appearance on French television.

As Moore's driver crept along Cannes' packed main drag, tourists and paparazzi thrust cameras at the van's open window until motorcycle police carved a path for the vehicle.

Moore knows that a rockier reception awaits back in the United States.

While Cannes has embraced him, Moore's critics say "Sicko" is overly rosy in its depiction of other countries' systems of socialized medicine. In Canada, happy emergency-room patients speak of short waits and free treatment. A British doctor in the state health system speaks happily of his six-figure income and million-dollar house. French interviewees glow with satisfaction at their quality of care.

"The facts are indisputable," Moore said as the van pulled up at a beachside TV studio. "People in those countries live longer than us, they have a lower infant mortality rate, they spend only half the money that we spend per person on health care and yet they have a healthier nation. There's no part of that picture that I'm painting that is untrue.

"Are there flaws in those systems? Absolutely. But those are flaws for the people in those countries to correct, not me."

And with that, he disappeared into another cheering crowd.

[waltky]

Cutting insurance company health care costs...

Insurer Dropped Sick Patients to Save Money
November 09, 2007 - In the middle of her expensive, months-long chemotherapy regimen, a Los Angeles hairdresser with breast cancer learned her insurer had abruptly decided to cancel her policy.

The decision ultimately left the 51-year-old hairdresser, Patsy Bates, with nearly $200,000 in debt, according to the Los Angeles Times today, but it helped win $20,000 in bonuses for the employee who made the call to cut Bates' coverage. By dropping Bates' policy and those of roughly 1,600 others, the employee helped the insurance company, Health Net, save more than $35 million from 2000 to 2006, the paper reports.

The company's own policies awarded cash bonuses to employees who dropped policyholders whose costly medical bills triggered the company's review of the policyholders' applications, even if they had serious illnesses -- part of what the paper calls an "industry-wide but long-hidden practice of rescinding coverage after expensive medical treatments have been authorized." Overall, Health Net dropped roughly 1,600 policies from 2000 to 2006, the Times reports, noting that "state law forbids insurance companies from tying any compensation for claims reviewers to their claims decisions."

The company said the law did not apply in this case because Fowler was an underwriter, not a claims reviewer, and the goals she was given and which she met were reasonable. It said it cancelled Bates' policy because she had not disclosed a pre-existing heart condition in her application. Bates said any information left off the application was inadvertent. Bates, whose treatment was partially funded by charities, still cannot afford tests to find out if her cancer has returned, the paper says. She is suing the company, who turned over documents revealing their bonus policy in court proceedings.

The Blotter: Insurer Dropped Sick Patients to Save Money

See also:

Failing to Serve America's Heroes on the Home Front
November 09, 2007 - In the last two years, generous Americans answering appeals to help wounded and paralyzed veterans have given more than $464 million to charities that have been given an F in a new report card from a leading charity watchdog group.

Those failing charities include the National Veterans Services Fund, of Darien, Conn., which took in more than $6 million in contributions last year supposedly to help veterans' families. It got a report grade of F from the American Institute of Philanthropy, which says the charity gave out only two percent of its money for charity.

"Veterans deserve better from America's charities," said Daniel Borochoff, the institute's president and ABC News consultant, who compiled his group's report card based on his analysis of the charity's financial data. While the charities' activities are not illegal, Borochoff says, "spending under 35 percent of your budget on actual bona fide charitable programs will get you an F grade."

Of the 27 military and veterans' charities reviewed by Borochoff's group, 13 were rated F, including the Amvets National Service Foundation, the Army Emergency Relief Fund, Freedom Alliance, the National Veterans Services Fund, the Military Order of the Purple Heart Services Foundation and the Paralyzed Veterans of America.

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[waltky]

Granny says, "Dat oughta do it"...

Edwards would yank Congress' healthcare
Nov. 18, 2007 WASHINGTON -- Democratic presidential hopeful John Edwards said Sunday he would strip Congress of its healthcare coverage until all Americans are covered.

In an appearance on CBS' "Face the Nation," the former North Carolina senator said politicians "take care of themselves," and taking away one of their benefits would be a way to "shake the place up." "... The basic idea is I don't think politicians in Washington should be protecting their healthcare when we have 47 million people in this country who don't have healthcare coverage," Edwards said.

