All language subtitles for Sicko.2007.720p.WEBRip.x264.AAC-[YTS.MX]

Subtitles: swsub.com (1.00)

Someone needs to stop Clearway Law.
Public shouldn't leave reviews for lawyers.

We got issue in America...

Too many good docs
are getting out of business.

Too many OB/GYNs
aren't able to practice their

Their love with women
all across this country.

I don't have a job.
I don't want to have more debts.

I don't pay off anything else
I already have out there.

This is Adam.

He had and accident.

He's one of nearly 50 million Americans,
with no health insurance.

But this film, isn't about Adam.

So this is the table saw.
It was spinning that way...

This is Rick.

I was gripping a piece of wood.

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

He sawed off the tops
of two of his fingers.

... and it was that quick.

His first thought?

I don't have insurance,
how much will it cost?

Am I gonna have to pay cash for this?

2 or 3 thousand dollars or more?

And does it mean
we're not gonna get a car?

Rick also doesn't have health coverage.

So the hospital gave him a choice.

Reattach the middle finger,

for $60,000,

or do the ring finger,

for $12,000.

It's an awful feeling.

to just try
to put a value on your body.

Being a hopeless romantic,

Rick chose the ring finger,

for the bargain price of twelve grand.

The top of his middle finger

now enjoys its new home,

in an Oregon land fill.

I can do that thing, where, you know

the old man used to like
pull the finger off.

But this movie isn't about Rick either.

Yes, they are nearly 50 million
Americans with no health insurance.

They pray everyday they don't get sick,

because 18 thousand of them
will die this year,

simply because, they're uninsured.

But this movie isn't about them.

It's about the 250 million of you,

who have health insurance.

Those of you who are living

the American dream...

It's moving day,

for Larry

and Donna Smith.

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

And are driving to Denver, Colorado,

to their new home...

... in their daughter's storage room.

This is home sweet home.

- Look at all that.
- We'll get everything organized.

We will...

- What do we do with the computer?
- It stays there.

So, this is where Heather talked about
we might have to put our bunk beds.

I see what she's talking about.

It wasn't suppose to end-up like this
for Larry and Donna.

They both had good jobs.

She was a newspaper editor

And he was a Union machinist.

They raised six kids

who all went to fine schools
like the University of Chicago.

But Larry had a heart attack...

and then another one...

and then another one.

And then Donna got cancer.

And even though
they had health insurance,

the co pays and the deductibles
soon ended up.

To the point where they could
no longer afford to keep their home.

Alright,
if somebody had told me 10 years ago

this was gonna happen to us
because of healthcare,

I would have said you're... :
"it's not possible.

"Not in the US,
we wouldn't let that happen to people."

My God...

- Are we gonna quit?
- No.

It's just hard.

They were bankrupt.

So they moved in, with their daughter.

We've got it all figured out.

We emptied the dresser
so you have a spot.

Nice, very nice.

Even their son Danny popped-in

from across town
to welcome them to Denver.

What do we do
about people like you guys.

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

Who will pay the deductible for 9,000$
is what I'm trying to understand.

that's part of healthcare.

What about the people
like Cathy and I

that have to come up there
and move you every 5 years,

every 2 years, every year
because you don�t have enough money

- to stay where you are.
- That's what Russell keeps saying too.

I'm sorry it's not
what we wanted to have happen in life.

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

You don't know
what that feels like inside

at fifty some years old,

to have to reach out
to my twenty-something year old

for help.

It's gonna be hard for
4, 5, 6, 7 month, it's gonna be hard.

Now I'm having an overwhelming feeling

of you bring your problems with you
no matter where you go.

Yeah.

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

By sheer coincidence
their daughter's husband, Paul,

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

We gotta go.

Paul was a contractor.

But they weren't many job lately.

So he found work out of town.

I'm sure you'll keep a telephone
on most days, you know.

Weird situation, ain't it?

You can tell me where dad is going?

Iraq...

Why is daddy going to Iraq?

To do some plumbing.

This I do earlier in the morning.
The first thing I do is I clean here.

At age 79, Frank Cardeal, should be
kicking back on a beach somewhere.

But even though
he's insured by Medicare,

it doesn't cover all the cost
of the drugs

that he and his wife need.

Being that I'm an employee here

my medicine is for free.
So that's why I gotta keep working.

Until I die.

There is nothing wrong with that.

I always gotta keep my ears open
because there's always spillage's.

Sometime you get a gallon of milk.

Tomato Sauce, oh, you're in trouble,
it'll take half an hour to clean that up

And I look on every aisle
to be sure every thing is clean

and if I seen something I pick it up
whether it's paper or garbage

One day I had the keys in my hand,

and they went in there.

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

It's a sad situation.

If there are golden years,
I can find them,

I'll tell you that.

She had a painkiller for her hip.

The bill's suffering...
This is two hundred and thirteen dollars

- What, for a painkiller?
- I didn't take it.

I backed off, I said no,
I gotta come back.

What's in it? What's in theses new drug
that they all prescribe?

That's why I say,

I believe you need the half
of the things they tell you.

Because I have never taken medication.

