Sicko (2007)

1. We got issue in America.

2. Too many good docs are getting out of business.

3. Too many ob-gyns aren't able to practice their love

4. with women all across this country.

5. I don't have a job.

6. I don't wanna have any more debt out

7. to anybody else I already have out there.

8. I'm flushing the wound.

9. This is Adam.

10. He had an accident.

11. He's one of nearly 50 million Americans

12. with no health insurance.

13. But this film isn't about Adam.

14. So, this is the table saw.

15. It was spinning that way.

16. This is Rick.

17. I was gripping a piece of wood,

18. I grabbed it here and it hit a knot.

19. He sawed off the tops of two of his fingers.

20. And it was that quick.

21. His first thought?

22. I don't have insurance, how much this is gonna cost.

23. Am gonna have to pay cash for this,

24. $ 2,000, $3,000 or more.

25. Does that mean we're not gonna get a car?

26. Rick also doesn't have health coverage.

27. So, the hospital gave him a choice.

28. Reattach the middle finger for $60,000

29. or do the ring finger for 12,000.

30. It's an awful feeling to just try

31. to put a value on your body.

32. Being a hopeles romantic,

33. Rick chose the ring finger

34. for the bargain price of 12 grand.

35. The top of his middle finger now enjoys

36. its new home in an Oregon landfill.

37. I can do that thing where the old man used

38. to pull the finger off.

39. This movie isnt about Rick either.

40. Yes, there are nearly 50 million Americans

41. with no health insurance.

42. They pray every day they don't get sick.

43. Because 18,000 of them will die this year

44. simply because they're uninsured.

45. But this movie isn't about the.

46. It's about the 250 million of you

47. who have health insurance.

48. Those of you who are living the American Dream.

49. It's moving day for Larry and Donna Smith.

50. They've packed everything they own in these two cars.

51. And are driving to Denver, Colorado

52. to their new home.

53. - Hi. - Hello.

54. In their daughter's storage room.

55. This is home, sweet home.

56. Look at all that stuff.

57. We'll get everything organized.

58. Yeah, we will, we will.

59. What do we do with the computer?

60. - It stays. - It stays there.

61. So, this is where Heather talked about

62. we might have to put bunk beds.

63. I see what she's talking about.

64. It wasn't supposed to end up like this

65. for Larry and Donna.

66. They both had good jobs.

67. She was a newspaper editor

68. and he was a union machinist.

69. They raised six kids who all went

70. to fine schools like the University of Chicago.

71. But Larry had a heart attack

72. and then another one and then another one.

73. And then Donna got cancer.

74. And even though they had health insurance,

75. the copays and deductibles soon added up

76. to the point where they could no longer afford

77. to keep their home.

78. If somebody told me ten years ago

79. this was gonna happen to us because of healthcare,

80. I would have said, "It's not possible."

81. Not in the United States.

82. We wouldn't let that happen to people."

83. - Are we gonna quit? - No.

84. It's just hard.

85. They were bankrupt.

86. So, they moved in with their daughter.

87. We'll get it all figured out.

88. We emptied the dresser so you have a spot.

89. Nice, very nice.

90. Even their son Danny popped in

91. from across town to welcome them to Denver.

92. What do we do about people like you, guys?

93. I don't know, that's a good question.

94. You're supposed to pay a deductible

95. for $9,000, which I understand.

96. That's part of healthcare.

97. What about people like Kathy and I

98. that have to come up there

99. and move you every five years,

100. every two years, every year

101. because you don't have enough money

102. to stay where you're are?

103. That's what Russell keep says too.

104. I'm sorry, it's not what we wanted

105. to have happen in life.

106. And we're doing what we can to make the change.

107. You don't know what that feels like inside

108. at 50-some years old to have to reach out

109. to my 20-something- year-old for help.

110. It's gonna be hard for four, five, six,

111. seven months, it's gonna be hard.

112. I have an overwhelming feeling of you bring problems

113. with you no matter where you go.

114. But I don't know what to do about that.

115. By sheer coincidence,

116. their daughter's husband, Paul

117. was leaving on a job the very same day they arrived.

118. Paul was a contractor.

119. But there weren't many jobs lately.

120. So, he found work out of town.

121. I'm sure you'll keep a telephone conversation.

122. Email you.

123. You're gonna be just fine, lovies.

124. Weird situation, isn't it?

125. Can you tell me where Daddy's going.

126. Iraq.

127. Why is daddy going to Iraq?

128. To do some plumbing.

129. Oh, boy.

130. This I do early in the morning.

131. The first thing I do is I clean here.

132. At age 79, Frank Cardile

133. should be kicking back on a beach somewhere.

134. But even though he's insured by Medicare,

135. it doesn't cover all the cost of the drugs

136. that he and his wife need.

137. Being that I'm an employee here,

138. my medicine is for free.

139. So, that's why I gotta keep working until I die.

140. There is nothing wrong with that.

141. I always gotta keep my ears open

142. because there's always spillages.

143. Sometimes you get a gallon of milk, tomato sauce,

144. oh, you're in trouble.

145. It'll take a half-hour to clean that up.

146. And I look up on every aisle

147. so as everything is clean.

148. If I see something I pick it up,

149. whether it's paper or garbage.

150. One day I had the keys in my hand

151. and they went in there.

152. And I had to climb in there to get the keys out.

153. It's a sad situation.

154. If there are golden years, I can't find them,

155. I'll tell you that.

156. She had a painkiller for her hip.

157. The girl said, "Frank, this is $213.

158. What, for a painkiller?"

159. I didn't take it.

160. I backed off, I said, "I gotta come back."

161. What's in them?

162. What's in these new drugs that they distribute?

163. I don't believe you need half

164. of the things they tell you.

165. I have never taken medication now,

166. as I'm getting older.

167. I don't even like to take an aspirin.

168. I do like a little brandy.

169. I don't really know how this happened,

170. but the trunk kind of came forward into the back seat.

171. Laura Burnham was 45 mile an hour

172. head-on collision that knocked her out cold.

173. Paramedics got her out of the car

174. and into an ambulance for a trip to the hospital.

175. I get a bill from my insurance company telling me

176. that the ambulance ride was not gonna be paid for,

177. because it wasn't pre-approved.

178. I don't know exactly when I was supposed

179. to pre-approve it.

180. After I gain consciousness in the car

181. before I got in the ambulance?

182. Or I should have grabbed my cellphone off the street

183. and called while I was in the ambulance?

184. It's just crazy.

185. I applied for HealthNet insurance for Jason.

186. They rejected him because of his height and weight.

187. Jason is six feet tall and 130 pounds.

188. I applied for healthcare through BlueCross BlueShield

189. and they told me that my body mass index was too high.

190. I'm 5'1 ", I weigh 175 pounds.

191. I always thougt the health insurance companies

192. were there to help us.

193. So, I posted a note on the internet

194. asking people if they had had any similar stories

195. about problems with their insurance company.

196. Within 24 hours, I had over 3,700 responses.

197. And by the end of the week,

198. over 25,000 people had sent me

199. their healthcare horror storie.

200. Some of them decided not to wait for me to get back to the.

201. Like Doug Noe who took matters into his own hands

202. without my permission.

203. His daughter, Annette was nine months old

204. when they discovered she was going deaf.

205. His health insurance company, CIGNA,

206. said they'd pay for an implant in only one of her ears.

207. According to the letter they sent,

208. it's experimental for her to hear in two ears.

209. If a cochlear implant is good for one ear,

210. it doesn't even make any sense

211. that it wouldn't be good for the second ear,

212. especially when a child is just starting

213. to learn how to talk,

214. she has to learn from both sides of her head.

215. That's when he sat down

216. to write CIGNA a letter.

217. This is to CIGNA.

218. "Noted filmmaker Michael Moore

219. is now in the process of gathering information

220. for his next film.

221. I've sent along information concerning CIGNA's

222. lack of caring for its policy holders.

223. Has your CEO ever been in a film before?"

224. Before he knew it.

225. he received a call on his voice mail

226. from CIGNA headquarters.

227. Tuesday, 8:54 am.

228. Obviously, all this worked because Annette

229. is going to get her second implant in July.

230. [Female Voice #1] "Dear Mike, I work in the industry.

231. [Female Voice #2] "I work for an HMO."

232. I started to gt hundreds of letters

233. of a different sort from people

234. who work inside the healthcare industry.

235. They'd seen everything

236. and they were fed up with it.

237. "Health insurance companies suck, flat suck. "

238. Like Becky Malke,

239. who was in charge of keeping sick people away

240. from one of America's top insurance companies.

241. I work in a call cente, so people call in

242. and they're asking for insurance quotes.

243. There are certain preexisting conditions,

244. basically industry-wide that will not be covered.

245. Diabetes, heart disease,

246. certain forms of cancer.

247. That if you have these conditions,

248. you're most likely not going to get your health insurance.

249. How long is this list of conditions

250. that will make you ineligible?

251. It would be a really long list, a long list.

252. It could wrap around this house.

253. Sometimes you know ahead of time they're gonna be declined

254. at the end of the application

255. and they're like...

256. God, like one time I had a couple

257. and they were so happy to get...

258. I'm gonna cry.

259. They were so happy that they were...

260. I took them through this application

261. and the husband was late for work.

262. And the wife said to him,

263. "Don't worry, baby, it's gonna be okay

264. because we have health insurance now."

265. And when I looked at the end of application,

266. I could tell they were both gonna get declined

267. because of their health conditions.

268. And they were so happy.

269. And I thought, "God, they're gonna get

270. that phone call in a couple of weeks telling them

271. that they're not eligible for insurance."

272. And I just felt so bad 'cause I just really thought

273. and I knew and I couldn't say anything to them.

274. I just felt like crap.

275. And that's why I'm such a bitch on the phone to people,

276. 'cause I don't wanna get to know them,

277. I don't wanna know about their lives,

278. I just wanna get in and out and get done with it

279. 'cause I can't take the stress of it.

280. In spite of Becky being

281. a bit of a pain on the phone.

282. A quarter billion Americans are still able

283. to get health insurance.

284. Every American deserves affordable healthcare.

285. Let's meet some of these happy insured customers.

286. Maria has BlueShield and Diane, Horizon BlueCross.

287. BCS insures Laurel and Caroline has CIGNA.

288. And it's a good thing that they're all fully covered.

289. I ended up being diagnosed with retroperitoneal cancer.

290. Brain tumor.

291. Breast cancer.

292. Brain tumor on the right temporal lobe.

293. Because they were insured,

294. they got the red - carpet treatment at the doctor's office.

295. She requested for me to see a neurologist.

296. The way they were going treat it was to remove it.

297. Surgery was scheduled for December 9.

298. There is a test that you can take

299. that will show whether or not

300. you actually would benefit from chemo.

