Huntington News

Issue date: 7/3/07 Section: The Inside

Media Credit: Photo Courtesy/Weinstein Co Michael Moore crosses the Millennium Bridge in London, where residents receive universal health care. Moore's latest documentary, "Sicko," juxtaposes international and U.S. health care.

"Sicko," the new documentary directed by the contentious social justice advocate Michael Moore, arrived in theatres this weekend. But with a mundane topic like health care, what type of reaction could the film cause?

"Many theaters have been selling out," Moore wrote on his website Saturday. "The Bush administration's investigation of this movie is certainly not keeping people away."

The U.S. Treasury Department commenced an investigation on Moore's trip to Cuba, which was documented in a segment of "Sicko," to seek medical care for ailing rescue workers who served at Ground Zero after September 11.

When notified of the investigation in May, the filmmakers were worried the government might try to seize the film or impede its release. Moore told the Associated Press he stored a copy of the film outside the United States for security purposes.

In this segment of the film, Moore brought the rescue workers, as well as other Americans with woefully inadequate health care, on two boats motoring toward Guantanamo Bay. There, prisoners accused of ties with terrorism are kept and supplied with quality health care. The sequence is spliced with clips of politicians touting the excellent health care provided to Gitmo's supposed terrorists.

Moore seemed to expect the prison to provide the sickly folks he was bringing with health treatment.

"They just want some medical attention, the same kind that al-Qaeda is getting," he yelled through a megaphone in the direction of a guard tower. "They don't want any more than you're giving the evildoers, just the same."

Although, when Moore received no answer from the guard tower, this left movie viewers bewildered.

At this point, a message appeared, overtly insinuating U.S. government interference with the clip. Mysteriously, in the next scene, Moore walked around Cuba with only the rescue workers - the other ailing Americans were suddenly gone.

Nonetheless, the Ground Zero rescue workers received the health care they needed for free in Cuba. This has left many critics wondering what role Cuban officials played. One of the rescue workers received an inhaler to treat her respiratory problems for a remarkably low price in relation to how much it would cost in the United States. Many would contend, however, that the state of health care in Cuba is poor and the sick there are encouraged to find treatment in the United States.

Continued...

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