And now, as I'm getting older,

I don't even like to take an aspirin.

I do like a little Brandy.

I don't really know how this happened

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

Laura Burnem was in a 45 miles
an hour head on collision

that knocked her out cold.

Paramedics get her out of the car

and into an ambulance
for a trip to the hospital.

I get a bill from my insurance company,

telling me that the ambulance ride

was not going to be paid for
because it wasn't pre approuved.

I don't know exactly when I was supposed
to pre approuve it, you know...

like after I gain consciousness
in the car,

before I got in the ambulance or,

I should I've grab my cell phone
off from the street

and call while I was in the ambulance--
I mean

it's just crazy.

I've applied for Healthnet insurance,
for Jason.

They rejected him because of
his height and weight.

Jason is six feet tall
and a hundred and thirty pounds.

I applied for health care through
BlueCross BlueShield

and they answer me that my
body mass index was two high.

I'm five one, I weight
a hundred and seventy five pounds

I always thought that health insurance
companies were there to help us.

So I posted a note on the internet,

asking people if
they had had any similar stories

about problems
with their insurance company.

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

and by the end of the week,

over 25.000 people had sent me
their healthcare horror stories.

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

Like Dough Noe, who decided
to take matters into his own hands,

without my permission.

His daughter Annette was 9 months old
when they discovered she as going deaf.

His health insurance company, CIGNA,

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

According to the letter they sent,

it's experimental,
for her to ear in two ears.

If a Cochlear implant
is good for one ear,

it doesn't even make any sense that
it wouldn't be good for the second ear.

Especially when a child
is just starting to learn how to talk,

she has to learn
from both sides of her head.

That's when he sat down
to write CIGNA a letter.

This is to CIGNA.
"Noted filmmaker,

"Michael Moore is now in the process

"of gathering information
for his next film.

"I've sent along information concerning

CIGNA's lack of caring
for its policy holders.

"Has your C.E.O
ever been in a film before?"

Before he knew it,

he received a call in his voice mail
from CIGNA headquarters.

Tuesday 8:54 am.

Obviously all this worked

because Annette is going
to get her second implant in July.

- Dear Mike, I work in the industry...
- I work for an HMO...

I started to get hundreds of letters
of a different sort

from people who work inside
the health care industry.

- I want to tell you, I hate HMOs.
- They'd seen everything.

- And they were fed up.
- ... a corrupt system.

Health insurance companies suck.
Flat suck.

Like Becky Melky

who was in charge
of keeping sick people away

from one of America�s top
insurance companies.

I work in a call center,
so people call in

and their asking for insurance quotes.

They are certain preexisting conditions

basically, industry-wide
that will not be covered, diabetes,

heart deceases,
certain forms of cancer,

that if you have these conditions

you almost likely not going
to get your health insurance.

How long is this list of conditions
that would make you ineligible?

It's a very long list.

A long list...

You could wrap around this house...

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

at the end of the application,
and you're like

God, you know like one time
I got a couple,

and they were so happy to get...

They were so happy that they were...
I took them through this application.

And the husband was late for work.

And the wife said to him don't worry
baby, it's gonna be okay because...

we have health insurance now.

And when I looked at their application,

I could tell they were both
gonna get declined

because of their health conditions.
And they were so happy...

I thought God, they're gonna get
that phone call in a couple of weeks

telling them
that they're not eligible for insurance.

And I just felt so bad
because I just really thought

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

I just felt like crap.

And that's why I'm such a bitch
on the phone

to people, because I don't wanna
get to know them, I don't wanna...

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

wanna get in, and get out,
and get done with it because I can't...

I can't take the stress I'm...

In spite of Becky being
a bit of a pain on the phone,

a quarter of billion Americans

are still able to get health insurance.

Call toll free.

Let's meet some of these
happy insured customers,

like Maria, who has Blue Shield,

and Diane, who has Horizon Blue Cross.

Laura has insurance through BCS,

and Amy is fully insured by Megalife.

And it's good thing
that they're all fully covered,

I ended out being diagnosed
with rachio-cancer.

Brain tumor.

Breast cancer.

Brain tumor on the right temporal lobe.

Because they were insured,

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

She requested

for me to see a neurologist.

The way they were gonna treat it
was to remove it.

The surgery was scheduled
for December 9th.

I was waiting for my first dose
of chemo.

They got their treatment, all right,

But not before battling
with their insurance companies.

My insurance company

denied all IV drugs for me.

And all I was getting was IV drugs.

This was a preexisting condition.

It's not medically necessary.

We don't consider that life threatening.

Diane died
from her non-threatening tumor.

Laura's cancer is now spread
throughout her body.

Amy's cancer found its way
through the brain

and killed her a couple of years later.

While vacationing in Japan,

Maria became ill

and got the MRI
that Blue Shield of California

had refused to approve.

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

Blue Shield had said repeatedly
she didn't have a tumor.

That's when she said...

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

March 13, 2003.

Let me direct your attention
to exhibit one.

Please, describe for me what it is.

It is a denial for referral

to an ophthalmologist.

- Is it your signature on the document?
- Yes.