301. They got their treatment,

302. but not before battling with their insurance companies.

303. They were investigated whether or not

304. this was a preexisting condition.

305. It's not medically necessary.

306. They claim that it's experimental.

307. We don't consider that life-threatening.

308. Diane died from her non life-threatening tumor.

309. Laurel's cancer is now spread throughout her body.

310. Her experimental test proved that Caroline needed chemo.

311. While vacationing in Japan,

312. Maria became ill and got the MRI that BlueShield

313. of California had refused to approve.

314. The doctors in Japan told her that she had a brain tumor.

315. BlueShield had said repeatedly she didn't have a tumor.

316. That's when she said,

317. "Well, I'm pretty sure I have a lawyer."

318. March 13, 2003.

319. I'm gonna direct your attention

320. to exhibit one.

321. Please describe for me what it is.

322. It is a denial for referral

323. to an ophthalmologist.

324. Is it your signature on document?

325. Yes.

326. I'd like to direct yor attention to exhibit two.

327. This is a denial of a request for referral

328. for a magnetic resonance imaging test

329. of the brain.

330. It has your signature?

331. Yes.

332. Dr., directing your attention to exhibit three.

333. Please read this document.

334. This is a denial of a referral to a neurosurgeon.

335. Can you explain for me how you came

336. to sign the denial letter?

337. This is a standard signature

338. that's put on all denial letters.

339. Is it your signature or a stamp?

340. That is a stamp.

341. Did you ever see a denial letter

342. before your signature was stamped on it?

343. No, but the denial letters are fundamentally the same.

344. The denial letters that are sent out...

345. The answer is no.

346. No.

347. The very definition of a good medical director

348. was somebody who can save the company money.

349. Dr. Linda Peeno was a medical reviewer for Humana.

350. She left her job because she didn't like

351. their way of doing business.

352. I was told when I started

353. that I had to keep a 10% denial.

354. Then they were giving us reports on a weekly basis

355. that would have all the cases we reviewed,

356. the percent approved and the percent denied

357. and our actual percentage denial rate.

358. And then there would be another report

359. that compared me to all the other medical reviewers.

360. The doctor with the highest percent of denials

361. was actually gonna get a bonus.

362. Really?

363. So you, as a doctor, working for the HMO,

364. if you denied more people healthcare,

365. you got a bonus?

366. That was the way they had set the system up.

367. Any payment for a claim is referred to as a medical loss.

368. That's the terminology the industry uses.

369. When you don't spend money on somebody,

370. you deny their care or you make a decision

371. that brings money in and you don't have to spend it,

372. it's a savings to the company.

373. This is Tarsha Harris.

374. BlueCross didn't deny her her treatment.

375. And actually approved her operation.

376. But then they discovered that in the distant past,

377. she had had a yeast infection.

378. Apparently, it's common.

379. Men, women can get a yeast infection.

380. So, I was prescribed the yeast infection cream,

381. general cream and it went away.

382. She later applied for health insurance

383. and that's what you're supposed

384. to be disclosing serious ailments.

385. The yeast infection was independent

386. and it's not a serious ailment.

387. There was nothing else she could have done.

388. It wasn't until they were gonna have

389. to spend money that they looked.

390. If they'd taken five minutes before hand

391. and wanted to clear up the yeast infection,

392. they could've looked at her medical records,

393. they could have talked to her doctor.

394. Because of the undisclosed yeast infection,

395. BlueCross dropped Tarsha Harri.

396. She thinks she's put this behind her.

397. And then BlueCross changes their mind,

398. tells the doctors, "We're taking the money back,

399. go get the money from Tarsha."

400. The fact of the matter is

401. it was a yeast infection, that's all it was.

402. I'm still a little bitter

403. because I don't trust insurance companies now.

404. To me, it seems they're always gonna be looking

405. for a way out.

406. What happened to helping the person that's sick?

407. Don't make their problems worse.

408. This is Lee Einer.

409. If they weren't able to weed you out

410. in the application process

411. or deny you the care your doctor said you needed

412. and somehow ended up paying for the operation,

413. they send in Lee, their hitman.

414. His job is to get the company's money back

415. any way he can.

416. All he has to do is find one slip-up

417. on your application

418. or a preexisting condition you didn't know you had.

419. We're gonna go after this like it's a murder case.

420. And I mean my whole unit dedicated

421. to going through your health history

422. for the last five years looking for anything

423. that would indicate that you concealed something,

424. you misrepresented something,

425. so that they can cancel the policy

426. or jack the rates so high that you can't pay them.

427. And if we couldn't find anything

428. you didn't disclose on the application,

429. you can still get hit with a preexisting denial,

430. because you don't even have

431. to have sought medical treatment for it.

432. In some states, it's legal to have

433. what's called a prudent person preexisting condition.

434. And that's a mouthful, I know,

435. but what that says is if prior

436. to your insurance kicking in,

437. you had any symptom which would incline

438. a normally prudent person to have sought medical care,

439. then the condition of which that symptom

440. was a symptom is excluded.

441. I know, it's labyrinthine, isn't it?

442. But that's how it works.

443. They're supposed to be fair and even-handed,

444. but with an insurance company,

445. it's their frigging money!

446. So, it's not unintentional,

447. it's not a mistake, it's not an oversight,

448. you're not slipping through the cracks.

449. Somebody made that crack and swept you towards it.

450. And the intent is to maximize profits.

451. Looking back, I don't know that I killed anybody.

452. Did I do harm in people's lives?

453. Yeah, hell, yeah.

454. I haven't worked for insurance companies

455. for a long time

456. and I don't think that really serves

457. to atone for my participation in that mess.

458. I am glad I'm out of it, though.

459. Julie Pierce was struggling

460. to get care for her husband Tracy

461. who was suffering from kidney cancer.

462. Julie works in the intensive care unit

463. at St. Joseph's Medical Center in Kansas City, Missouri,

464. which provided her family with health insurance.

465. Every month, there was a new drug

466. that the doctor wanted to try.

467. My insurance denied it.

468. One letter might say, "Not a medical necessity,"

469. one letter might say,

470. "It's not for this particular type of cancer,"

471. and they denied it.

472. Then we came up with the bone marrow.

473. It has showed to stop it,

474. sometimes to completely get rid of it.

475. Tracy's doctors said that this treatment

476. had been successfully tried on many other patients.

477. If one of Tracy's brothers turned out

478. to be a suitable donor,

479. there were promising bone marrow treatments

480. for beating Tracy's cancer.

481. Two weeks later, the bone marrow nurse at KU called

482. me and she goes: "We've got the results back.

483. His youngest brother is a perfect donor match."

484. We were ecstatic.

485. I think that's the happiest I had seen him in a while.

486. So, we submitted it and they denied it.

487. Said it was experimental.

488. So, I found out that there is a board of trustees

489. over our medical plan that actually work at my hospital.

490. And they are the final decision-makers

491. on what gets approved and what doesn't get approved.

492. Julie and her husband

493. and their son, Tracy Junior demanded a meeting

494. with the health plan's board of trustees.

495. The very people who had the power

496. to approve their claim.

497. They told Julie that they were sympathetic to her situation.

498. I said, "Your sympathy does me no good

499. when I'm burying him next year."

500. And I told them, I said if I was...

501. Bruce van Cleve was our CEO.

502. I said, "I bet if it was Bruce van Cleve's wife,

503. it would get approved."

504. "No, it's nothing like that, it's nothing like that."

505. I said, "Or maybe if my husband was white."

506. And I got up and walked out of the room.

507. When we got home, I found him up in the bathroom.

508. And I knocked on the door and said,

509. "What are you doing in there?"

510. "Nothing."

511. And I opened the door because usually he'll say,

512. "What do you think I'm doing in here?"

513. And he was sitting in there and he was crying.

514. And he said, "Why me?

515. I'm a good person."

516. And I said, "But we're not done fighting this.

517. We're strong, yeah."

518. And then he said, "You know," he goes,

519. "I can see now that I'm gonna die."

520. He said that, "I can leave everything in the world,

521. but I don't wanna leave you and Tracy."

522. The doctor told me he would die in three weeks.

523. And on January 13th, which was my birthday,

524. he went to sleep.

525. And he died five days later, here at home.

526. He was my best friend.

527. He was my soul mate.

528. He was my son's father.

529. We were to grow old together.

530. They took away everything that matters.

531. I wanna know why, why my husband?

532. Why wasn't he given the chance to live?

533. You preach these vision and values

534. that we care for the sick, the dying, the poor,

535. that we're a healthcare that leaves no one behind.

536. You left him behind.

537. You didn't even give him a start.

538. It was as if he was nothing.

539. And I want them to have a conscience about it.

540. And I don't think they do.

541. I don't think it has fazed them one bit, at all.

542. There was one person

543. in the healthcare industry who did have a conscience,

544. Dr. Linda Peeno,

545. A former medical reviewer at Humana.

546. My name is Linda Peeno.

547. I am here today to make a public confession.

548. In the spring of 1987, as a physician,

549. I denied a man a necessary operation

550. that would have saved his life

551. and thus caused his death.

552. No person and no group has held me accountable for this,

553. because, in fact, what I did was I saved

554. the company a half a million dollars for this.

555. And furthermore, this particular act

556. secured my reputation as a good medical director

557. and it ensured my continued advancement

558. in the healthcare field.

559. I went from making a few hundred dollars a week

560. as a medical reviewer

561. to an escalating six-figure income

562. as a physician executive.

563. In all my work, I had one primary duty

564. and that was to use my medical expertise

565. for the financial benefit of the organization

566. for which I worked.

567. And I was told repeatedly that I was not denying care,

568. I was simply denying payment.

569. I know how managed care maims and kills patients.

570. So, I'm here to tell you about

571. the dirty work of managed care.

572. And I'm haunted by the thousands of pieces of paper

573. on which I have written that deadly word, denied.

574. Thank you.

575. How did we get to the point of doctors

576. at health insurance companies actually being responsible

577. for the deaths of patients?

578. Who invented this system?

579. How did this all begin?

580. Where did the HMO start?

581. Thanks to the wonders of magnetic tape, we know.

582. I am proposing today

583. a new national health strategy.

584. The purpose of this program is simply this,

585. I want America to have the finest healthcare in the world

586. and I want every American to be able

587. to have that care when he needs it.

588. The plan hatched between Nixon

589. and Edgar Kaiser worked.

590. In the ensuing years,

591. patients were given less and less care.

592. [Journalist #1] Bigger logjams at the nearby hospital

593. and less quality medical care.

594. Been here about 18 hours,

595. since 7:00 this morning.

596. What looks cramped

597. and unsightly can also be dangerous.

