"Sicko Doesn't Meet Cuban Propaganda Standards"
That's the perfect headline on Jesse Walker's reason blog item about Michael Moore's Oscar-nominated film about how wunnnderful medical care is in Cuba compared to the US. Turns out it's not so wonderful; in fact, as Amelia Hill writes in the Guardian, the film can't be shown in Cuba, lest people there revolt over lies in it:
The revelation, contained in a confidential US embassy cable released by WikiLeaks , is surprising, given that the film attempted to discredit the US healthcare system by highlighting what it claimed was the excellence of the Cuban system.But the memo reveals that when the film was shown to a group of Cuban doctors, some became so "disturbed at the blatant misrepresentation of healthcare in Cuba that they left the room".
Castro's government apparently went on to ban the film because, the leaked cable claims, it "knows the film is a myth and does not want to risk a popular backlash by showing to Cubans facilities that are clearly not available to the vast majority of them."
Sicko investigated healthcare in the US by comparing the for-profit, non-universal US system with the non-profit universal health care systems of other countries, including Cuba, France and the UK.
...The cable describes a visit made by the FSHP to the Hermanos Ameijeiras hospital in October 2007. Built in 1982, the newly renovated hospital was used in Michael Moore's film as evidence of the high-quality of healthcare available to all Cubans.
But according to the FSHP, the only way a Cuban can get access to the hospital is through a bribe or contacts inside the hospital administration. "Cubans are reportedly very resentful that the best hospital in Havana is 'off-limits' to them," the memo reveals.
According to the FSHP, a more "accurate" view of the healthcare experience of Cubans can be seen at the Calixto Garcia Hospital. "FSHP believes that if Michael Moore really wanted the 'same care as local Cubans', this is where he should have gone," the cable states.
A 2007 visit by the FSHP to this "dilapidated" hospital, built in the 1800s, was "reminiscent of a scene from some of the poorest countries in the world," the cable adds.
The memo points out that even the Cuban ruling elite leave Cuba when they need medical care.
This is how it works in communist and socialist systems: all people are equal, only some people are more equal than others.
Welch is so all over this:
http://reason.com/blog/2010/12/17/sicko-doesnt-meet-cuban-prop
Crid [cridcomment at gmail] at December 18, 2010 11:33 AM
Wait, you mean to say that Micheal Moore is a lying, idiological, douchebag?
I had no idea, in other never before known news - water is dicovered to be wet
lujlp at December 18, 2010 12:26 PM
luljp,
Don't you mean its a discovery thet Dihydrogen monoxide can be dangerous.
Jim P. at December 18, 2010 1:23 PM
Did you see "A Christmas Carol" with the Michael Moore lookalike filming something in Cuba saying how great it was, while the people who lived there trying to get on his boat so they could get to America?
Why don't the people who love the repression in these countries just live there?
KrisL at December 18, 2010 1:44 PM
Apparently, the Guardian disagrees with itself:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/dec/18/wikileaks-us-diplomats-story-cuba-banned-sicko-film
The leaked cable may not have been entirely accurate.
Moore, in the Huffington post, claims that the Bush administration diplomat who sent the cable was fabricating for political reasons.
The Guardian seems to be printing both sides, without doing any independent corroborative research, which is sad, but Moore's story seems more plausible and verifiable if anyone cared to check it out.
So this should be not about the health care debate, one way or the other, but about whether you can believe everything you read on the internet...
clinky at December 18, 2010 7:59 PM
Moore, in the Huffington post, claims that the Bush administration diplomat who sent the cable was fabricating for political reasons.
Well, that's certainly using an objective source to set us straight, isn't it?
Because - as we all know - Mr. Moore would never fabricate something for political reasons.
jimg at December 18, 2010 8:56 PM
What I'm saying is this should be an easily verifiable fact, one way or another. I don't care enough to spend a lot of calories researching it, but I would imagine that if he was lying Fox News would be all over it. The only evidence that "Sicko" was banned is a classified cable from a Bush administration official who quotes it second hand from an unnamed source.
I'm not saying you should agree with any of Moore's opinions, but this is a matter of factual record. Use your brain to evaluate the evidence.
My beef is with the Guardian, who as a major newspaper should be finding this stuff out.
clinky at December 18, 2010 9:48 PM
Good article from Moore himself about this:
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/mike-friends-blog/viva-wikileaks
franko at December 18, 2010 10:41 PM
Okay I'm not researching this bc I'll probably find out that- OMG! all governments are flawed in some way, but my friend got into a golf cart accident on Isla Mujeres and flew to Cuba the next day where she was treated for serious wounds at no cost to her w/o having to fill out even one form- for realsies! No cameras or gimmicky shit going down at all! She did talk to me about certain areas being off limits to Cubans and vice versa for non Cubans, but that happens here too. I'm not going to end up at Cedars Sinai anytime soon, that's for damn sure! Oh, but I can dream big about ending up there can't I? After all, hope dies last, just not at Cedars.
Gspotted at December 18, 2010 11:22 PM
@gspotted -
Children from families of no means end up at the finest hospitals in America on a regular basis.
In fact, the only people who routinely get shafted are those in the middle who have purchased some kind of health-care cost-spreading scheme (commonly referred to as "insurance").
So of course the answer that the political class comes up with is "let's make health-care availability and quality bad for EVERYBODY!"
I say fuck that. Loosely regulated free markets ultimately make everything better.
brian at December 19, 2010 9:36 AM
@clinky and franko
Right. We should take Moore's word for it, even though his film is one gigantic lie.
brian at December 19, 2010 9:41 AM
@brian:
Did you read my comments at all? I specifically and emphatically made the point that we shouldn't take anyone's word for what happened, and that I wished that news organizations would research the easily verifiable facts of the case, one way or the other.
clinky at December 19, 2010 10:03 AM
@clinky - that's as may be, but given history, it's safe to assume that anything that comes from Moore is at least partially untrue.