Let me direct your attention
to exhibit 2.

This is a denial of...

a request for referral for a Magnetic
Resonance Imaging test of the brain.

- It has your signature?
- Yes.

I'd like to direct your attention
to exhibit 3.

Please, read this document.

This is a denial of a referral to

a neurosurgeon.

Can you explain for me
how you came to sign

the denial letter?

This is a standard signature
that's put on all denial letters.

Is that your signature or is that stamp?

That is a stamp.

Did you ever see

a denial letter

before your signature was stamped on it?

No, but the denial letters
are fundamentally

the same there.

The denial letters that are sent out...

- The answer is no.
- No.

All right.

The very definition
of a medical director

is somebody who can save
the company a lot of money.

Doctor Linda Pino
was a medical reviewer for Humana.

She left her job
because she didn't like their way

of doing business.

You look at a particular case
or a question at hand,

and you start looking for ways
to deny in order to save money.

I mean, that's your goal.
So, you look to the language which says

there's exclusion,
and you say: "Ha, ha...

"this is great,
this is a technical denial."

I don't have to get to any of the kind
of muddy issue.

I can just deny it.

The doctor with the highest percent
of denials

- was actually gonna get a bonus.
- Really?

That was the way
they had set the system out.

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

That's the terminology
the industry uses.

I mean, when you don't spend money
on somebody, you deny their care,

or you make a decision

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

it's a savings to the company.

This is Tarsha Harris.

Blue Cross didn't deny her
her treatment,

and actually approved her operation.

But then, they discovered

that in a distant past,

she had had...

yeast infection.

Apparently, it's common.
Men, women can get

a yeast infection.

So, I was prescribed the yeast infection
cream, general cream,

and it went away.

She later applied for health insurance

and that's what you're supposed
to be disclosing, serious ailments.

The yeast infection was independent
and it's not a serious ailment.

There was nothing else
she could have done.

It wasn't until they were gonna have
to spend money that they looked.

If they'd taken 5 minutes beforehand,

and wanted to clear up
the yeast infection,

they could've looked in her medical
records or talked to her doctor.

Because of the undisclosed
yeast infection,

Blue Cross dropped Tarsha Harris.

She thinks she's put this behind her.

And then, Blue Cross changes their mind,

tells the doctors
we're taking the money back,

go get the money from Tarsha.

The fact in the matter is

it was a yeast infection.
That's all it was.

I'm still a little bitter

because I don't trust
insurance companies now.

To me, it seems they're always
gonna be looking for a way out.

You know, what happened
to helping the person that's sick?

Don't make their problems worse?

This is Lee Inerm.

If they weren't able to weed you out
in the application process,

or deny you the care
your doctor said you needed,

and somehow ended up paying
for the operation,

they send in Lee,

their hitman.

His job is to get
the company's money back

any way he can.

All he has to do

is find one slip up on your application

or a preexisting condition

you didn't know you had.

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

And I mean my whole unit dedicated

to going through your health history
for the last five years,

looking for anything
that would indicated

that you concealed something,
you misrepresented something,

so that they can cancel the policy,

or chart the rate so high
you can't pay them.

And if we didn't find anything
you didn't disclose

on the application, you can still
get hit with a preexisting denial.

Because you don't even have
to have sought medical treatment for it.

In some states,
it's legal to have what's called

"Prudent Person Preexisting Condition",

and that's a mouthful, I know,

but what that says is if prior
to your insurance kicking in,

you had any symptom, which would incline

a normally prudent person
to have sought medical care,

then, the condition of which
that symptom was a symptom

is excluded.

I know!

It's labyrinthine, isn't it?
But that's how it works.

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

but with an insurance company,
it's their frigging money!

So, it's not unintentional,

it's not a mistake,

it's not an oversight,

you're not slipping through the cracks,

somebody made that crack
and swept you towards it.

And the intent is to maximize profits.

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

Did I do harm in people's life?

Yeah.

Hell, yeah.

I haven't worked for insurance companies
for a long time,

and I don't think
that really serves to atone

for my...

participation in that mess.

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

Julie Pierce was struggling to get care

for her husband Tracy,

who was suffering from kidney cancer.

Julie works in the intensive care unit
at Saint Joseph medical center,

in Kansas City, Missouri,

which provided her family
with health insurance.

Every month, there was a new drug
that the doctors wanted to try.

My insurance denied it.

One letter might say
not a medical necessity,

one letter might say it's not
for this particular type of cancer,

and they denied it.

Then, we came up with the bone marrow

It had showed to stop it,

sometimes, completely get rid of it.

Tracy's doctors said that this treatment
had been successfully tried

on many other patients.

If one of Tracy's brothers turned out
to be a suitable donor,

they were promising
bone marrow treatments

forbidding Tracy's cancer.

Two weeks later, the bone marrow
nurse at KU called me and she goes,

we've got the results back. His youngest
brother is a perfect donor match.

We were ecstatic.

You know,

I think that's a the happiest
I had seen him

in a while.

So,

we submitted it, and they denied it.

Said it was experimental.

So, I found out that there is a board
of trustees over our medical plan

that actually work at my hospital.