598. While health insurance companies became wealthy,

599. the system was broken.

600. 37 million Americans are without protectin

601. against catastrophic illness.

602. [Journalist #2] The losers are the poor

603. who may now postpone urgently needed healthcare

604. until it's too late.

605. This went on for years,

606. until this man rode into town.

607. Bringing with him his little lady.

608. Smart

609. Sexy.

610. Some men couldn't handle it.

611. Today I am announcing the formation

612. of the President's Task Force

613. on National Health Reform,

614. chaired by the First Lady, Hillary Rodham Clinton.

615. Hillary Rodham Clinton decided

616. to make healthcare for everyone her top priority.

617. Universal coverage now.

618. It will not depend upon where you work, whether you work

619. or whether you have a preexisting condition.

620. Healthcare that can never be taken away.

621. Some Republicans complain

622. Mrs. Clinton is getting a free ride

623. because she's the president's wife.

624. It's fairly risky business, I believe

625. what President Clinton did,

626. to put his wife in charge of some big policy program.

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

628. at our holding hearings

629. on a government-run healthcare system,

630. I do share his intention to make the debate

631. and the legislative process as exciting as possible.

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

633. We'll do the best we can.

634. You and Dr. Kevorkian, I think.

635. I have been told about your charm and wit,

636. and let me say,

637. reports on your charm are overstated

638. and reports on your wit are understated.

639. Thank you, thank you very much.

640. She drove Washington insane.

641. Do you really want the federal government

642. to control your healthcare?

643. You won't have the choice of your own doctors.

644. Less government mandates.

645. - Less government. - More government control.

646. More government.

647. And less control for you and your family.

648. When your mama gets sick,

649. she might talk to a bureaucrat instead of a doctor.

650. This is a total mess and it's about to get messier.

651. Not this big bureaucratic,

652. socialistic plan that they have.

653. Socialist takeover...

654. Socialized medicine.

655. What really amounts to a giant social experiment.

656. Socialized medicine.

657. Nothing put more fear in us

658. than the thought of that.

659. And the chief fear mongers against socialized medicine

660. have always been the good doctors

661. of the American Medical Association.

662. This would put the government smack

663. into your hospital.

664. Defining services, setting standards,

665. establishing committees,

666. calling for reports,

667. deciding who gets in and who gets out.

668. After all, the government has to treat

669. everyone fair and equal, don't you know?

670. Take us all the way down the road

671. to a new system of medicine for everybody.

672. Yes, medicine for everyone.

673. The AMA didn't want that.

674. And to drive the point home further,

675. they held thousands of coffeeklatsches

676. all over the country where they invited their neighbors

677. to come and listen to a record

678. made by a well-known actor

679. on the evils of socialized medicine.

680. My name is Ronald Reagan.

681. One of the traditional methods of imposing

682. statism or socialism on a people has been

683. by way of medicine.

684. The doctor begins to lose freedoms.

685. It's like telling a lie and one leads to another.

686. A doctor decides he wants to practice in one town

687. and the government has says to him,

688. "You can't live in that town.

689. They already have enough doctors.

690. You have to go someplace else."

691. All of us can see what happens once you establish

692. the precedent that the government can determine

693. a man's working place and his working methods.

694. And behind it will come other federal programs

695. that will invade every area of freedom

696. as we have known it in this country.

697. Until one day, we will awake to find

698. that we have socialism.

699. Yeah! Burn baby burn!

700. The White House said today it's time

701. to tone down the rhetoric reacting

702. to the burning an effigy of Hillary Rodham Clinton.

703. The times may have changed,

704. but the scare tactics hadn't.

705. The healthcare industries spent

706. over a hundred million dollars

707. to defeat Hillary's healthcare plan.

708. And they succeeded.

709. And I want now to introduce to you the president,

710. because he loves the Easter egg roll.

711. For the next seven years in the White House,

712. she wasn't allowed to bring it up again.

713. Is anybody here older than two?

714. A decade and a half went by

715. and still America had no universal health plan.

716. The United States slipped to number 37

717. in healthcare around the world.

718. Just slightly ahead of Slovenia.

719. But that's understandable,

720. because Congress was busy with other matters.

721. Mr. Speaker, today I rise to offer congratulations

722. to the confectioners at Just Born Incorporated,

723. as they celebrate the 50th anniversary

724. of one of their most recognized

725. and celebrated products,

726. not to mention my daughter's favorite,

727. Marshmallow Peeps.

728. And thus, the healthcare industry

729. went unchecked into the early 21st century.

730. Humana more than doubles its fourth quarter profit,

731. lifts its earnings outlook for the year as well.

732. [Stock Analyst #2] United Health has tripled its share prices.

733. Making obscene profits.

734. Had to beat their estimates.

735. Better than expected earnings.

736. [News Anchor #2] There's a lot of wealthy shareholders

737. out there right now,

738. are they willing to share some of that wealth?

739. Turning their CEOs into billionaires.

740. And skirting the law whenever they wanted.

741. But their biggest accomplishmet

742. was buying our United States Congress.

743. This is Washington at work.

744. Lobbying has become so brazen,

745. the money is being collected...

746. With four times as many healthcare lobbyists

747. than there are members of Congress.

748. They even managed to buy off old foes.

749. For her silence, Hillary was rewarded.

750. And she became the second largest recipient

751. in the Senate of healthcare industry contributions.

752. We've given the entire healthcare system

753. over to the insurance industry.

754. And they have total control.

755. Well, not total control.

756. The drug companies like to buy

757. their members of Congress too.

758. Here's what it costs to buy these men

759. and this woman.

760. This guy and this guy and him too.

761. Ladies and gentlemen,

762. the President of the United States.

763. And the biggest check was saved for last.

764. Why did they hand out all this cash?

765. They wanted a bill passed,

766. a bill to help seniors with their prescriptions.

767. Let there be no mistake about it.

768. Republicans love their mothers

769. and their fathers and their grandparents

770. as much as anybody else on this hill

771. and we're gonna take care of them in this country.

772. Of course, it was really a bill

773. to hand over 800 billion of our tax dollars

774. to the drug and health insurance industry.

775. By letting the drug companies charge

776. whatever they wanted.

777. And making the private health insurance

778. companies the middleman.

779. Everybody was going to get their cut.

780. And the man they appointed to get the job done

781. was congressman Billy Tauzin.

782. He was the right man for the job

783. because he had a secret weapon.

784. There's no one in this house loves their mother

785. more than I love my mother.

786. I challenge you on that, sir.

787. Nobody in this body that loves their mother any more

788. or any less than any one of us.

789. I love that woman.

790. Do you think for a second you love your moms and dads

791. any more than we love ours?

792. Do you think Republicans and Democrats who will vote...

793. Do you really believe that, Mr. Stoddard?

794. Yes!

795. God bless you.

796. Oh, they all loved their mothers.

797. It's just that they didn't love our mothers as much.

798. Now I'm honored and pleased to sign

799. this historic piece of legislation,

800. the Medicare Prescription Drug Improvement

801. and Modernization Act of 2003.

802. What they didn't tell us was

803. that the elderly could end up paying more

804. for their prescriptions than they did before.

805. Over two thirds of senior citizens

806. could still pay over $2,000 a year.

807. And when it was all over,

808. 14 congressional aids who worked on the bill

809. quit their jobs on the Hill

810. and went to work for the healthcare industry.

811. As did one congressman.

812. Billy Tauzin left Congress to become the CEO of PhRMA,

813. the drug industry lobby

814. for a salary of $2 million a year.

815. Oh, It was a happy day in Washington.

816. And many Americans knew they were never going

817. to see universal healthcare.

818. And that's why some of them decided

819. to look elsewhere for help.

820. We're driving across the Detroit river.

821. Back there is the Renaissance Center,

822. you can see the Renaissance Center,

823. General Motors' headquarters,

824. downtown Detroit, the skyline.

825. You get a really nice view from driving over the bridge.

826. This is Adrian Campbell.

827. A single mother,

828. who at the age of 22 came down with cancer.

829. I got cervical cancer

830. and I was denied through the insurance company.

831. They said, "We're not paying for it

832. because you're 22 and you don't have...

833. You shouldn't be having cervical cancer.

834. You're too young."

835. Forced into debt, but now cancer free.

836. Adrian was fed up

837. with the American healthcare system.

838. She had a new plan.

839. I have everything reay

840. before I even hit the border.

841. I got my passports ready,

842. I got my money out.

843. It's $3.25 to get across one way.

844. And I got everything just sitting up here

845. on my visor just ready to go.

846. Aurora, be very quiet.

847. - Citizenships? - US.

848. Where do you live? I live in Michigan.

849. - That's not on, right? - No.

850. She may live in Michigan,

851. but ten blocks across the border,

852. Adrian becomes a Canadian.

853. How long have you been living here?

854. Three months?

855. A couple.

856. But I haven't applied for the OHIP card yet

857. 'cause I still have mine.

858. It takes ten minutes.

859. That's fine, I don't mind.

860. Okay, thank you.

861. I put down Kyle's address at the clinic

862. and when they ask what my relationship is,

863. I put down that I was his common-law partner.

864. I don't like to lie and I don't like liars.

865. It's little white lies, but it's...

866. I'm saving the money.

867. You don't have to bring a checkbook

868. when you go to the hospital here.

869. It's provided to us.

870. It's something you don't have to worry about,

871. you don't have to go out of your way to get.

872. Stress free.

873. They're calling the cops.

874. The presence of our camera crew

875. had alerted the clinic that something was up.

876. And I don't think I'm gonna get seen now.

877. So, I have another idea.

878. I'm gonna go down to the other clinic.

879. There is a clinic down one that we passed.

880. The police showed up over there.

881. Look.

882. Yes, what Adrian was doing was illegal.

883. But we're Americans.

884. We go into other countries when we need to.

885. It's tricky, but it's allowed.

886. It's kind of frustrating having...

887. Just get married and that'd solve everything,

888. she'd be covered automatically.

889. Americans marry Canadians just for the healthcare!

890. I'm being used.

891. Sounds like a good idea.

892. See if it works.

893. Start something, start a trend.

894. In Canada they give everybody free healthcare,

895. doesn't it work up there?

896. Well, no, unfortunately it doesn't.

897. We wait months to get treatment

898. you can get in a week or a few days here.

899. In Canada you have to wait 9 to 10 months

900. for bypass surgery.

901. [Newscaster #2] Many Canadians believe

902. it's the healthcare system itself that's truly sick.

903. [Newscaster #3] They pay their doctors less.

904. [Newscaster #4] A surgeon can only do a certain number

905. of operations each year.

906. With only so many expensive new pieces of equipment.

907. It's easier for your cat or dog

908. to receive an MRI here in America.

