The issue isn't just the cost of health care.....It's the 18,000 people each year who die because insurance companies deny valid claims.
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The issue isn't just the cost of health care.....It's the 18,000 people each year who die because insurance companies deny valid claims.
In Cuba, the best hospitals and health treatments are for the politicians, upper classes and tourists. The average Cuban citizen gets lousy health care.
Despite my objections to Castro, I never thought that we should have boycotted Cuba for all these years. It generates sympathy for him, among other things.
New York Daily News
Moore's 'Sicko' gives all too pleasant view of Cuba's health care
BY RAFAEL SALINAS
Monday, June 4th 2007
Celebrity filmmaker Michael Moore has brushed shoulders with plenty of famous and powerful people over the years. He should meet someone who is neither: my cousin.
Moore's latest documentary, "Sicko" - which opens this month - aims to skewer the sad state of U.S. health care, in part by comparing it unfavorably to what Moore considers Cuba's sparkling system of national care. In a signature stunt, he brings a few American citizens who couldn't get proper care here down to Cuba - where they get the treatment they need.
As usual, Moore's logic needs a checkup. The man stretches his argument into caricature and discredits himself by cherrypicking facts. To assume that Cuban citizens are getting the medical attention they need because a party of foreigners got treated decently is akin to praising prison food because you got offered a nice spread of cold cuts after the warden took you on a tour.
If Moore had taken a moment to have a little chat with my cousin, a Cuban doctor, he would have learned much more about the true state of health care in Castro's Cuba.
She's not difficult to find. Just go to her town about six hours outside of Havana and look for the woman who's missing half her left leg and trudging down the dirt covered roads on crutches to see her patients.
Though my cousin is readily available to do her job, she's frustrated daily by the lack of medicine and supplies that can facilitate the healing process. Most weeks, not even aspirin is available.
And about that leg: It's the result of a bad motorcycle accident 22 years ago. Yet in all the time that has passed since then, the Cuban health care system has not been able to provide her with either a proper prosthetic or even a motorized chair. We sent her the latter. It sits in the corner, awaiting a replacement battery, unavailable on the island.
And those who decry America's health care as stratified should save some outrage for Cuba - where tourists like Moore and Communist party officials get all kinds of care that's out of reach for Cuba's 11 million average citizens. The fact that the vast majority of them often have to bring their own food, soap and sheets to the hospital somehow didn't make it into the final cut of "Sicko."
This tale of two Cubas is typical. When I visited family in 2003, I had my pick of provisions - including extra food, toilet paper and clothes, none of which Cubans could buy on their own. Their salaries do not allow for such "luxuries," and even if they did, the stores only accepted American currency. Many are in dire need of these supplies, yet the government quotas offer too little to sustain them.
Yes, the average Cuban life span is about 77 years - comparable to what it is in the United States. But that doesn't factor in all those who flee the country, and it is likely skewed by Cuba's high rate of abortion, which tends to inflate life expectancy by driving down infant mortality.
I support Moore's right to say what he wants. Here in the U.S., we're allowed (and often even encouraged) to criticize our government. But that doesn't give him license to use a distorted lens to produce a cinematic love letter to Castro's Cuba.
It's enough to give me and my cousin a headache. And only one of us has the aspirin to dull the pain.
Salinas, the son of Cuban exiles, lives in Queens
Moore's 'Sicko' gives all too pleasant view of Cuba's health care
Ya always have to look for a silver lining dude! LOL..........here's this one:Quote:
Originally Posted by Breukelen advocaat
Michael Moore Faces U.S. Treasury Probe
The Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control notified Moore in a letter dated May 2 that it was conducting a civil investigation for possible violations of the U.S. trade embargo restricting travel to Cuba. A copy of the letter was obtained Tuesday by the AP.
"This office has no record that a specific license was issued authorizing you to engage in travel-related transactions involving Cuba," Dale Thompson, OFAC chief of general investigations and field operations, wrote in the letter to Moore.
In February, Moore took about 10 ailing workers from the Ground Zero rescue effort in Manhattan for treatment in Cuba, said a person working with the filmmaker on the release of "Sicko." The person requested anonymity because Moore's attorneys had not yet determined how to respond.
Michael Moore Faces U.S. Treasury Probe - washingtonpost.com
I wonder though if he'll do a documentory about our prison system?
Have a good one!:s4:
God forbid a man should go to Cuba without authorization.....what a horrible criminal...
Yeah, they're only messing with him because he's been anti Bush-administration. That's absurd.
You know, obese or not, the guy has important information for people, left- or right-leaning, in that film. If you wouldn't dismiss me for being slender, don't dismiss him for being fat and don't dismiss the information he's providing just because you've disagreed with his previous films. I assume you'd prefer people not dismiss your your ideas on other matters simply because you're pro-cannabis, right? Same thing here with his weight and what this film discusses. This is an issue that crosses party lines, despite the fact that it'll be a bigger election issue for the Democrats. This affects you all more than some of you seem to realize. Try and keep an open mind.
I actually missed it...I hate to admit it but I watch oprah probably 3 days a week because it can be an interesting show sometimes. I was kinda bummed about missing it too...hopefully I can catch it as a re-run.
Now birdgirl, you know I'm as open minded about these M. Moore as the next guy but fact is he broke the law. If we all just chose the laws we wanted to follow there would be chaos!! CHAOS I TELL YOU!! :D
When the day comes when a person can go to the local cigar shop and buy a Cuban......Then M.Moore can show his anti-american agenda; till then, lock up the fat boy.:thumbsup:
Have a good one!:s4:
Like you're not breaking the law every day with your grow op!!! Nice try, there, buddy . . . .
They're going to need to come a few of my friends, too, if they come after Moore for going to Cuba. At least he had the legitimate excuse of reporting for his film. These people I know went, on a whim, by way of Canada, just to see if they could get away with it, which they did. If I didn't think I'd get caught or somehow endanger my career future or that of my husband, I'd do the same thing at my earliest opportunity. I'd bring you back some Cohibas, too!
How true BUT likewise I spent my time in jail, paid the fines, did over 200 hours of community service because I was CAUGHT! He admitted his guilt with the film....are you saying that actors and such have certain privs that I don't?Quote:
Originally Posted by birdgirl73
Just keepin' it real!:D
Have a good one!:s4:
OK, then let's keep it real. Remember, Moore was there working on a documentary film. That's reporting, whether you agree with the reports or not. Even editorial reporting that takes a side is still reporting, and a documentary film falls under the category of journalism, or PBS and other documentary filmmakers, even lightweight cable travel networks, wouldn't be able to go to Cuba and film what they film regularly about Cuba. (Guantanamo, incidentally, is an American possession, so he wasn't in alleged violation there, only in mainland Cuba.)
The records show that Moore clearly applied for the visa, and OFAC in retrospect is alleging "no determination was made." Yet Treasury is having to say they're only investigating "possible violations" of the travel embargo. If they had an actual violation, reporters would have the proof of a denied visa out front on Fox, among other places, so fast your head would spin. "Investigating possible violations" is precisely what government offices say when they're trying real hard to cause problems for someone but don't have anything solid to go on.
The reality is it looks a heck of a lot like an bureaucratic vendetta against someone who's been a thorn in the side of Washington, D.C. and the Bush administration for six years. Fred Thompson is milking this not-yet-news item for everything it's worth so he has a right-wing sound byte with which to kick-start his campaign.