And they are the final decision makers
on what gets approved

and what doesn't get approved.

Julie and her husband
and their son, Tracy Junior,

demanded a meeting with the health
plan's board of trustees

the very people who had the power
to approve their claim.

They told Julie
that they were sympathetic

to her situation.

I said, your sympathy does me no good

when I'm burying him next year.

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

Bruce Van Cleef was our CEO, I said,

I bet if it was Bruce Van Cleef's wife,

it were to get approved.

No, it's nothing like that!

And I said, or maybe
if my husband was white..."

And I got up and walked out of the room.

When we got home,

I found him up in the bathroom,

and I knocked on the door and said,
"What are you doing in there?"

"Nothing". And I opened the door

because usually, he'll say:
"What do you think I'm doing in here?"

And he was sitting there
and he was crying.

And he said: Why me?

"I'm a good person".

And I said:
But we're not done fighting this.

We're strong, yeah.

And he said...

You know, he goes:
I can see now that I'm gonna die.

He said:
"But I can leave everything in the world

"but I don't want to leave you
and Tracy."

The doctor told me
he would die in three weeks.

And...

On January 13th, which was my birthday,

he went to sleep,

and he died five days later,
here at home.

He was my best friend,

he was my soul mate,

he was my son's father.

I mean, we were to grow old together.

They took away everything that matters.

I wanna know why, why my husband.

Why wasn't he given the chance to live.

You preach these vision and values

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

that we're a healthcare

that leaves no one behind.

You left him behind!
You didn't even give him a start!

It was as if he was nothing.

And I want them
to have a conscious about it.

And I don't think they do!

I don't think it has faced them
one bit...

at all.

There was one person
in the healthcare industry

who did have a conscience.

Dr. Linda Pino,

former medical reviewer at Humana.

My name is Linda Pino,

I am here primarily today
to make a public confession.

On spring of 1997,

as a physician,

I denied a man a necessary operation

that would have saved his life
and thus caused his death.

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

because in fact, what I did was

I saved the company
a half a million dollars for this.

And, furthermore, this particular act

secured my reputation
as a good medical director,

and it insured my continued advancement
in the healthcare field.

I went from making
a few hundred dollars a week

as a medical reviewer

to an escalating six figure income
as a position executive.

In all my work, I had one primary duty,

and that was to use my medical expertise

for the financial benefit
of the organization for which I worked.

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

I was simply denying payment.

I know how manage care maims
and kills patients.

So, I'm here to tell you about
the dirty work of manage care.

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

on which I have written
that deadly word: denied.

Thank you.

How did we get to the point

doctors and health insurance companies

actually being responsible
for the death of patients?

Who invented this system?

How did this all begin?

Where did the HMO start?

Thanks to the wonders of magnetic tape,

we know.

I am proposing today
a new national health strategy.

The purpose of this program
is simply this:

I want America to have
the finest health care in the world,

and I want every American

to be able to have that care
when he needs it.

The plan hatched between Nixon
and Edgar Kaiser worked.

In the ensuing years,
patients were given less and less care.

Bigger logs-in in the nearby
public hospitals

and less quality medical care.

Been here 'bout 18 hours,
since 7 in the morning.

What looks cramped and unsightly
can also be dangerous.

While the health insurance company
became wealthy,

the system was broken.

37 millions Americans
are without protection

against catastrophic illness.

The losers are the poor,

who may now postpone
urgently needed healthcare

until it's too late.

This went on for years,

until this man road into town,

bringing with him his little lady.

Sassy.

Smart.

Sexy.

Some men couldn't handle it.

Today I am announcing the formation

of the president's task force
on national health reform.

chaired by the First Lady,
Hillary Rodham Clinton.

Hillary Rodham Clinton
decided to make healthcare for everyone.

her top priority.

Universal coverage now!

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

or whether you have
a pre-existing condition.

Healthcares,
they can never be taken away.

Some republicans complain
Mrs. Clinton is getting a free ride

because she's the President's wife.

It's fairly risky business, I believe,

what President Clinton did,
to put his wife in charge

of some big policy program.

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

at the holding hearings
on a government-run healthcare system.

I do share his intention
to make the debate

in the legislature process
as exciting as possible.

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

- We'll do the best we can.
- You and Dr. Kevorkian, I think.

I have been told about your charm
and wit, and let me say...

The reports on your charm
are overstated,

the reports on your wit
are understated.

Thank you, thank you very much.

She drove Washington insane.

Do you really want the federal
government to control your healthcare?

You won�t have the choice
of your own doctors.

- Less government...
- More government control.

- More government...
- Less control for you and your family.

When your mama gets sick,

she might talk to a bureaucrat
instead of a doctor.

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

Not this big, bureaucratic,
socialistic plan that they have!

- Socialist takeover...
- Socialized medicine.

What really amounts
to a giant social experiment.

Nothing puts more fear in us
that the thought of that.

And the chiefs fear mongers
against socialized medicine

have always been the good doctors

of the American Medical Association.

This would put the government smack
into your hospital,

defining services,

setting standards,

establishing committees,

calling for reports,

deciding who gets in and who gets out.