909. You die of cancer waiting for chemo

910. 'cause all of Ottawa has one chemo machine.

911. And if you think socialized medicine is a

912. good idea, ask a Canadian.

913. So, I thought who better to ask

914. than my Canadian relatives, Bob and Estelle.

915. But they wouldn't cross the border into America.

916. They wanted me to meet them at Sears in Canada.

917. What are you guys doing here?

918. [Estelle÷} We're buying insurance,

919. we're going over to the states.

920. We're going to the states to see you.

921. That's just across the river.

922. - Yeah. - Yeah.

923. You wouldn't go over to see us over in Michigan

924. for a couple of hours without insurance?

925. No, we wouldn't.

926. We're just adamant about it.

927. We would not do it.

928. If somebody punches us in the mouth or something,

929. something like that...

930. You don't wanna get caught in the

931. - American health system thing? - That's right.

932. We have nothing against Americans or America

933. or anything like that at all.

934. We're a nice and simple people.

935. Not very simple, but certainly very nice.

936. I decided to explore

937. their anti-American views further

938. over some fine Canadian cuisine.

939. We have a friend who went to Hawaii

940. and he sustained a head injury while he was there.

941. And before he was well enough to come home,

942. he had chalked up a bill of over $600,000.

943. So, what middle-class Canadian could absorb that?

944. I guess I feel bad that you would have

945. to worry about something like that.

946. We're not criticizing your country,

947. we're just giving you the facts,

948. that we could not afford to be without insurance.

949. Even for a day?

950. Even for a day.

951. To prove their point even further,

952. they sent me over to a local golf course

953. to talk to Larry Godfrey

954. who had a golfing accident while on vacation in Florida.

955. I could hear a noise and feel a pain

956. and the tendon snapped off this bone here

957. that holds the bicep in place.

958. So, this bicep muscle was released like on an elastic

959. and it ended up here on my chest.

960. The muscle came up right on your arm

961. and ended up in your chest?

962. Ended up right here.

963. Like all good golfers.

964. Larry finished his round before seeking medical attention.

965. That's when he got the bad new.

966. I wasn't too worried

967. because I had out-of- country insurance,

968. but when he told me it was 23 or 24,000, then I...

969. 24,000?

970. Dollars, yes.

971. So, if you'd stayed in the United States,

972. this would have cost you $ 24,000?

973. $24,000, yes.

974. Instead, you went back to Canada

975. and Canada paid your total expenses?

976. Everything.

977. - Paid for the operation. - Yes.

978. - And it cost you? - Nothing.

979. - Zero. - Zero.

980. Zero.

981. I'm wondering why you expect your fellow Canadians,

982. who don't have your problem,

983. why should they, through their tax dollars,

984. have to pay for a problem you have?

985. Because we would do the same for them.

986. It's just the way it's always been

987. and it's the way we hope it'll always be.

988. Right, but if you just had to pay for your problem

989. and don't pay for everybody else's problem,

990. just take care of yourself?

991. Well, there are a lot of people

992. who aren't in a position to be able to do that.

993. And somebody has to look after them.

994. Are you a member of the Socialist Party here?

995. No, no.

996. Green Party?

997. No.

998. Well, actually, I'm a member of the Conservative Party.

999. Is that bad?

1000. Well, it's just a little confusing.

1001. Well, it shouldn't be.

1002. I think that where medical matters are concerned,

1003. it wouldn't matter in Canada

1004. what party you were affiliated with, if any.

1005. But, to us, as we look across the river here,

1006. why don't you think we don't believe that?

1007. What's wrong on this issue with us?

1008. I guess the powers that be don't share our beliefs

1009. that healthcare ought to be universal.

1010. Canadians didn't until we met up

1011. with a guy named Tommy Douglas,

1012. who pretty much changed everyone's mind.

1013. One guy?

1014. One guy, yeah.

1015. One guy did it.

1016. Can he come over and visit us?

1017. He's dead, unfortunately.

1018. In fact, he's just most recently been revered

1019. as Canada's singular most important person.

1020. We think so much of...

1021. You mean in your history?

1022. - In our history. - In your whole history?

1023. In our whole history

1024. More than your first prime minister?

1025. Absolutely, yeah.

1026. Even more than Wayne Gretzky.

1027. - No way! - Absolutely.

1028. More than Celine Dion?

1029. Great singer, more than Celine, yeah.

1030. More than Rocky and Bullwinkle?

1031. Maybe.

1032. As the blade went through,

1033. it caught the glove I was wearing

1034. and it sliced through the entire group of fingers

1035. and completely taking them off.

1036. And I realized that I needed help immediately.

1037. Well, obviously, putting on amputated

1038. fingers or arms or limbs is one of the more dramatic things

1039. that we can do.

1040. If you're looking at five fingers,

1041. you're potentially looking at a 24-hour operation.

1042. There actually was four surgeons,

1043. as well as all the nurses,

1044. two different anesthetists to carry out

1045. an operation of that magnitude.

1046. When somebody like Brad came in,

1047. we didn't have to worry about whether

1048. or not he could afford it.

1049. He needed help, he needed a great deal of help

1050. and we could just concentrate on finding

1051. the best way to bring him through it.

1052. I met this American,

1053. he'd cut off the ends of two of his fingers with a saw.

1054. So, when he arrived at the hospital,

1055. they told him one finger's gonna cost around $60,000

1056. and the other one was gonna be $12,000.

1057. He had to choose which finger he could afford.

1058. Down, bend the long finger down.

1059. We've never told someone

1060. that they couldn't put a finger back on

1061. because the system wouldn't allow it.

1062. I'm very glad I work within a system

1063. that allows me the freedom to look after people

1064. and not have to make choices like that.

1065. It seems nothig we were told

1066. about the Canadian system was true.

1067. Maybe I was just in the wrong part of town.

1068. So, I went across the city

1069. to a crowded hospital waiting room.

1070. How long did you have to wait here to get help?

1071. - 20 minutes. - 20 minutes.

1072. 45 minutes.

1073. I got helped right away.

1074. You can see how crowded this is.

1075. They really do an amazing job.

1076. Did you have to get anyone's permission

1077. to come to this hospital?

1078. No.

1079. - No. - No.

1080. We can go anywhere we want.

1081. You don't have to get it pre-approved

1082. by your insurance company?

1083. Oh, heavens, no.

1084. Can you choose your own doctor?

1085. Oh, yes.

1086. What's your deductible?

1087. Nothing.

1088. I don't think we have any.

1089. I don't know.

1090. I don't think there's any as far as I know.

1091. So, what did this cost?

1092. Nothing.

1093. We know in America people pay for their healthcare,

1094. but I guess we don't understand that concept,

1095. 'cause we don't have to deal with that.

1096. And we're dealing with Parkinson's,

1097. stroke, heart attack.

1098. We're very, very lucky, really we are.

1099. We complain, people complain about everything.

1100. Right.

1101. Right, you're Canadian.

1102. But on the whole, it's really a fabulous system

1103. for making sure that the least of us

1104. and the best of us are taken care of.

1105. It turns out that Canadians

1106. live three years longer than we do.

1107. That's not hard to believe

1108. when you meet fellow Americans like Erik.

1109. Erik Turnbow of Olympia, Washington

1110. saved up his whole life

1111. so that he could visit the famd

1112. Abbey Road crosswalk in London.

1113. But it wasn't enough for Erik to just walk across

1114. the road like The Beatles did.

1115. He had to do it his own special way.

1116. Here's Erik, about to walk

1117. on his hands across Abbey Road.

1118. Ready?

1119. Try it again.

1120. - Are you in pain? - Yeah.

1121. The British hospital

1122. didn't charge Erik anything for his stay.

1123. And only about ten bucks

1124. for all the way-cool drugs they gave him.

1125. You're all slung up.

1126. I'm gonna be OK.

1127. I decided to go to Great Britain

1128. to find out how a hospital stay could be free

1129. and drugs could cost only $10.

1130. If I come in here and I have a prescription

1131. and it requires 30 pills, how much is that?

1132. It's £6.65, that's the standard charge.

1133. £6.65?

1134. So, that's what?

1135. $10 or so?

1136. Yes.

1137. What if I needed 60 pills, how much is it?

1138. Same charge.

1139. 120 pills?

1140. £6.65 still.

1141. It doesn't matter how many pills?

1142. No.

1143. What if it's an HIV drug or a cancer drug?

1144. It's still £6.65.

1145. If they are under 16 or over 60,

1146. they're automatically exempt.

1147. So, only a working adult

1148. who earns enough money pays the £6.65?

1149. And everybody else gets the medication for free?

1150. That's right.

1151. No money being exchanged here?

1152. No, nothing.

1153. There's no money being exchanged?

1154. I'm over 60, we don't pay.

1155. What's the purpose of the cash register?

1156. I'm just wondering where's the bread

1157. and the milk and the candy in here?

1158. I can't pick up any laundry detergent here?

1159. No, I haven't been trained for that many years

1160. to be selling detergents, so no.

1161. I next went to a state-run hospital,

1162. operated by the National Health Service.

1163. I'm due in seven weeks

1164. and I get six months off, paid.

1165. And then I can have six months off unpaid as well,

1166. so I'm actually taking a year.

1167. Well, that sounds like a luxury where I'm from.

1168. Oh, really, it's not like that in the US?

1169. No, not at all, no?

1170. So, what do you pay for a stay here?

1171. No one pays.

1172. They were asking how do people pay

1173. and I said, "Well, there isn't,

1174. - You don't, you just leave." - It's national insurance.

1175. There's no bill at the end of it, as it were.

1176. Even with insurance there's bound

1177. to be a bill somewhere.

1178. So, where's the billing department?

1179. There isn't a billing department.

1180. No, there's no such thing as billing...

1181. What did they charge for that baby?

1182. Sorry?

1183. You gotta pay before you can get out?

1184. - No. - No, no,

1185. - everything is on NHS. - This is NHS.

1186. - No, you don't. - It's not America.

1187. Maybe I'd have better luck

1188. in the part of the hospital

1189. where things can get seriously expensive.

1190. This guy broke his ankle.

1191. How much will this cost him?

1192. [X-Ray Tech.] Sorry?

1193. The emergency room visit.

1194. He'll have some huge bill when he's done, right?

1195. [X-Rat Tech.] Here, NHS, everything is free.

1196. I'm asking about hospital charges

1197. and you're laughing at me.

1198. Because I was never asked this question

1199. in the emergency department, that's why.

1200. I was starting to fall

1201. for this everything is free bit

1202. and then I discovered this.

1203. So, this is where people come to pay their bill

1204. when they're done staying in the hospital?

