Scores gather in DC to hear filmmaker's take on healthcare

Nick JulianoPublished: Wednesday June 20, 2007
They were lined up in droves outside a congressional hearing room as scores more packed the aisles -- women in bright Code Pink T-shirts, interns in suits and ties, jean-clad bloggers, traditional reporters and members of Congress -- all to hear Michael Moore's solutions to the health-care crisis.
Moore's new movie, SiCKO, which RAW STORY reviewed Tuesday, profiles Americans who found their lives ruined because insurance companies provided inadequate care.
"There's a new villain on screens ... but it's not the villain you'll see in Spider Man or Harry Potter.," Moore told the crowd at a Wednesday press conference. "The villain is the health insurance industry of America."
Moore was joined by a handful of lawmakers who are sponsoring legislation aimed at creating a single-payer universal health care system in the US. Rep. John Conyers, D-Mich., the legislation's main sponsor, said Moore's movie is the most important development in the health care debate since former President Bill Clinton and First Lady Hillary Clinton tried for universal health care legislation in the early 1990s.
Conyers compared his fight to enact universal health care to his efforts in the wake of Martin Luther King Jr.'s death to create a national holiday in honor of the civil rights leader. In both cases, Conyers said, his colleagues in the House confided privately that they supported his bill but told him, "You know you can't win."
"I'm going to take that, 'You know you can't win,' and turn it into, 'Together we all can win," Conyers said.
Moore said the key to fixing America's healthcare crisis is to eliminate health insurance providers who work in favor of maximum profits rather than maximum health.
"They can still have fire insurance and car insurance, there's still other work they can do," Moore said. "But there's no room for them in healthcare because we're human beings, not automobiles."
The press conference was a largely Democratic affair, but California Republican Darrell Issa spoke briefly in favor of healthcare for all Americans, though he did not advocate the same single-payer system advanced by Conyers.
"We can all agree that we need to take steps in the direction of universal access," said Issa, who received a noticeably more tepid response from the crowd.
Conyers' bill aims to create universal health care access by expanding Medicare access to all US residents and creating a universal non-profit system over the next 15 years, according to information on the proposal distributed by his office. The program would eliminate private insurance companies and raise payroll taxes on businesses to pay for expanded public care.

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