Health reformers to piggyback on 'Sicko'

[babylonsister]

http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php

Health reformers to piggyback on 'Sicko'

Michael Moore's blast at medical care is hitting as U.S. seems ripe for changes

By Victoria Colliver / San Francisco Chronicle

Michael Moore couldn't have scheduled the release of his movie "Sicko" -- an indictment of the U.S. health care system -- at a more opportune time.

The film, which opens in theaters in the United States on June 29, arrives as many states, including California, have introduced health care reform proposals. In polls, health care routinely ranks among the public's top domestic concerns. Health care reform is also expected to be an important theme in the presidential campaign for 2008.

Advocates already are trying to capitalize on the documentary, which premiered at the Cannes Film Festival in France last week, to further their political agendas.

"From the perspective of the health care reform movement, a high-profile representation of what patients commonly experience at the hands of insurers certainly adds momentum to the effort for true reform, both in California and across the country," said Jerry Flanagan, health advocate for the Foundation for Taxpayer and Consumer Rights, based in Santa Monica.

The California Nurses Association and its national arm plans to host private premiere parties around the country and use the film's release to distribute materials to audience members to support the union's preferred reform models. The group, which opposes Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's plan, supports the state and national single-payer proposals by state Sen. Sheila Kuehl, D-Santa Monica, and Rep. John Conyers Jr., D-Mich.

"Obviously, we're looking at this as an opportunity to push the agenda in terms of comprehensive health reform," said Rose Ann DeMoro, executive director of the nurses association. DeMoro was one of about 50 people who attended a screening a few days before its premiere in Cannes.

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[Tandalayo_Scheisskopf]

1. I hate the word "paradigm".

I really do. It has been so over-used by marketing types and self-styled "futurists" that is is almost meaningless.

That said, something tells me that Sicko could be just that: the new paradigm on healthcare. The bow that ties all the fears and uncertainties that people have had about healthcare in the US into one tidy package.

The expenditures on toilet paper, for the executive suites at the insurance companies and at Big Pharma, must be rising out of sight.

[Jackpine Radical]

3. Personally, I blame Thomas Kuhn for that whole

"new paradigm" thing. It was his book, The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, that put it on everyone's lips. And it was fairly obvious that most of those lips hadn't mumbled their way through the book, too.

[Tandalayo_Scheisskopf]

5. Back during the dot.com orgy...

The civilized world was awash in press releases announcing every geegaw and doodad, not to mention hair-brained scheme as "a newwwwwww paradigm!".

It was then I decided that if that word was ever uttered, seriously, in my presence, I would be going to jail for having throttled the person who uttered it.

[IndyOp]

6. Don't blame Kuhn for people who haven't read the book -

It was a significant step in my understanding of science and knowledge in general -- I refer to it often when teaching.

[Cleita]

4. LOL! Oh I hope so.

It's time to stop the wholesale theft of health care dollars by the for profit corporation parasites.

[Joanne98]

2. The nurses union should support this film at the NATIONAL level!

[KoKo]

7. GOOD NEWS! Once again it takes MM to bring attention to what the MSM WON'T! n/t