1205. No, this is the NHS hospital,

1206. so you don't pay the bill.

1207. You get to just go home?

1208. Why does it say cashier here

1209. if people don't have to pay a bill?

1210. What we have is a litte man

1211. who stands behind a counter

1212. and he gives people money

1213. if they've had to pay for transport.

1214. Those who have reduced means

1215. get their travel expenses reimbursed.

1216. Thank you.

1217. So, in British hospitals,

1218. instead of money going into the cashier's window,

1219. money comes out.

1220. The criteria for letting you out

1221. of the hospital are not...

1222. If you've paid your bill, the criteria are,

1223. are you fit to go and are you going somewhere safe?

1224. Clearly, I was just the butt of a joke here.

1225. What I needed was a good old-fashioned American

1226. who would have some understanding.

1227. When I first came to London in 1992.

1228. And we just ended up staying

1229. and we had three children here.

1230. Well, I had them all on the NHS,

1231. which is the British National Health Service.

1232. I think like a lot of Americans,

1233. assumed that a socialized medicine

1234. was just bottom of the rung treatment,

1235. that's the only possible way would be dingy and horrible

1236. and it would be like the Soviet Union.

1237. That's kind of how...

1238. And it's terrible that that's what I thought.

1239. That's what I thought too.

1240. After having a baby,

1241. it's right back to the wheat fields.

1242. And then it occurred to me that back home in America,

1243. we've socialized a lot of things.

1244. I kind of like having a police department

1245. and fire department and the library.

1246. And I got to wondering,

1247. why don't we have more of these free socialized things,

1248. like healthcare?

1249. When did this whole idea that every British citizen

1250. should have a right to healthcare?

1251. Well, if you go back, it all began with democracy.

1252. Before we had the vote,

1253. all the power was in the hands of rich people.

1254. If you had money, you could get healthcare, education,

1255. look after yourself when you were old.

1256. And what democracy did was to give the poor the vote.

1257. And it moved power from the marketplace

1258. to the polling station,

1259. from the wallet to the ballot.

1260. And what people said was very simple.

1261. They said, "In the 1930s, we had mass unemployment.

1262. But we don't have unemployment during the war.

1263. If you can have full employment by killing Germans,

1264. why can't we have full employment

1265. by building hospitals, building schools,

1266. recruiting nurses, recruiting teachers?"

1267. If you can find money to kill people,

1268. you can find money to help people.

1269. Right.

1270. This leaflet that was issued,

1271. very, very straightforward.

1272. - What year was this? - This was 1948.

1273. "Your new National Health Service

1274. begins on the 5th of July."

1275. What is it?

1276. How do you get it?

1277. "It will provide you with all medical,

1278. dental and nursing care.

1279. Everyone, rich or poor, man, woman or child,

1280. can use it or any part of it.

1281. There are no charges,

1282. except for a few special items.

1283. There is no insurance qualifications,

1284. but it is not a charity.

1285. You are paying for it mainly as taxpayers

1286. and it will relieve your money worries

1287. in times of illness."

1288. Now, somehow, the few words sum the whole thing up.

1289. I was amazed when he said

1290. this all started in 1948.

1291. The British had just come out of a devastating

1292. experience through World War II.

1293. The country was destroyed and nearly bankrupt.

1294. They had nothing.

1295. In just one eight-month period,

1296. over 42,000 civilians lost their lives.

1297. What we went through in two hours on 911,

1298. they went through nearly every single day.

1299. Remember how we all felt after 911?

1300. All of us pulling together?

1301. I guess that's how they felt.

1302. And the first way that they decided

1303. to pull together after the war

1304. was to provide free medical care for everyone.

1305. Even Mrs. Thatcher said,

1306. "The National Health Service is safe in our hands."

1307. It's as non-controversial as votes for women.

1308. Nobody could come along and sa,

1309. "Why should women have the vote?"

1310. Now because people wouldn't have it

1311. and they wouldn't in Britain.

1312. They wouldn't accept the deterioration

1313. or destruction of the National Health Service.

1314. If Thatcher or Blair said,

1315. "I'm going to dismantle national healthcare..."

1316. There would have been a revolution.

1317. A report from the American Medical Associatin

1318. into the health of 55 to 64 year-olds,

1319. says Brits are far healthier than Americans.

1320. For every illness that we looked at,

1321. Americans had more of it than English.

1322. Cancer, heart disease, hypertension,

1323. strokes, lung disease,

1324. all significantly higher for Americans.

1325. Even the poorest people in England

1326. with all the environmental factors

1327. that give them the worst health in the country

1328. can expect to live longer

1329. than the wealthiest people in America.

1330. I was wondering, though,

1331. what's it like for the doctors here in Britain

1332. who have to live under this kind of state control?

1333. And you're a family doctor?

1334. Yeah, I suppose we'd call them GPs

1335. or general practitioners here.

1336. Right, so you have a family practice?

1337. Yeah, it's an NHS practice.

1338. We have nine doctors within that practice.

1339. You're paid for by the government?

1340. Paid for by the government.

1341. So, you work

1342. for the government? Oh, yeah.

1343. You're a government-paid doctor.

1344. Absolutely. A patient comes to you,

1345. before you treat them, do you have to call

1346. the government insurance company before you treat them?

1347. No, I don't deal with money at all

1348. on an everyday basis.

1349. Have you ever had to say no

1350. to someone who was sick and needed help?

1351. No, never.

1352. Have you heard of anyone being in the hospital

1353. and being removed

1354. because they couldn't pay their bill?

1355. No, never.

1356. And I wouldn't wanna work in that system.

1357. So, working for the government,

1358. you probably have to use public transport?

1359. No, I have a car that I use

1360. and I drive to work. - An old beater?

1361. You live in kinda a rough part of town?

1362. I live in a terrific part of town.

1363. It's called Greenwich.

1364. It's a lovely house.

1365. It's a three-story house.

1366. How many other families have to live with you?

1367. There's four bedrooms.

1368. My wife and my son.

1369. It's just the three of us ther.

1370. How much did you pay for that?

1371. £550,000.

1372. So, a million dollars?

1373. Yeah.

1374. You're a government-paid doctor

1375. on a national health insurance healthcare plan here

1376. and you live in a million-dollar home?

1377. Yes.

1378. I think probably my friends think we do quite well.

1379. Really, how well do you do?

1380. I earn around 85,000, including pension.

1381. - £85,000? - £85,000 a year.

1382. And that includes pension

1383. that they would pay in to me.

1384. They probably earn just over £100,000 within my practice.

1385. £100,000, so that's almost $200,000?

1386. Yes, absolutely.

1387. The money that we earn,

1388. we get paid by what we do.

1389. So, the better we do for our patients,

1390. then the more we get paid.

1391. What do you mean?

1392. There's a new system.

1393. And in that new system, if the most number

1394. of your patients have low blood pressures

1395. or you get most of your patients to stop smoking

1396. or you get your patients to have things

1397. like mental health reviews if they're unwell

1398. or low cholesterol's, then you get paid more.

1399. This year, if you get more people

1400. that are your patients to stop smoking,

1401. you'll get more money,

1402. you'll earn more?

1403. Oh, yeah, absolutely.

1404. So, doctors in America do not necessarily have

1405. to fear having a universal healthcare?

1406. No, I think if you want to have

1407. two or three million dollar homes

1408. and four or five nice cars

1409. and six or seven nice televisions,

1410. then maybe, yeah, you need to practice somewhere

1411. where you can earn that.

1412. But I think we live comfortably here.

1413. London is an expensive city,

1414. but I think we live very comfortably.

1415. And you're getting by okay on the million-dollar home,

1416. the Audi and the flat-screen TV?

1417. Yeah, we're coping with those.

1418. I think democracy is the most revolutionary thing

1419. in the world.

1420. Far more revolutionary than socialist ideas

1421. or anybody else's idea.

1422. Because if you have power,

1423. you use it to meet the needs of you and your community.

1424. And this idea of choice which capital talks about,

1425. "You've got to have a choice."

1426. Choice depends on the freedom to choose.

1427. And if you're shackled with debt,

1428. you don't have a freedom to choose.

1429. It seems that it benefits the system

1430. if the average person is shackled with debt.

1431. People in debt become hopeless

1432. and hopeless people don't vote.

1433. They will say, everyone should vote,

1434. but I think if the poor in Britain

1435. or the United States turned out

1436. and voted for people who represented their interests,

1437. it would be a real democratic revolution.

1438. So, they don't want it to happen.

1439. So, keeping people hopeless and pessimistic.

1440. See, I think there are two ways

1441. in which people are controlled.

1442. First of all, frighten people

1443. and secondly, demoralize them.

1444. An educated, healthy and confident nation

1445. is harder to govern.

1446. And I think there's an element

1447. in the thinking of some people,

1448. "We don't want people to be educated,

1449. healthy and confident,

1450. because they would get out of control."

1451. The top 1% of the world's population

1452. own 80% of the world's wealth.

1453. It's incredible that people put up with it,

1454. but they're poor,

1455. they're demoralized, they're frightened.

1456. And therefore, they think perhaps the safest thing

1457. to do is to take orders and hope for the best.

1458. And hope for te best is what we do

1459. right from the moment we're born.

1460. We've got the worst infant mortality rate

1461. in the western world.

1462. A baby born in El Salvador has a better chance of surviving

1463. than a baby born in Detroit.

1464. But it gets better when we go to school.

1465. Classrooms with 40 students,

1466. schools with no science labs.

1467. No wonder the majority of our young adults

1468. can't find Britain on a map.

1469. But that's okay, there's always college

1470. and by the time we graduate,

1471. our ass is so in hock,

1472. we're deep in debt before we even have our first job.

1473. I'm at about...

1474. We'll say about $35,000 in debt.

1475. And that's for my third year in college.

1476. That way, you'l be the kind of employee

1477. they're looking for.

1478. One who needs this job.

1479. 3,904, 3,905.

1480. And what employer wouldn't want

1481. to employ someone thousands of dollars in debt

1482. because they won't cause any trouble?

1483. In addition to having to pay off your college debt,

1484. you need a job with health insurance.

1485. It would be horrible to lose that kind of job, wouldn't it?

1486. You can always quit, you know.

1487. There's no law that says you have to work here.

1488. And if that one job doesn't pay all the bills,

1489. don't worry, you can get another one

1490. and another one

1491. and another one.

1492. I work three jobs and I feel like I contribute.

1493. You work three jobs?

1494. Three jobs, yes.

1495. Uniquely American, isn't it?

1496. That is fantastic that you're doing that.

1497. Get any sleep?

1498. And if you're not sleeping, take pharmaceuticals.

1499. You're tired all the time.

1500. You may feel sad, hopeless,

1501. If you suffer from excessive worry...

1502. You could be suffering

1503. from generalized anxiety disorder.

