Moore’s Sicko documentary launched in US
pharmafile | July 5, 2007 | News story | Sales and Marketing |Â Â EU, US, hc, reformÂ
Michael Moore's new film about the US healthcare system, Sicko, is stirring controversy following its release in cinemas across America last Friday.
After targeting the country's lack of gun control laws in Bowling for Columbine, and attacking the Bush administration's war on terror in Farenheit 9/11, Moore has now trained his sights on the state of US healthcare.
Moore's film portrays the US healthcare system Medicare as woefully inadequate for patients, and more favourable to profit-making business interests, such as insurance companies and the pharma industry.
Moore has put together a prescription for change with three demands: every resident of the US should receive free, universal healthcare for life; all health insurance companies must be abolished; pharmaceutical companies must be strictly regulated like a public utility.
The campaigning film-maker wants to see all profit-making enterprises excluded from providing healthcare, and says the tax-funded healthcare systems in the UK, Canada and France are superior models than the US.
Sicko's release comes at a time when potential candidates for the next US presidential election are putting forward their views on the key issues, including healthcare.
Even though the election date is November 2008, Democrats and Republicans are already working on their campaign strategies.
The current frontrunner is Democrat Hilary Clinton, whose most notable political act to date has been campaigning for universal access to healthcare in the US, but these plans were defeated in Congress in 1993.
Moore says Clinton's efforts to reform were in essence the right solution to make the system fairer - but is also quick to point out that she has received the greatest amount of donations from healthcare lobbyists (including pharma companies) of any of the presidential candidates.
Moore accuses insurers and pharma companies of exploiting the situation in the years since 1993.
"And so, while they were afraid to have the courage of their convictions, the American people suffered for 14 years. But what's happened is that the health insurance industry and the pharmaceutical industry, through their tactics, through their price gouging, through their denial of care to our fellow Americans, they've done the organising for us."
Moore has many admirers – including Europe where he picked up a prize for his new film at the Cannes Film festival - but he also has vociferous critics.
For pharma, these could well include more moderate voices who are offended by the factually inaccuracies – including a new conspiracy theory about the vaccine industry.
Moore said: "Thirty years ago, there were 25 pharmaceutical companies working on cures and vaccines. Twenty-five of them. Today, there are five. Now, why is that? Because they realise there's no profit in finding a cure for something, because once you cure the disease, you can't sell pills for the disease for the next 30 to 40 years to that individual."
PhRMA, the US pharma industry body has been measured in its response so far to Moore, and says his film fails to mention a number of initiatives it runs to promote access to affordable medicines.
PhRMA's vice-president Ken Johnson said: "Can we find ways to improve America's health care system? Absolutely.
"But biased, one-sided attacks will not advance that cause. Sadly, Michael Moore, despite his obvious talents, is a political activist with a track record for sensationalism. He has no intention of being fair and balanced."
The head of one major US healthcare insurance company has also hit out at Sicko, claiming many of the worst stories it cites are from the 1980s and 1990s, and no longer reflect the reality of US healthcare.
Randall Gebhardt, president of Quantum Health said the US should not follow other countries in putting the government in control of healthcare, saying it would be bogged down in bureaucracy and inefficiency.
"Just look at Canada and the U.K. – that's what they have now. That's why millions of patients are currently waiting for treatment there, and thousands of Canadians cross the border to get the care they need, when they need it, in the U.S," he said.
Moore is already proclaiming his new film a hit, although it is showing in relatively few cinemas compared to the summer's blockbuster films. Moore's opponents are not content to let Moore dominate the debate, however, and are producing a response to the film, their own film documentary entitled Sick and Sicker.
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