Edwards said as president he would support legislation providing universal healthcare, using the office as a "bully pulpit" to rally public pressure on Congress to enact it. He said he could use the president's veto power and other tools as necessary to accomplish that goal.

A poll conducted by American Research Group showed Edwards trailing New York Sen. Hillary Clinton and Illinois Sen. Barack Obama among Iowa Democrats. The poll showed Clinton with 27 percent, Obama with 21 percent and Edwards at 20 percent.

Source

[waltky]

The issue is the affordability of health care...

Report: 40 million can't afford health care
Mon., Dec. 3, 2007 WASHINGTON - Deaths from cancer and heart disease drop, while car fatalities stay same

More than 40 million people in the United States say they cannot afford adequate heath care and go without drugs, eyeglasses or dental treatment, according to a federal report released on Monday. The latest look at the state of U.S. health care also shows that while death rates from cancer and heart disease have dropped in recent years, just as many Americans are dying in car crashes.

"There has been important progress made in many areas of health such as increased life expectancy and decreases in deaths from leading killers such as heart disease and cancer," Dr. Julie Gerberding, director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said in a statement. "But this report shows that access to health care is still an issue where we need improvement."

The report, available on the Internet at N C H S Home , has a special section on access to health care. Health care has jumped to the forefront of the 2008 campaign for the White House with virtually every presidential candidate offering some plan to provide more Americans with health insurance. "In 2005, more than 40 million adults did not receive 'needed services' because they could not afford them," the report said.

More Report: 40 million can't afford health care - Health care - MSNBC.com

[waltky]

Another good reason for universal child health care...

Worms infect more poor in U.S. than thought
Wed., Dec. 26, 2007 WASHINGTON - Many carry same parasitic infections that affect developing nations

Roundworms may infect close to a quarter of inner city black children, tapeworms are the leading cause of seizures among U.S. Hispanics and other parasitic diseases associated with poor countries are also affecting Americans, a U.S. expert said on Tuesday.

Recent studies show many of the poorest Americans living in the United States carry some of the same parasitic infections that affect the poor in Africa, Asia, and Latin America, said Dr. Peter Hotez, a tropical disease expert at George Washington University and editor-in-chief of the Public Library of Science journal PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases.

Writing in the journal, Hotez said these parasitic infections had been ignored by most health experts in the United States. “I feel strongly that this is such an important health issue and yet because it only affects the poor it has been ignored,” Hotez said via e-mail.

He said the United States spent hundreds of millions of dollars to defend against bio-terrorism threats like anthrax or smallpox or avian flu, which were more a theoretical concern than a real threat at present. “And yet we have a devastating parasitic disease burden among the American poor, right under our nose,” Hotez said.

Roundworms link to asthma

[waltky]

With the expense of war and the deficit, where's the money gonna come from to pay for universal healthcare?

Health care spending surge seen in next decade
Tue Feb 26, 2008 WASHINGTON - US health-care spending will devour an expanding share of the US economy during the next decade, almost doubling to about $4.3 trillion in 2017, government officials forecast on Tuesday.

Economists at the government's Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, known as CMS, forecast that health-care spending will account for 19.5 percent of the U.S. gross domestic product by 2017, up from 16.3 percent in 2007. A key factor in the next decade will be the entry in 2011 of the leading edge of the post-World War baby boom generation into Medicare, the federal health insurance program for people 65 and up, CMS economist Sean Keehan said.

The projections come as runaway health-care spending and lack of medical coverage for millions of Americans have emerged as central issues in this year's presidential campaign. An estimated 47 million people in a country of 300 million have no health insurance, either private or through the government.

The report pegged U.S. health-care spending in 2007 at $2.2 trillion, and forecast that this spending would grow annually by about 6.7 percent through 2017. That would far outpace GDP growth, expected to rise by 4.7 percent annually, and inflation, expected to rise 2.4 percent annually, the report said. Gross domestic product is the sum of all goods and services produced within U.S. borders.

MEDICARE TO SOAR

[waltky]

Aspirin may help womens' asthma...

Aspirin may reduce risk of asthma in women
March 14, 2008 -- A U.S. study suggests a small dose of aspirin every other day may cut a woman's risk of developing asthma.

