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Michael Moore Lets Loose on CNN
In a rare live appearance on “The Situation Room” yesterday, Michael Moore ranted for almost ten minutes in response to an allegation that he had “fudged” certain facts in his new film, Sicko. The criticism came in the form of a segment by CNN's medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta, who suggested, among other things, that Moore's film paints an entirely-too-rosy picture of healthcare in the rest of the Western world.
The allegations have since been officially rebutted point by point on Moore's website.
The segment can be seen here, followed by Moore's heated response. Also, there's a nice summary of the flying sparks from The Huffington Post's Rachel Sklar.
My personal favorite moment comes at the end of the interview, when Lou Dobbs compares Moore to Hugo Chavez, “He has to love profit, what's he talking about?” Unfortunately, the point missed by Mr. Dobbs, and also by Paul Keckley, one expert quoted in the Gupta segment, is that the main problem with privatized healthcare, versus that provided by the government, is that governments have no interest in profits, and thus would not find it beneficial to deny patient care in order to make more money. Yes we would pay more taxes, but without CEO salaries to maintain and shareholders to appease with ever-greater earnings, there would be far more money to go around for the actual patients. A healthcare system with an emphasis on providing care for the sick, rather than making money, just seems logical. But maybe I'm missing something.
As a Canadian citizen, I remember being confused by Moore's assertion in his earlier film, Bowling for Columbine, that my countrymen rarely lock their doors or murder each other with handguns. This is blatantly false. In much the same way, I was disappointed by his utopian portrayal in Sicko of Canada's healthcare system. While it is far better than America's (doctor and hospital visits are completely free; can you imagine?) it's still far from perfect or comprehensive. Wait times for non-emergency procedures can be months, and drugs, while subsidized, are still expensive.
That Gupta appears to be wrong, and the amount of money CNN gets from drug companies notwithstanding, it's good to see some debate out there.