Sicko Page #4

and that was to use my medical expertise

for the financial benefit

of the organization for which I worked.

And I was told repeatedly

that I was not denying care,

I was simply denying payment.

I know how managed care

maims and kills patients.

So I'm here to tell you

about the dirty work of managed care.

And I'm haunted by the thousands

of pieces of paper

on which I have written

that deadly word - "denied."

Thank you.

(Moore) How did we get to the point

of doctors at health insurance companies

actually being responsible

for the deaths of patients?

Who invented this system?

How did this all begin?

Where did the HMO start?

Thanks to the wonders of magnetic tape.

We know.

I am proposing today

a new national health strategy.

The purpose of this program

is simply this -

I want America to have

the finest healthcare in the world,

and I want every American to be able

to have that care when he needs it.

(Moore) The plan hatched

beteen Nixon and Edgar Kaiser worked.

In the ensuing years.

Patients were given less and less care...

(reporter) Bigger logjams at the nearby

hospital and less quality medical care.

Been here about 18 hours,

since 7:
00 this morning.

(reporter) What looks cramped

and unsightly can also be dangerous.

(Moore)... while health insurance

companies became wealthy.

The system was broken.

against catastrophic illness.

(reporter #2) The losers are the poor.

Who may now postpone urgent healthcare

until it's too late.

(Moore) This went on for years.

Until this man rode into town.

Bringing with him his little lady.

(# "I'll Take You There"

by The Staple Singers)

(Moore) Sassy.

Smart.

Sexy.

Some men couldn't handle it.

Today I am announcing the formation

of the President's Task Force

on National Health Reform,

chaired by the First Lady,

Hillary Rodham Clinton.

(Moore) Hillary Clinton decided to make

healthcare for everyone her top priority.

Universal coverage now.

It will not depend upon

where you work, whether you work,

or if you have a preexisting condition.

Healthcare that can never

be taken away.

(reporter #3) Some Republicans complain

Mrs. Clinton is getting a free ride.

It's fairly risky business

what President Clinton did,

to put his wife in charge of

some big policy program.

And while I don't share the chairman's joy

at our holding hearings

on a government-run healthcare system,

I do share his intention to make the debate

and the legislative process

- as exciting as possible.

- I'm sure you will do that, Mr. Armey.

- We'll do the best we can.

- You and Dr. Kevorkian, I think.

I have been told about your charm

and wit, and let me say...

Reports on your charm are overstated

- and reports on your wit are understated.

- Thank you. Thank you very much.

(Moore) She drove Washington insane.

Do you want the government

to control your healthcare?

You won't have the choice

of your own doctors.

- Less government.

- More control.

- More government.

- Less control for you and your family.

When your mama gets sick, she might talk

to a bureaucrat instead of a doctor.

This is a total mess,

and it's about to get messier.

Not this bureaucratic,

socialistic plan that they have.

- Socialist takeover...

- Socialized medicine.

What really amounts to

a giant social experiment.

(Moore) Ooh!

Socialized medicine.

Nothing put more fear in us

than the thought of that.

And the chief fearmongers

against socialized medicine

have always been the good doctors

of the American Medical Association.

(man #4) This would put the government

smack into your hospital,

defining services, setting standards,

establishing committees, calling for reports,

deciding who gets in and who gets out.

After all, the government has to treat

everyone fair and equal, don't you know?

Take us all the way down the road to

a new system of medicine for everybody.

(Moore) Yes. Medicine for everyone.

The AMA didn't want that.

And to drive the point home further.

They held thousands of coffeeklatsches

all over the country.

Where they invited their neighbors

to come and listen to a record

made by a well-known actor

on the evils of socialized medicine.

My name is Ronald Reagan.

One of the traditional methods of imposing

statism or socialism on a people.

Has been by way of medicine.

The doctor begins to lose freedoms. It's

like telling a lie. And one leads to another.

A doctor decides he wants

to practice in one town.

The government says to him.

"You can't live in that town.

They already have enough doctors.

You have to go someplace else. "

All of us can see what happens

once you establish the precedent

that the government can determine

a man's working place and his methods.

And behind it will come

other federal programs

that will invade every area of freedom

as we have known it in this country.

Until one day. We will awake

to find that we have socialism.

(reporter #4) The White House

said to tone down the rhetoric.

Reacting to burning an effigy

of Hillary Clinton.

(Moore) The times may have changed.

But the scare tactics hadn't.

The healthcare industries spent

over a hundred million dollars

to defeat Hillary's healthcare plan.

And they succeeded.

And I want now

to introduce to you the president,

because he loves the Easter egg roll.

(Moore) For the next seven years

in the White House.

She wasn't allowed to bring it up again.

Is anybody here older than two?

(Moore) A decade and a half went by.

And still America

had no universal health plan.

The United States slipped to number 37

in healthcare around the world.

Just slightly ahead of Slovenia.

(men speaking Slovenian)

But that's understandable. Because

Congress was busy with other matters.

Mr. Speaker, today I rise

to offer congratulations

to the confectioners

at Just Born Incorporated,

as they celebrate the 50th anniversary

of one of their most recognized

and celebrated products,

not to mention my daughter's favorite,

Marshmallow Peeps.

(Moore) And thus. The healthcare industry

went unchecked into the 21 st century.

Humana more than doubles its fourth

quarter profit, lifts its earning for the year...

United Health has tripled

its share prices.

(Moore) Making obscene profits...

...better-than-expected earnings.

There's a lot of

wealthy shareholders out there.

Are they willing to share

some of that wealth?

(Moore)... turning their CEOs

into billionaires.

And skirting the law

whenever they wanted.

But their biggest accomplishment

was buying our United States Congress.

(man #5) This is Washington at work.

Lobbying has become so brazen...

(Moore) With four times

as many healthcare lobbyists

than there are members of Congress.

They even managed to buy off old foes.

For her silence.

Hillary was rewarded.

And she became the second largest

recipient in the Senate

of healthcare industry contributions.

We've given the entire healthcare system

over to the insurance industry.

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