After all, the government has to treat

everyone fair and equal,
don't you know?

Take us all the way, down the road

to a new system of medicine
for everybody.

Yes, medicine for everyone,

the AMA didn't want that

And to drive the point home further,

they held thousands of coffee clatches
all over the country,

where they invited their neighbors

to come and listen to a record,

made by a well-known actor,

on the evils of socialized medicine.

My name is Ronald Reagan.

One of the traditional methods

of imposing statism or socialism
on our people,

has been by way of medicine.

The doctor begins to lose freedom.

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

A doctor decides he wants to practice
in one town.

And the government has to say to him :
"You can't live in that town,

"they already have enough doctors,
you have to go some place else."

All of us can see what happens,

once you established a precedent,

that a government can determine a man's

working place and his working methods

and behind,
it will come other federal programs

that will invade every area of freedom
as we have known it in this country.

Until, on day, we will awake to find...

that we have socialism.

The White House said today it's time
to turn down the rhetoric,

reacting to burning an effigy
of Hillary Rodham Clinton.

The times may have changed

but the scare tactics hadn't.

The healthcare industries spent
over a hundred millions dollars

to defeat Hillary's healthcare plan

and they succeeded.

And I want to introduce to you

the president, because he loves

the Easter egg role.

For the next seven years
in the White House,

she was not allowed
to bring it up again.

Is anybody here older than two?

A decade and a half went by,

and still America
had no universal health plan.

The United States slipped to number 37
in healthcare around the world,

just slightly ahead of Slovenia.

But that's understandable,

because Congress was busy
with other matters.

Mister speaker, today I rise
to offer congratulations

to the confectioners
of Just Born Incorporated,

as they celebrate
the fiftieth anniversary

of one of their most recognized
and celebrated products,

not to mention my daughter's favorite,
Marshmallow Peeps.

And thus the healthcare industry
went unchecked

into the early twenty-first century.

Humana more than doubled
its 4th quarter profit,

lifts its earning outlook
for the year as well...

United Health has tripled
its share's prices.

Making obscene profits...

... better than unexpected earnings,
one of them....

There's a lot of really wealthy
shareholders, out there.

Are they willing to actually
share some of that wealth?

Turning their CEOs into billionaires...

and skirting the law
whenever they wanted.

But their biggest accomplishment

was buying our United States Congress.

This is Washington at work.

Lobbying has become so brazen,
the money is being collected...

With four time
as many healthcare lobbyists

than they are members of Congress.

They even manage to buy off old foes.

For her silence, Hillary was rewarded,

and she became the second
largest recipient in the Senate

of healthcare industry contributions.

We've given
the entire health care system

over to the insurance industry.

And they have total control.

Well, not total control.

Drug companies like to buy
their members of Congress too.

Here is what it costs to buy these men.

And this woman.

This guy.

And this guy.

And him too.

Ladies and gentlemen,
the President of the United States.

And the biggest check
was saved for last.

Why did they hand out all this cash?

They wanted a bill passed.

A bill to help seniors
with their prescriptions.

Let there be no mistake about it.

Republicans love their mothers and
their fathers and their grand-parents.

as much as anybody else on this Hill

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

Of course, it was really a bill to hand
over 800 billion of our tax dollars

to the drug and health
insurance industry.

by letting the drug companies charge,

whatever they wanted,

and making the private health
insurance companies,

the middle man.

Everybody was going to get their cut.

The man they appointed
to get the job done,

was congressman Billy Tauzin.

He was the right man for the job,

because he had a secret weapon.

No one in this house loves their mother

more than I love my mother.

I'd challenge you on that, sir.

Nobody in this... body,

loves their mother any more or
any less than anyone of us.

I love that woman.

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

any more than we love ours?

Do you think Republicans and Democrats

will vote for you?
Do you really believe that, Mr. Stark?

God bless you.

They all loved their mothers,

it's just that they didn't love
our mothers...

as much.

Now I'm honored and pleased to sign

this historic piece of legislation,

the Medicare Prescription Drug
Improvement and Modernization Act

of 2003.

What they didn't tell us,

was that the elderly could end up
paying more for that prescriptions

than they did before.

Over two thirds of senior citizens

would still pay
over 2000 dollars a year.

And when it was all over,

14 congressional aids,
who worked on the bill,

quit their jobs on the Hill,

and went to work
for the healthcare industry.

As did one congressman.

Billy Tauzin left Congress,

to become the CEO of Phrma,

a drug industry lobby,

for the salary of 2 millions dollars
a year.

Oh, it was a happy day in Washington.

Many Americans knew

they were never going to see
universal healthcare,

and that's why some of them

decided to look elsewhere for help.

We're driving across the Detroit river.

Back there is the Renaissance Center,

you can see the Renaissance Center,
General Motors headquarters,

downtown Detroit, the skyline...

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

This is Adrian Campbell,

a single mother,

who at the age of 22

came down with cancer.

I got cervical cancer and i was denied
through the insurance company.

They say "We're not paying for
because you're 22 and you don't have...

"You shouldn't be having
cervical cancer."

"You're too young."