It's also safe to assume that Moore's not important enough for someone at State to bother making up a lie about. Doubly so since State is populated with careerists that are almost all left-leaning.
So, given available evidence, I'd say that Cuba did indeed ban the film for the reasons revealed in the leak.
brian at December 19, 2010 2:01 PM
Yea brian, I get it. I was eluding to the fact that whether one is living in a communist, socialist, or capitalist society- the rich will always have favor. Is it better here? The middle, who work honestly all day long, get "shafted" here. I don't want to move to Cuba, I want to get as much money as I can get my hands on, so I don't get shafted. I was just telling a story about my friend to lend some balance to the discussion. It's free there, it really is, and according to my friend -it's good! My other friend who went there, well he ran out of money but was able to obtain food at the bread line until he flew home. There are food banks here too, one just has to know where to look. Joblessness and poverty are on the rise in this country and this is a hot issue right now. People want healthcare, but medicare is just as shitty and "dilapidated" as the shittiest Cuban hospital. So what does a loosely regulated free market look like? Are there still options for the poor?
Gspotted at December 19, 2010 2:13 PM
Amy Alkon
http://www.advicegoddess.com/archives/2010/12/18/sicko_doesnt_me.html#comment-1804278">comment from GspottedAs I've said many times, I have the HMO, Kaiser. I got in in my early 20s and have been a member probably 23 years. I got Kaiser rather than Blue Cross because it's affordable, doesn't boot you once you're in, and the rates go up based on age, not whether you get sick. Do as I did, and get in in your 20s, and you can get care through Kaiser for a few hundred dollars a month and then be in for life.
Amy Alkon at December 19, 2010 2:19 PM
Amy Alkon
http://www.advicegoddess.com/archives/2010/12/18/sicko_doesnt_me.html#comment-1804279">comment from Amy AlkonOf course, I could've spent that money on other things, and crossed my fingers that I didn't get sick (or, especially, seriously ill), and that my parents or the public would pick up the cost if I did -- but that seems kind of rude.
Amy Alkon at December 19, 2010 2:22 PM
@brian
You continue to miss my point. You and I should not have to argue about whether or not "Sicko" was banned in Cuba. My point is that this is easily verifiable information for a news organization. It's either a fact or not. If it was shown in Cuba there would be people that saw it, advertisements, some sort of record of it. The same is true for the opposite. You and I are sitting at our computers in our mothers' basements, but the Guardian should be spending some effort to find our the objective facts, not just printing that "this guy said one thing, the other guy said another thing."
clinky at December 19, 2010 3:37 PM
Clinky, we may not know for sure, but we can make an educated guess based on past performance. I have several friends whose families escaped from Cuba. They tell me about their relatives who arrested in the middle of the night and never seen again. Castro is a butcher, and that's well documented. Moore is a tool and he is quite happy to be so. He's chosen the side he wants to be on, and it isn't our side.
Cousin Dave at December 19, 2010 7:59 PM
@clinky - Speak for yourself - I'm sitting in the first-floor office of my own house. And if you knew anything about Cuba, you'd know that you can't get accurate information from their media either - since it's state controlled. In other words, it's NOT easily verified.
@gspotted - Of course your friend got good care - he's not a Cuban. Cuba wants people like him to leave the country and talk about how wonderful his experience is.
You want to know what a loosely-regulated free market would look like? For starters, no more AMA placing limits on number of doctors allowed to graduate. Also - licensing boards would not be allowed to refuse licenses based upon the number of doctors in practice. In other words, no more forced artificial scarcity.
I keep hearing about the shortage of nurses, but the nursing schools are all full. Guess why? Again, there's a limit on the number of nurses to keep their wages artificially high (and they supposedly aren't that high anyhow, but still).
Then we can get into the whole cost-hiding that happens with employer-supplied insurance and the whole "co-pay" scheme.
Reign in the whole ambulance-chaser lobby and institute a "loser-pays" system. Also require that in order to have a finding of malpractice that it be shown that actual malpractice occurred. No more payouts because the lawyer convinces a jury of laymen that the doctor botched the delivery when the baby has a genetic defect.
brian at December 19, 2010 9:51 PM
"So this should be not about the health care debate, one way or the other, but about whether you can believe everything you read on the internet..."
If you Google "Cuban health care" you'll find dozens of negative articles about it. Here is the type of thing that you find in many of these articles:
"Cuban-born Dr. Jose Carro, who interviews Cuban doctors who have moved to the United States, says Moore's movie lies. Dr. Darsi Ferrer, a human-rights advocate in Cuba, told us that Americans should not believe the claims being made. He describes the Cuban people as "crazy with desperation" because of poor-quality care."
And why would we believe the Cuban government's health statistics?
"Cuba claims it has low infant mortality, but doctors tell us that Cuban obstetricians abort a fetus when they think there might be a problem. Dr. Julio Alfonso told us he used to do 70-80 abortions a day. And here's an even more devious way of distorting infant-mortality data: Some doctors tell us that if a baby dies within a few hours of birth, Cuban doctors don't count him or her as ever having lived."
I agree that you can't believe everything that you read on the internet, but the sheer volume of allegations make me suspicious. And come on, this is Cuba not exactly a bastion of honesty. Remember during the 1980's when we heard that no Soviet citizen was poor?.
AllenS at December 20, 2010 1:46 PM
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