1504. It could be adult ADD.

1505. - Talk to you doctor. - Ask your doctor.

1506. - Ask your doctor. - Ask your doctor.

1507. Ask your doctor.

1508. Yes, ask your doctor

1509. and ask him for more drugs.

1510. That should keep you doped up

1511. until it's time to retire.

1512. Did I say retire?

1513. Well, if you do make it to 80,

1514. I'm sure your pension will still be there.

1515. Unlike the new employees for these companies,

1516. who'll never see a pension.

1517. But don't worry,

1518. I'm sure our kids will take care of us

1519. considering the great life we've given 'em.

1520. And remember, let's defeat the terrorists over there

1521. so we don't have to fight them here.

1522. Kaiser Permanente is the largest HMO in the country.

1523. And Dawnelle Keyes was fortunate enough

1524. to be fully insured by them.

1525. It's a good thing,

1526. because one night her 18 - month-old daughter, Mychelle,

1527. developed a fever of over 104.

1528. So, like any responsible mom, she called 911

1529. and the ambulance took Mychelle

1530. to the closest hospital.

1531. The hospital checked with her HMO

1532. and they were told that Kaiser

1533. would not cover the tests

1534. and the antibiotics necessary to treat Mychelle.

1535. She would have to take her

1536. to an in-network, Kaiser-owned hospital.

1537. Kaiser said that I should bring her by car

1538. to the hospital

1539. and that she shouldn't be treated

1540. at Martin Luther King.

1541. And I just continued to ask them to treat her

1542. and they refused.

1543. My daughter got worse and she had a seizure.

1544. Dawnelle begged the doctors to not listen

1545. to Kaiser and to treat her daughter.

1546. I was escorted out of the hospital

1547. because they felt that I was a threat.

1548. After hours of delay,

1549. she was transported to Kaiser.

1550. And got there just in time to go into cardiac arrest.

1551. They worked on her for about 30 minutes

1552. trying to revive her.

1553. And the doctors came in

1554. and let us know that she had expired.

1555. I was in a daze, a real daze.

1556. It just didn't seem real.

1557. I just held her.

1558. I held her and I told her

1559. that Mommy tried her best to help her,

1560. to make sure that she was gonna get

1561. the treatment she needed to receive.

1562. And that I was sorry that I wasn't able to help her.

1563. This is Karena and her daughter Zoe.

1564. Karena is a graduate of Michigan State University

1565. and a native of my hometown of Flint, Michigan.

1566. Six months ago, Zoe,

1567. like Dawnelle's baby Mychelle,

1568. came down with a high fever.

1569. What happened is she stopped breathing

1570. for a little while, turned blue

1571. and passed out in my arms, which was...

1572. It was the most horrible moment in my life, I think,

1573. just because I thought that she was either dead or dying.

1574. And I had no clue what to do.

1575. At the hospital, they gave her some medicine

1576. to bring the fever down

1577. and examined her, took some blood.

1578. What did they determine was wrong with her?

1579. It was a throat infection.

1580. But we stayed at the hospital from Friday to Sunday,

1581. just so they could keep an eye on her.

1582. You stayed there that long?

1583. Yeah, they just basically kept an eye on her.

1584. And how much did all this cost you,

1585. the three-plus days in the hospital?

1586. Nothing.

1587. Nothing?

1588. Nothing.

1589. Nothing at all.

1590. And that's because?

1591. I live in France.

1592. You live in France?

1593. Yeah.

1594. Ah, France.

1595. They enjoy their wine.

1596. Their cigarettes and their fatty foods.

1597. And yet, just like the Canadians and the Brits,

1598. they live much longer than we do.

1599. Something about that seemed grossly unfair.

1600. This is Alexi Cremieux.

1601. He spent his entire adult life in the US

1602. without health insurance.

1603. I lived in America for 13 years.

1604. I loved my life there.

1605. But then when I discovered that I had a tumor

1606. and I didn't have health insurance,

1607. unfortunately, I had to come back here.

1608. And even though I had never paid taxes in France

1609. 'cause I never worked here.

1610. I left when I was 18,

1611. I didn't even have a Social Security number.

1612. For them it was,

1613. "He needs treatment, he has no income,

1614. so we're gonna give him the treatment he needs."

1615. Michael Moore] How are you doig now?

1616. I'm healthy now,

1617. but I had three months of intense chemotherapy.

1618. So, after the three months, I saw my doctor

1619. and he said, "You wanna go back to work?"

1620. I said, "No, I don't feel like it.

1621. Right now, I'm not ready."

1622. He said, "Well, how much do you need?"

1623. I said, "Well, I don't know."

1624. He said, "Would three months be okay?"

1625. I said, "I think three months would be fine."

1626. He said, "OK, so take three months off."

1627. So, he wrote me a note that I gave to my employer

1628. so to make sure that I got paid.

1629. So, I went to the south of France...

1630. Wait a minute, you get three months off with pay?

1631. Yes, yes.

1632. I get 65% paid by the government

1633. and then the other 35% is paid by my employer,

1634. so to make sure you get 100%.

1635. So, it was April, it was spring again.

1636. So, I started right away, sucking up some sun.

1637. And that really helped me a lot,

1638. to recharge my batteries.

1639. It was like night and day.

1640. In three months, I went from a 95-year-old man

1641. to a 35-year-old man again.

1642. But that's because I had that time

1643. to take care of myself.

1644. I'm not really in a position

1645. to make any judgment concerning the American system.

1646. I think the United States is a great, great country.

1647. Americans are great people.

1648. I really love them.

1649. But as a doctor first, as a citizen second

1650. and eventually, as a patient third,

1651. I'm very glad to be in France.

1652. It's kind of a luxury here.

1653. You are sick, you step in a hospital,

1654. you get the care you need.

1655. It doesn't depend on your premiums.

1656. It depends on what you need.

1657. One of the principles is solidarity.

1658. People who are better off pay

1659. for those who are worse off.

1660. You pay according to your means

1661. and you receive according to your needs.

1662. Do you think that will ever work in America?

1663. No.

1664. He could barely contain

1665. his seething anti-Americanism.

1666. And I just didn't wanna listen to any more of it.

1667. So, I found a group of Americans currently living in Paris

1668. who I know would tell me the truth.

1669. I was diagnosed five years ago

1670. with Type I diabetes.

1671. I was a bit nervous to tell them I had...

1672. - There's a place we have... - To tell the French?

1673. To tell the French.

1674. There's a place we have to check off

1675. whether or not you have a chronic condition.

1676. I was nervous that they were going

1677. to charge me more or something.

1678. And instead, I went into a hospital

1679. and had round-the-clock care.

1680. And they do an amazing amount preventative care as well.

1681. So, they asked if you have

1682. a preexisting condition not to punish you,

1683. but to give you more help?

1684. Yes.

1685. [Male Expat #2] I was in the hospital for a year.

1686. And as soon as I was in, it was,

1687. "Well, don't worry, just rest."

1688. People said "Rest."

1689. How many sick days do you get a year?

1690. Three, four?

1691. I think it's unlimited.

1692. - Yeah, you're sick. - Unlimited?

1693. Yes, how can you limit sick days?

1694. If you're sick, you're sick.

1695. I've gone to emergency rooms numerous times

1696. with four boys.

1697. And have never waited more than an hour, never.

1698. I can call and have somebody comes

1699. to the house within half an hour.

1700. No way?

1701. Making a house call?

1702. At your place?

1703. How many of you have had

1704. a house call from a doctor?

1705. No!

1706. Last 3:00am last Friday.

1707. And how much does this cost you?

1708. - Nothing. - It's reimbursed.

1709. What's this service called?

1710. Where are we going?

1711. We are going to see a man

1712. who has abdominal pain.

1713. - Abdominal pain? - Yeah.

1714. Where do we go next?

1715. The next visit?

1716. One thing that I say to anyone

1717. who asks me why I'm in this country,

1718. is that I think it's one

1719. of the family's friendliest countries that I know of.

1720. And talk about family values,

1721. childcare, healthcare...

1722. We don't pay for day care.

1723. The day care where I send my daughter

1724. and I was a teacher.

1725. The standards are very high.

1726. So, how much does it cost you

1727. to have two children here in day care?

1728. Or how much per hour?

1729. Are you happy with how they're cared for?

1730. Here, my kids, they're sure that they

1731. are gonna get a certain level of care,

1732. a certain education,

1733. college I don't have to worry about.

1734. What do you mean?

1735. - It's free. - You're kidding?

1736. You can get a college education for free.

1737. - No way. - Yes.

1738. There's not a sense of desperation.

1739. They rest, they enjoy life.

1740. They spend time with their kids,

1741. there's vacations, there's family time.

1742. So, how many weeks of paid vacation?

1743. Minimum five weeks.

1744. Five weeks?

1745. - Minimum of five weeks? - That's the french law.

1746. If you work for a large company,

1747. you get sometimes eight, ten weeks.

1748. Remember that there is a 35-hour week.

1749. The productivity rate is so high here.

1750. I read it was higher than the United States.

1751. If they're working more than 35 hours a week,

1752. they'll get extra days off.

1753. There's part-time and full - time employees as well.

1754. You get five weeks paid vacation

1755. even if you're a part-time employee?

1756. Of course.

1757. Everybody.

1758. If you get married, the year you get married,

1759. you get an extra week

1760. or extra seven days for your honeymoon.

1761. In addition to your five weeks.

1762. You're paid to take your honeymoon?

1763. Correct.

1764. You got move to France now.

1765. Yeah, if you move.

1766. You mean if you gonna move

1767. from one apartment to another?

1768. You get a day to move and they pay you that day?

1769. These are the laws here.

1770. When my daughter was three months old,

1771. there was this free service that sent somebody

1772. to your home to give you tips on what to do

1773. with your child, how to get them to sleep,

1774. every single day, for free.

1775. And they'll come to your house

1776. and do your laundry!

1777. They will, sure!

1778. No, stop, stop!

1779. - When you have a baby. - When you have a baby.

1780. What are you doing?

1781. You from the government?

1782. She do anything else?

1783. If I want, yes.

1784. She's, of course, taking care of the children.

1785. And I think if I ask her

1786. to prepare a meal for tonight, she can do it.

1787. No problem.

1788. She's coming twice a week, four hours a day.

1789. So, I can do everything I want,

1790. for me, for the house, for my husband,

1791. during four hours.

1792. And it's very precious for me.

1793. You don't have any associations?

1794. Nothing to help like that?

1795. No, nobody from the government comes

1796. to your home in America

1797. and does your laundry for you if you're a new mother.