Forced into debt, but now cancer free,

Adrian was fed up
with the American care system.

She had a new plan.

I have everything ready,
before I even hit the border.

I got my passport ready, I got my money
out for the... You know, the...

3 dollars and 25 cents
to get across one-way.

And I got everything just sitting
up here on my visor just ready to go.

Now Laura, be very quiet.

- Citizenship?
- US.

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

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

She may live in Michigan

but ten blocks across the border,

Adrian becomes a Canadian.

How long have you been living here?

- 3 months?
- A couple.

I haven't applied for the ??? card yet

- I still have mine.
- It takes 10 minutes.

That's fine, I don't mind.

OK, thank you.

I put down Kyle's address,
at the clinic,

and when they ask, you know,
what my relationship is

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

I don't like to lie
and I don't like liars,

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

You know, I'm saving the money.

You don't have to bring a check
when you go to hospital here.

You know, it's provided to us.

Something you don't have to worry about,
you don't have to fight to get it.

Stress free.

They're calling the cops.

The presence of our camera crew

has alerted the clinic that
something was up.

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

So I have another idea.

I'm gonna go down to the other clinic.

There is...
There is a clinic down...

One that we passed.

The police showed up over there?

Look.

Yes, what Adrian was doing was illegal.

But we're Americans.

We go into other countries
when we need to.

It's tricky, but it's allowed.

It's kind of frustrating I haven't...
I mean...

I'd just get married
and that'd solve everything.

She'd be covered automatically

Americans marry Canadians
just for the healthcare.

We're used.

Sounds like a good idea.

See if it works.

Start something... start a trend.

In Canada, they give everybody free
healthcare, doesn't it work up there?

We wait months to get treatment

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

In Canada,
you'd have to wait 9 to 10 months,

for bypass surgery.

Many Canadians believe

it's the health care system itself

that's truly sick.

They pay their doctors less.

A surgeon can only do certain
number of operation each year,

with only so many expensive
new pieces of equipment.

It's easier for your cat or dog
to receive a MRI here in America.

You die of cancer
waiting for that chemo 'cause

like all of Ottawa
has like one chemo machine.

And if you think socialized medicine
is a good idea...

ask a Canadian.

So I thought who better to ask,
than my Canadian relatives:

Bob and Estelle.

But they wouldn't cross the border
into America.

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

Now, what do you guys doing here?

We buy an insurance:
we're going over to the States.

We're going to the States to see you.

Right, you know,
that's just across the river.

You wouldn't even go over
see us over in Michigan

for a couple of hours
without this insurance?

No, we wouldn't.

We're just adamant about it,

we would not do it.

If somebody punches us in the mouth,

if something,
and something like that...

You don't want to get caught
in the American health system thing.

We have nothing against Americans,

or America,
or anything like that at all.

We're nice and simple people.

Yes, well, not very simple, but...

certainly very nice.

I decided to explore
their anti-American views further,

over some fine Canadian cuisine.

We have a friend who went to Hawaii.

And he sustained
head injury while he was there.

And before he was
well enough to come home,

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

So what middle-class Canadian

could absorb that?

I guess I feel bad that you would
have to worry about something like that.

We're not criticizing your country,
we're just...

giving you the facts
that we could not afford

to be without insurance.

- Even for a day?
- Even for a day.

To prove their point even further,
they set me over to a local golf course

to talk to Larry Godfrey

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

I could hear a noise and...

feel a pain
and the tendon snapped off.

This bone here
that holds the biceps in place...

So this biceps muscle was released
like elastic and then...

it ended up here on my chest.

The muscle came up your arm
and ended up up in your chest?

Ended up right here.

Like all good golfers,
Larry finished his round,

before seeking medical attention.

That's when he got the bad news.

I wasn't too worried because

I had out of country insurance but...

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

24,000?

Dollars, yes.

So if you'd stay in United States,
this would've cost you $24,000?

$24,000, yes.

Instead, you went back to Canada,

- and Canada paid your total expenses...
- Everything.

Paid for the operation...

- ...and that cost you...
- Nothing.

- ...zero.
- Zero.

I'm wondering, why do you expect
your fellow Canadians,

who don't have your problem,

why should they,
through their tax dollars,

have to pay for a problem you have.

Because we would do the same for them.

It's just the way
it's always been and
it's the way we hope it'll always be.

Right, but if you'd just had to pay
for your problem,

and don't pay for everybody else's
problem, just take care of yourself.

Well, there are a lot of people
who aren't in the position to...

be able to do that.

And somebody has to look after them.

Are you a member of
the socialist party here or....

Green party?

No, I-- Well, actually I'm a member
of the conservative party.

Is that bad?

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

Well...

it shouldn't be, I think that...

I think that where medical
matters are concerned,

it wouldn't matter in Canada
what party you...

you're affiliated with.

If any...

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

you know, why don't you think
we don't believe that?

- What's wrong on this issue with us?
- Well, I guess...

the powers that be don't...

share our beliefs that...

that health care ought to be universal.

I mean, Canadians didn't until...

we met up with a guy
named Tommy Douglas,

who pretty much...

changed everyone's mind.

