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Sicko - Michael Moores nye film
Nej, jeg har ikke set den, men læste noget i The Observer i går om, at Moore risikerer, at den bliver forbudt i USA - fordi en del af den er optaget på Cuba, hvilket af nogen opfattes som en overtrædelse af den amerikanske embargo mod øen.
Filmen er et angreb på det amerikanske sundhedsvæsen, som formår at lade en stor del af borgerne i stikken samtidig med, at det er langt dyrere for landets skatteborgere end f.eks. det danske.
Journalist, filmanmelder og konsulent for filmfestivalen i Cannes Agnès Poirier skriver om filmen i dagens Guardian, under overskriften "Oh yes, he's got an agenda":
In four tidy acts, Michael Moore spells out the facts. Act one: 50 million Americans have no health cover, and 250 million who think they do, through costly health insurance schemes ($2,000 per person a year), are often denied treatment when they need it. A guy without cover who chopped off two of his fingers in a bout of DIY was presented with an invoice for $12,000 to reattach his ring-finger and $60,000 for his forefinger. Being a romantic, and skint, he chose to get his ring-finger back.Det lyder spændende og relevant, og også som noget, der forhåbentlig kan ende med at flytte noget ved det hensygnende amerikanske sundhedsvæsen. Og måske det kan minde os europæere om, hvad det egentlig er vi mister, hvis vi opgiver tanken om gratis sygesikring for alle.
Act two: when did it all start going wrong, asks Moore. The answer: in August 1971. President Richard Nixon and his adviser Edgar Kaiser plot to break the system. "The less care they give, the more money they make," says Nixon, caught on tape. They? Their friends, the health industry moguls, the same ones who fund the political campaigns of US congressmen. Moore shows us the price tag on every single one of them. One in particular, Billy Tauzin, leaves Congress to become CEO of the drug industry's top lobbying group, PhRMA, with a $2m a year salary.
Meanwhile astute national publicity campaigns have demonised the concept of universal healthcare by associating it with "socialised medicine", which in American English translates as "Soviet medicine" - the kind such oppressive regimes as Canada, Britain and France have adopted for their citizens.
Act three: Moore pays these regimes a visit. Britain's NHS is paid a well deserved tribute, with Tony Benn appearing as the country's conscience. Then off to France. A mother of three explains that her state nanny does the family's laundry while the creche down the street, with professionally trained staff, costs her 50p per hour. Moore concludes his French tour by asking: "Is there a reason why they want to make us hate the French? Are they afraid we might want to live like them?"
Act four, the most powerful: Moore decides to test the US administration's claim that Guantánamo Bay prisoners get the best free healthcare in the world. He takes 9/11 volunteer rescue workers, whose health problems were not covered by the state because they weren't on its payroll when they ran to help, to Guantánamo Bay in Cuba. At least he tries to. Arriving at the gates, Moore shouts through a loudspeaker: "I have 9/11 sick rescue workers, can you please open the gates?" A siren begins to wail. Moore and his troops make off as fast as they can - to Havana. Where they are treated immediately.
Sicko lyder som en god og væsentlig film, ligesom Bowling for Colombine var det - hvorimod jeg personligt syntes, at Fahrenheit 9/11 skød alt for meget med spredehagl til at være andet end en fuser.
Link til Poiriers omtale af filmen.