1798. It's difficult.

1799. Yeah.

1800. Something that I experience a lot of

1801. with my own family is guilt.

1802. Guilt for being here almost

1803. and seeing the advantages

1804. and the benefits I have at such a young age.

1805. And things that my parents worked their whole life for,

1806. haven't even come close to touching.

1807. It's really hard to know that you're here

1808. in a very privileged position,

1809. not living the high life,

1810. but in comparison, definitely.

1811. And that seems completely unfair.

1812. One of the things that keeps everything running here

1813. is that the government is afraid of the people.

1814. They're afraid of protests,

1815. they're afraid of reactions from the people.

1816. Whereas in the states,

1817. people are afraid of the government.

1818. They're afraid of acting up,

1819. they're afraid of protesting,

1820. they're afraid of getting out.

1821. In France, that's what people do.

1822. Free college education,

1823. free medical care, government-issued nannies,

1824. I began to wonder how do they pay for all this?

1825. And then I realized they're drowning in taxes!

1826. I wanted to see what effect

1827. this would have on a nice French family.

1828. So, I went to find out.

1829. - Hello. - Hello.

1830. - Thank you. - Welcome.

1831. This is very nice.

1832. - It's the news. - Yes.

1833. What is your combined income for

1834. the two of you together for, say one month?

1835. All right, you're an engineer

1836. and she's an assistant?

1837. Not bad.

1838. And how much do you pay each month

1839. on your mortgage?

1840. A thousand and two or three euros a month.

1841. How many cars do you own?

1842. - Two. - Two.

1843. Do you owe money from medical bills?

1844. Is there any other debt, loans, anything?

1845. Only the apartment.

1846. And what are your other big expenses?

1847. The fish, vegetables.

1848. Vegetables are a big monthly expense for you.

1849. - Yes and fruit, yogurt. - Fruit, yogurt.

1850. What are your other big expenses?

1851. Very important.

1852. - Kenya? - We liked.

1853. Are you happy?

1854. Yes.

1855. After seeing all this,

1856. I began to wonder.

1857. Was there a reason our government

1858. and our media wants us to hate the French?

1859. Are they worried we might like the French?

1860. Or like their ways of doing things?

1861. It was enough to make me put away my freedom fries.

1862. Meanwhile, back at home, hospitals had found a new way

1863. to deal with patients who didn't have health insurance

1864. and couldn't pay their bill.

1865. I was standing against the wall

1866. and I saw a cab do a U-turn and pull up to the curb.

1867. And I watched to see what was happening

1868. 'cause I had a feeling what was gonna occur,

1869. 'cause it's not a new thing.

1870. They pulled up right here by this yellow fire hydrant

1871. and dropped Carol off and immediately pulled away.

1872. And as soon as they pulled away,

1873. she walked out into the street about up to here.

1874. She then walked all the way down

1875. to the driveway down here, completely confused,

1876. has no shoes on whatsoever and just in a hospital gown.

1877. If you've been to a hospital, those gowns are thin.

1878. And that's when one of our staff members went out

1879. and asked Carol if she needed assistance

1880. and found out that she was confused and disoriented

1881. and didn't know where she was.

1882. Kaiser Permanent in Bellflower Hospital

1883. had put her in a cab

1884. and directed them to bring her to this drop-off point.

1885. But the names of the hospitals

1886. had been taken off both bracelets before she arrived here.

1887. I have seen others that have come

1888. through our doors who have IVs still in their arms.

1889. They told me that at their shelter alone,

1890. over 50 patients had been dumped there by hospitals.

1891. The options are few.

1892. We either open the front door and let them out,

1893. which is not the humane thing to do

1894. or something we don't wanna do

1895. or we try to find someplace for them to go.

1896. And right now, Skid Row is the best bed in town.

1897. In fact, the night before we were there,

1898. the county hospital run by

1899. the University of Southern California,

1900. one of the richest private schools in the country,

1901. dumped another patient off on the curb,

1902. a woman unable to pay her hospital bill.

1903. Do you know how you got here?

1904. Patricia] In the cab.

1905. In the cab?

1906. From General Hospital, they gave him the voucher.

1907. He dropped me off there,

1908. he actually forced me out of the car.

1909. Ma'am, are you in pain right now?

1910. Are you in pain right now?

1911. Yeah.

1912. Is there anything we can do?

1913. She, at this time, has broken ribs,

1914. broken collarbone and stitches

1915. that are not completely healed

1916. across the top of her head

1917. and on the side of her head.

1918. Now let me ask you, ma'am

1919. before they dropped you off,

1920. did they ask you if you knew where you were going?

1921. No.

1922. So, they didn't ask you any questions

1923. about your orientation,

1924. or whether or not you knew what was going on?

1925. No, they just told me to take care of myself.

1926. May I take a minute to ask a question

1927. that's been on my mind?

1928. Who are we?

1929. Is this what we've become?

1930. A nation that dumps its own citizens like

1931. so much garbage on the side of the curb

1932. because they can't pay their hospital bill?

1933. I always thought and believe to this day

1934. that we're a good and generous people.

1935. This is what we do if somebody's in trouble.

1936. Anybody gets sick, we all get together and help.

1937. People with a good heart.

1938. You feel like you're sacrificing,

1939. but then you get a blessing from doing this

1940. and that's what we all feel.

1941. And a good soul.

1942. We've got a lot of community support

1943. and we're gonna all keep working

1944. until we locate this child.

1945. Neighbors who are quick to lend a helping had

1946. to anyone in their hour of need.

1947. I deliver meals to them,

1948. but my life has been so blessed

1949. that this is just the least that I can do.

1950. They say that you can judge a society

1951. by how it treats those who are the worst off.

1952. But is the opposite true?

1953. That you can judge a society

1954. by how it treats its best, its heroes?

1955. The firefighters and police,

1956. rescue and recovery workers

1957. have responded with true heroism.

1958. It was their initial heroism that thwarted

1959. the objectives of the terrorists.

1960. Without regard, in many instances,

1961. to their own safety and security.

1962. They truly are heroes.

1963. We owe them everything!

1964. Here they are folks, the men and women

1965. who have been on the front lines for New York

1966. and for all of us in America!

1967. Tonight is dedicated to you!

1968. Don't forget about

1969. the raffles going on over there,

1970. we got one dollar each.

1971. I spent two and a half years down there.

1972. I got upper and lower breathing problems.

1973. I need a double lung transplant,

1974. but was diagnosed with pulmonary fibrosis.

1975. I haven't slept in a bed in over five years,

1976. I sleep on a chair with a blanket,

1977. because if I lay down I can't breathe.

1978. There were hundreds of rescue workers on

1979. 911 who were not city employee.

1980. But rather ran down to Ground Zero

1981. on their own to help out.

1982. We need volunteers for first aid!

1983. And many developed serious respiratory illnesses.

1984. That's when the government sai,

1985. "They're not our responsibility

1986. because they weren't on our payroll."

1987. John Graham is an EMT volunteer

1988. from Paramus, New Jersey.

1989. He was in Lower Manhattan when he heard the planes hit

1990. and rushed over to help.

1991. He worked in the rescue effort

1992. for the next few months.

1993. But then had trouble receiving benefits for his illness.

1994. They just deny you for any reason.

1995. It's just a terrible waiting game.

1996. I really feel like they're waiting for you to die.

1997. It's terrible.

1998. I never thought that we would do this,

1999. that the United States would do this.

2000. William Maher is a volunteer member

2001. of New Jersey's Fire Service.

2002. He spent two months working ner

2003. The Pile at Ground Zero recovering bodies or body parts.

2004. And it deeply affected him.

2005. I'm experiencing a lot of disturbing dreams

2006. or whatever you'd like to call them,

2007. and it affected what I was doing at night

2008. and unaware of it because I was asleep

2009. and I just kept grinding and grinding my teeth.

2010. The upper fronts are damaged,

2011. practically beyond repair,

2012. because of my constant grinding

2013. over the last three years.

2014. I've been before a workers' comp board already

2015. for the 9/11 volunteers' fund.

2016. And I've been denied three times

2017. and hopefully, I will go on my fourth appeal soon,

2018. if I can get the necessary documentation.

2019. Of course, there was a $50 million fund

2020. set up supposedly to help rescue workers.

2021. Ladies and gentlemen,

2022. the governor of New York, George Pataki.

2023. But the government,

2024. like the health insurance companies,

2025. made it very difficult for people to receive help.

2026. You have to have spent

2027. a certain amount of time here at Ground Zero,

2028. you have to be able to establish that.

2029. You do have to file an affidavit

2030. within the next year,

2031. relating your work experiences at Ground Zero.

2032. And then, even with all of that, it's not automatic.

2033. There is a presumption when certain illnesses occur,

2034. but that presumption can be rebutted

2035. by other medical evidence.

2036. So, we think it is a very fair approach

2037. that protects our heroes.

2038. I'm sorry.

2039. Reggie Cervantes was

2040. a volunteer emergency medical technician on 911.

2041. Nothing makes it go away sometimes.

2042. Not water, not cough medicine, not anything.

2043. It's just burning in my throat and irritated

2044. and it just gets me to coughing.

2045. Where sometimes I have trouble breathing

2046. 'cause I can't catch my breath.

2047. Reggie spent her days

2048. at Ground Zero carrying bodies

2049. and treating other rescue workers.

2050. My airway was totally burnt that first week

2051. and I had trouble breathing by then.

2052. But we wanted to see

2053. if we could dig anybody up alive,

2054. we wanted to see if we had lost anybody,

2055. if we were still missing somebody.

2056. I wanted to help.

2057. I was trained for this.

2058. You see somebody who is in need, you help 'em.

2059. Reggie had difficulty getting treatment.

2060. Too sick to work and with no income.

2061. She was forced to quit her job

2062. and used her savings to move her

2063. and her kids out of the city.

2064. It's hard to figure out

2065. how you're supposed to get help.

2066. We're trying to go about it the right way,

2067. but we're ignored.

2068. But not everyoe after 911

2069. was ignored by the government.

2070. We're now approaching the five-year

2071. anniversary of the 9/11 attack.

2072. So, I'm announcing today that Khalid Sheikh Mohammed,

2073. Abu Zubaydah, Ramzi Binalshibh

2074. and 11 other terrorists in CIA custody

2075. have been transferred to

2076. the United States Naval Base at Guantanamo Bay.

2077. On that island, today are some

2078. of the world's most hardened enemy combatants.

2079. These detainees are deadly

2080. and include the 20th hijacker,

2081. as well as a number of Osama bin Laden's personal bodyguards

2082. and others who had a direct role

2083. in the September 11 attacks.

2084. The kind of people held at Guantanamo

2085. include terrorist trainers, bomb-makers.