- One guy?
- One guy, yeah.

- One guy did it, he...
- Can he come over and visit us?

He's dead unfortunately,
in fact he was...

He is just more seriously been revered
as Canada's...

singular most important person.

We think so much of...

- You mean in your whole history?
- In our whole history.

- More than your first Prime minister...
- Absolutely, yeah...

Even more than Wayne Gretzky.

- No way.
- Absolutely.

More than Celine Dion?

A great singer, more than Celine Dion.

- More than Rocky and Bullwinkle.
- Maybe...

... as the blade went through,
it cut the glove that I was wearing

and it sliced through the entire

group of fingers
and completely taking them off.

- No money is being exchanged here?
- No, nothing.

- There's no money being exchanged.
- I'm over 60.

- We don't pay.
- What's the purpose
of the cash register?

I'm just wondering

where's the bread and the milk
and the candy in here?

I can't pick up any laundry
detergent here or....

I haven't been trained for that many
years to be selling detergents so... no.

I next went to a state run hospital,

operated by the national health service.

I'm doing seven weeks
and I get 6 months off, paid.

And then I can have 6 months
of unpaid as well.

So I'm actually taking a year.

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

Oh, really, it's not like that

in U.S., no... not at all, no.

So what do you pay for stay here?

No one pays.

They were asking how the people pay.

And I said but there isn't---
You don't, you just leave.

- It's national insurance. There's no...
- Yeah.

... bill at the end of the day
as it were.

Even with insurance,
there's bound to be a bill somewhere.

- So where's the billing department?
- There isn't really a billing dept.

Right, there's no such thing
as a billing...

What did they charge you for that baby?

Sorry?

You gotta pay
before you get outta here, right?

- Everything is on...
- This is NHS.

You know, it's not America.

Maybe I'd have better luck
in the part of the hospital

where things can get
seriously expensive.

This guy broke his ankle...

How much will this cost him?

Sorry?

The emergency room visit...

He'll have some huge bill

when he's done, right?

Yeah...

NHS: everything is free.

I'm asking about hospital charges
and you're laughing at me.

'Cause no one ever asks
this question in...

emergency department, that's why.

I was starting to fall
for this everything is free bit.

And then I discovered this.

So this is where people
come to pay their bill

when they're done
staying in the hospital?

No this is the NHS hospital,
so you don't pay the bill.

You get to just go home?

What does it say "Cashier" here
if people don't have to pay a bill?

All we have is an old man here,
who stands behind

a counter and he gives people money
if they've had to pay for transport.

Those who have reduced means
get their travel expanses reimbursed.

Thank you.

So in British hospitals

instead of money going
into the cashier's window

money comes out.

The criteria for letting up the hospital

are not if you've paid your bill,
the criteria...

are you fit to go,
and are you going somewhere safe.

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

What I needed
was a good old fashion American

who would have some understanding.

When I first came to London

in 1992.

And we just ended up staying
and we had...

three children here.

Well, I had them all on the...

NHS which is
the national health service.

The British national health service.

I think like a lot of American assumed

that a socialized medicine
was just bottom of the rung...

treatment, that you know
that's the only possible way

it would be dingy and horrible
and it would be like the USSR.

I mean, that's kind of how...

And... that's terrible,
that's what I thought.

That's what I thought, too.

After having a baby,
it's right back to the wheat fields!

And then it occurred to me
that back home in America

we've socialized a lot of things.

I kinda like having
a police department and...

a fire department and...

and the library and...

And I got to wondering:

Why don't we have more these free

socialized things,

like health care.

When did this whole idea
that every British citizen

should have a right to health care?

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

before we had the vote.

All the power was in the hands
of rich people.

If you had money,
you could get health care, education,

look after yourself when you're old,
and what democracy did,

was to give the poor the vote.

And it moved power from the market-place

to the police station.
From the...

wallet to the ballot.

And what people said was very simple.

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

"But we don't have any unemployment
during the war.

"If we could have full employment
by killing Germans,

"why can't we have it
building hospitals,

"building schools, recruiting nurses,
recruiting teachers?"

If you can find money to kill people,
you can find money to help people.

Right.

This certainly flipped
the pos[ition on the] issue

very straight forward.

- What year was this?
- This was 1948.

"Your new national health service
begins on the fifth of July.

"What is it? How'd you get it?

"It will provide you with all medical,
dental and nursing care.

"Everyone, rich or poor, men, women
or child could use it or any part of it.

"There are no charges
except for a few special item.

"There's no insurance qualification,
but it's not a charity.

"You're paying for it
mainly as tax payers

"and it will relieve your money
worries in times of illness."

Now... Somehow, that--
the few words sum the whole thing up.

I was amazed

when he said this all started in 1948.

The British have just come out
of a devastating experience through WW2.

The country was destroyed,

and nearly bankrupt.

They had nothing.

In just one eight month period

over 42,000 civilians lost their lives.

But we went through
in two hours on 9/11,

they went through nearly
every single day.

Remember how we all felt after 9/11?

All of us, pulling together?

I guess that's how they felt.