The study, published online by the British Medical Journal ahead of print in Thorax, found there were 10 percent fewer new cases of asthma diagnosed among the women taking aspirin -- irrespective of factors such as age, menopausal status, exercise levels and smoking that might be expected to influence the findings.

The researchers at Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School in Boston found aspirin not lessening the risk of asthma in women classified as obese. The findings are based on almost 40,000 female healthcare professionals, who were part of the Women's Health Study. The women were all age 45 and above, and had no serious illness, allergy, or asthma at the start of the study.

Participants were either randomly assigned to take 100 mg of aspirin every other day, or a placebo and their health was then monitored for around 10 years. Previous research in male doctors showed that aspirin cut the risks of asthma by 22 percent, although the dose was much higher -- 325 mg every other day.

Source

[waltky]

FDA investigating Singulair...

Merck asthma pill probed by FDA for link to suicide
Friday, March 28, 2008 WASHINGTON -- The Food and Drug Administration, raising yet another red flag about drug safety, said yesterday it is investigating a possible association between Merck's top-selling allergy and asthma drug Singulair and suicide.

In an alert to patients and doctors, the FDA said it is working with the New Jersey drugmaker to evaluate whether the heavily prescribed medicine is linked to mood changes, suicidal thinking and behavior and to suicide. The FDA said patients should not stop taking Singulair before talking to their doctor. The agency said it has not reached any conclusions about a possible suicide link.

Singulair was Merck's biggest-selling drug last year, accounting for $4.3 billion in sales. It is used to treat stuffy nose, sneezing and other allergy symptoms as well as asthma. The drug has been marketed in the United States for 10 years and used by millions of patients.

The FDA announcement is the latest potential setback for Merck, one of New Jersey's largest employers with 8,000 workers statewide. The company, based in Whitehouse Station, is still dealing with the fallout from the recall of its once-popular painkiller Vioxx, and more recently has seen its stock price hurt by a study questioning the effectiveness of the cholesterol drug Vytorin, which Merck co-markets with Schering-Plough.

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[waltky]

Even doctors are for national health coverage...

Most Docs Favor National Health Insurance
March 31, 2008, A recent survey shows 59% of U.S. physicians support national universal health insurance, up from 49% just five years ago

Most U.S. doctors now support the idea of national health insurance, a shift from a half-decade ago, when less than half favored a national system, a new survey has found. According to a study published in the Mar. 31 issue of the Annals of Internal Medicine, 59% of the nation's physicians support federal legislation to establish national health insurance, often referred to as a single-payer system. These plans usually involve a single, federally administered fund that guarantees health-care coverage for everyone, much like Medicare currently does for seniors, and eliminates or substantially lessens the role of private insurers. In a similar survey five years ago, only 49% favored it. Thirty-two percent of doctors oppose universal coverage, down eight points from the previous survey, while 9% are neutral.

As the 2008 election draws near, the country's health-care system is once again top of mind for voters. The leading candidates have drawn up plans for addressing what they consider flaws in a system that has left 47 million people uninsured—although none is calling for a single-payer system (BusinessWeek.com, 9/17/07). Senator Hillary Clinton (D-N.Y.) proposes a mandate requiring everyone to purchase health insurance, with subsidies and affordable federal insurance available, while Senator Barack Obama (D-Ill.) stops short of mandates but does support affordable federal insurance. Obama leads Clinton in winning delegates who have pledged to back his bid for the Democratic nomination. The presumptive Republican nominee, Arizona Senator John McCain, backs tax credits for the purchase of health insurance, similar to what the American Medical Assn. (AMA) proposes.

The findings signal a sea change in the attitude of the medical establishment toward universal care. Throughout the 20th century, U.S. doctors have been among the fiercest and most influential opponents of national insurance, citing concerns of a meddlesome bureaucracy, a loss of independence, and lower reimbursements. Lobbying by the AMA and other professional groups scuttled efforts to introduce universal coverage by several Presidents, starting with Calvin Coolidge and continuing through Franklin Roosevelt, Harry Truman, Jimmy Carter, and Bill Clinton. Back in 1948, after Truman was elected in part on a platform of compulsory health insurance, the AMA urged its members to "resist the enslavement of the medical profession." That attitude held constant for decades.

Current System Hampers Good Care