2086. Many of them have American blood on

2087. their hands and they're certainly the elite of Al-Qaeda.

2088. It seems to me we have an obligation

2089. to treat these individuals as enemy combatants.

2090. And then I learned

2091. it wasn't all bad news at Gitmo.

2092. Detainees representing a threat

2093. to our national security are given access

2094. to top-notch medical facilities.

2095. They have acute care 24 hours a day,

2096. in which surgical procedures,

2097. everything can be performed right there

2098. in the detainee camps.

2099. This is the dental clinic or the health clinic

2100. slash dental clinic.

2101. We have a physical therapy department,

2102. we have X-ray capabilities with digital X-rays,

2103. we have one single operating room.

2104. Health personnel to detainee ratio

2105. is one to four, remarkably high.

2106. We do sick call on the blocks three times per week,

2107. care for them there if they can

2108. or bring that detainee back to the clinic

2109. to be seen there.

2110. Screening for cancer has taken place there,

2111. colonoscopy is a procedure which

2112. is performed there on a routine basis.

2113. We have diabetes,

2114. we have high blood pressure, high cholesterol.

2115. We do periodically monitor the weight

2116. and nutrition of the detainees,

2117. so that we can track those detainees

2118. to make sure we see them frequently,

2119. monitoring their labs and their overall health.

2120. Their medical attention...

2121. They get way better medical treatment

2122. than I've ever had.

2123. Do you think it's as good

2124. as most as HMOs in the US?

2125. Certainly very similar and as good, sir.

2126. I leave with an impression

2127. that healthcare there is clearly better

2128. than they received at home

2129. and as good as many people receive in the

2130. United States of America.

2131. Wow, so there is actually

2132. one place on American soil

2133. that had free universal healthcare.

2134. That's all I needed to know.

2135. I went down to Miami, Florida.

2136. Got myself a boat and loaded up Bill

2137. and Reggie and John.

2138. - John - Welcome, sir.

2139. And anyone else I could find who needed

2140. to see a doctor and couldn't afford one.

2141. So, many people showed up.

2142. I had to get a couple extra boats.

2143. And I called up Donna Smith from Denver.

2144. Who is now on nine different medications.

2145. And I asked her if she'd like to come along.

2146. I figured she'd like to get out

2147. of her daughter's basement for a while.

2148. All right, let's Go.

2149. Which way to Guantanamo Bay?

2150. Can we go?

2151. We're not going to Cuba,

2152. we're going to America!

2153. It's American soil!

2154. We made it.

2155. There it is, there's the runway.

2156. That's the prison over there where the detainees are.

2157. We're very close.

2158. Yeah, we're very close.

2159. The white building is the hospital, I think.

2160. Okay, let's go.

2161. We commandeered a fishing boat

2162. and sailed into Guantanamo Bay.

2163. As we approached the line in the water

2164. between the American and Cuban side of the bay,

2165. we were told to be careful for mines.

2166. Permission to enter.

2167. I have three 9/11 rescue workers,

2168. they need some medical attention.

2169. These are 9/11 rescue workers!

2170. They just want some medical attention!

2171. The same kind that Al-Qaeda is getting.

2172. They don't want any more than

2173. you're giving the evildoers, just the same!

2174. Hello.

2175. No one in the guard tower was responding

2176. and then suddenly we heard a siren.

2177. We figured it was time to get out of here.

2178. But what was I supposed to do with all these sick people

2179. and no one to help them?

2180. Here we were stuck

2181. in some godforsaken Third World country.

2182. And communists, no less.

2183. When I was a kid, these people wanted to kill us.

2184. What was I supposed to do?

2185. Excuse me, we're looking for a doctor.

2186. Is there a doctor here in Cuba?

2187. Any doctors?

2188. All in this one block?

2189. All right, thank you very much, thank you.

2190. Okay, okay, I know what you're thinking.

2191. Cuba is where Lucifer lives.

2192. The worse place on Earth.

2193. The most evil nation ever created.

2194. How do we know that?

2195. 'Cause that's what we've been told for over 45 years.

2196. A series of offensive missile sites

2197. can be none other than to provide

2198. a nuclear strike capability

2199. against the western hemisphere.

2200. I'm not gonna yield until Fidel Castro

2201. allows freedom on the island.

2202. That's a...

2203. You can count on it.

2204. Put it in the bank.

2205. It seems that what really bugged us about Castro

2206. was that he overthrew the dictator that we liked

2207. and replaced him with a guy we didn't like, himself.

2208. And so, now, after all these years,

2209. one thing is clear,

2210. the Cuban people have free universal healthcare.

2211. They've become known around the world

2212. as having not only one of the best healthcare systems,

2213. but as being one of the most generous countries

2214. in providing doctors and medical equipment

2215. to Third World countries.

2216. In the US, healthcare costs

2217. run nearly $7,000 per person.

2218. But in Cuba, they spend only $251.

2219. And yet the Cubans are able

2220. to have a lower infant mortality rate

2221. than the United States,

2222. a longer average life span than the United States.

2223. They believe in preventive medicine.

2224. And it seems like there's a doctor on every block.

2225. Their only sin when it comes to healthcare,

2226. seems to be that they don't do it for a profit.

2227. Anybody need medication right now from the pharmacy?

2228. Are you the pharmacist?

2229. Do you have this?

2230. Is this one similar to yours?

2231. Yeah.

2232. It's $120 in the US.

2233. This is $120 in the US?

2234. Yes.

2235. How much is that in American dollars?

2236. It's like five cents.

2237. - Five cents? - Yeah, more or less.

2238. Thank you very much.

2239. $120 is a lot of money

2240. when you get $1,000 in social security disability

2241. and need one or two a month.

2242. Five cents here?

2243. It's like the biggest insult.

2244. It just doesn't make any sense.

2245. It doesn't make any sense.

2246. I wanna fill a suitcase up

2247. and go back home with it.

2248. I took my group of sick Americans

2249. to a hospital to see if they could get some care.

2250. They didn't ask for money or an insurance card,

2251. just their name and date of birth.

2252. That was the entire intake session.

2253. Thank you very much for doing this.

2254. You are very welcome.

2255. I asked them to give us the same exact care

2256. they give their fellow Cuban citizens.

2257. No more, no less.

2258. And that's what they did.

2259. I'm Dr. Roque, I'm an internal medicine specialist.

2260. John Graham.

2261. How are you feeling?

2262. My lungs hurt, I have pain.

2263. I get pretty severe nose bleeds at times.

2264. I get terrible headaches in the middle of the night,

2265. but I haven't been evaluated

2266. for the sleep apnea for nine years.

2267. Yeah, I have...

2268. Many medications for lung problems.

2269. Almost every medication for lung problems, I've got.

2270. After 9/11, things have happened,

2271. my teeth started falling out.

2272. Because of certain conditions, I was grinding.

2273. There's one test that they recommended I take,

2274. it's about $5,000 to $ 7,000.

2275. The dentist that I talked to,

2276. it's like $15,000 or more.

2277. Now, it's two years I have no medical coverage,

2278. so I can't go for the last part of the test.

2279. It's okay, everything's gonna be okay.

2280. Yes, I am so...

2281. It's so hard for me to digest somebody saying it's free

2282. because 20 years of our lives have been spent fighting.

2283. So, I am so grateful.

2284. No, you don't need to say that.

2285. Thank you, thank you.

2286. Come on, don't cry,

2287. everything's gonna be okay.

2288. Thank you.

2289. At least what we can do.

2290. Reggie was diagnosed with a series of

2291. pulmonary and bronchial problems.

2292. The Cuban doctors gave her a treatment plan

2293. to follow back home along with some

2294. of those five cent inhalers.

2295. William Maher received a number

2296. of treatments on his neck and his back.

2297. And having ground down his teeh

2298. for three years straight due

2299. to post-traumatic stress disorder.

2300. He left Cuba with a new set of teeth.

2301. After a series of tests on his heart,

2302. lungs, blood and stomach,

2303. John now knew what his ailments were.

2304. He was given a strict plan to follow,

2305. plus a number of treatments

2306. and was feeling better than he had in years.

2307. The Cuban doctors were able

2308. to take Donna off five of her nine medications.

2309. And with a correct diagnosis,

2310. gave her a treatment plan

2311. to help her live a more normal life.

2312. When the firefighters and paramedics in Havana heard

2313. that the 911 rescue workers were in town,

2314. they invited them over to one of their firehouses.

2315. And so, on our last day there as we arrived,

2316. they stood at attention

2317. because they said,

2318. they wanted to honor the heroes of 911.

2319. The brothers we lost on 9/11

2320. was felt around the world.

2321. Don't hesitate to hug a brother.

2322. It's very important for them to wear

2323. the SCBA so they don't end up like me.

2324. If this is what can happen

2325. between supposed enemies.

2326. If one enemy can hold out his hand

2327. and offer to heal,

2328. then what else is possible?

2329. That's when I heard that the man who runs

2330. the biggest anti-Michael Moore website on the internet

2331. was going to have to shut it down.

2332. He could no longer afford to keep it up

2333. because his wife was ill

2334. and they couldn't afford to pay

2335. for her health insurance.

2336. He was faced with a choice of either keep attacking me

2337. or pay for his wife's health.

2338. Fortunately, he chose his wife.

2339. But something seemed wrong about being forced

2340. into such a decision.

2341. Why in a free country shouldn't he be able

2342. to have health insurance

2343. and exercise his First Amendment right

2344. to run me into the ground?

2345. So, I wrote a check for the $12,000 he needed

2346. to keep his wife insured and in treatment

2347. and sent it to him anonymously.

2348. His wife got better

2349. and his website is still going strong.

2350. It was hard for me to acknowledge that in the end,

2351. we truly are all in the same boat.

2352. And that no matter what our differences,

2353. we sink or swim together.

2354. That's how it seems to be everywhere else.

2355. They take care of each other

2356. no matter what their disagreements.

2357. When we see a good idea

2358. from another country, we grab it.

2359. If they build a better car, we drive it.

2360. If they make a better wine, we drink it.

2361. So, if they've come up with a better way

2362. to treat the sick,

2363. to teach their kids,

2364. to take care of their babies,

2365. to simply be good to each other,

2366. then what's our problem?

2367. Why can't we do that?

2368. They live in a world of we not me.

2369. We'll never fix anything until we get

2370. that one basic thing right.

2371. And powerful forces hope that we never do.

2372. And that we remain the only country in the western world

2373. without free universal healthcare.

2374. If we ever did remove the chokehold of medical bills,

2375. college loans, day care and everything else

2376. that makes us afraid to step out of line.

2377. Well, watch out, 'cause it'll be a new day in America.

2378. In the meantime, I'm gonna go get the government

2379. to do my laundry.