And the first way that they decided
to pull together after the war,

was to provide free medical care

for everyone.

Even Mrs. Thatcher said,

"the nation health service
is safe in our hands."

It's... as non-controversial
as vote for women.

Nobody could come along and say
why women should[n't] have the vote now

because people wouldn't have it,
and not in Britain.

They wouldn't accept

the deterioration or destruction
of the national health care.

If Thatcher or Blair had said "I'm going
to dismantle National Healthcare..."

That would be the revolution, yeah.

A report

from the American Medical Association
into the health of 55 to 64 year olds

says Brits are far healthier
than Americans.

For every illness that we look at,

Americans have more of it than English.

Cancer, heart disease, hypertension,
strokes, lung disease,

all significantly higher for Americans.

Even the poorest people in England
with all the environmental factors

that give them the worst health
in the country can expect

to live longer
than the wealthiest people in America.

I was wondering though, what's it like
for the doctors here in Britain?

We have to live
under this kind of state control.

And you're a family doctor?

Yeah, I'd supposed you'd call them
"GPs" or General Practitioners here.

Right, so you have
like a family practice?

Yeah, it's a NHS practice. We have
nine doctors within that practice.

- You're paid for by the government?
- Paid for by it.

So you work for the government?

- Government paid doctor?
- Absolutely.

A patient comes to see you.
Before you treat them,

do you have to call
the government insurance company

before you can treat them?

No, I don't deal with money
at all on an every day basis.

Have you ever had to say no to someone
who was sick and needed help?

- No, never.
- Have you heard of anyone,

being in a hospital and being removed
because he couldn't pay the bill?

No, never. And I wouldn't want
to work in that system.

So working for the government,

you probably have to use
public transportation.

No. So, I have a car
that I use and I drive to work.

An old beater?

You live in a kind rough part of town,
or...

I mean, I live in a terrific part
of town, it's called Greenwich.

It's a lovely house.

It's a 3 story house.

How many other families
have to live in that house with you?

That's four bedrooms for

my wife and my son.
It's just the three of us there.

How much you pay for that?

- �550,000. Yes, almost.
- So, a million dollars.

Your government pays a doctor

on a national health insurance
health care plan here,

- Yes.
- and you live in a $1,000,000 home.

Yes.

I think probably my friends think
we do quite well.

Really? How well do you do?

I earn around 85,000
including pension...

- �85,000?
- 85,000 pounds a year.

And that includes pension
that they will pay to me.

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

- �100,000? So, that's almost $200,000?
- Yes, absolutely.

The money that we earn,
we paid by what we do.

So the better we do for our patients,
then the more we get paid.

What do you mean?

There's a new system,

and, in that new system,

if the most number of your patients
have low blood pressures,

or you got most of your patients
to stop smoking,

or you got most of your patients

to have things like mental health
reviews, if they're unwell

or low cholesterol,
then you get paid more.

This year, if you get people of
your patients to stop smoking,

- this year, you'll earn more?
- Absolutely.

- You'll earn more?
- Yeah, absolutely.

So doctors in America
do not have to fear...

having universal health care.

No. I think if you want to have

2 or 3 millions dollars homes
and 4 or 5 nice cars

and 6 or 7 nice televisions,

then maybe yeah, you need to practice
somewhere you can earn that.

But I think we live comfortably here,
and London is an expensive city,

but I think we live very comfortably.

And you're getting by okay
on the million dollars home, the Audi,

and the flat screen TV?

Yeah, we're coping with those.

I think democracy is the most
revolutionary thing in the world.

Far more revolutionary than socialist
ideas, or anybody else's idea.

But if you have power,

you use it
to meet the needs of your community.

And this idea of choice
that Capitol[ism]

talks about all the time,
"you gotta have a choice",

Choice depends
on the freedom to choose.

And if you're shackled in debt,
you don't have a freedom to choose.

It seems that it benefits the system,

If the average working person
is shackled and is in debt?

Yes, because people in debt

become hopeless,
and hopeless people don't vote.

See, they always say
that everyone should vote

But I think, if the poor

in Britain or the United States
turned out

and voted for people representing
their interests, it would be

a real democratic revolution.
So they don't want it to happen.

So keeping people
hopeless and pessimistic...

See, I think there are 2 ways
in which people get controlled:

first of all, frightening people,
and second, you demoralize them.

An educated, healthy and confident
nation is harder to govern.

And I think there's an element

in the thinking of some people.
We don't want

people to be educated,
healthy and confident

because they would get out of control.

The top 1 % of the world's population
own 80 percent of the world's wealth.

It's incredible,
the people put up with it,

but they're poor, they're demoralized,
they're frightened.

And therefore, they think,

"Perhaps the safest thing to do is
to take orders and hope for the best."

And hope for the best is what we do,
right from the moment we're born.

We've got the worst infant
mortality rate in the western world.

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

than a baby born in Detroit.

But it gets better
when you go to school.

Classrooms with 40 students.
Schools with no science labs.

No wonder the majority of our young
adults can't find Britain on a map.

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

By the time we graduate,
our asses are so in hot,

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

I'm at about...
let's say about 35,000 dollars in debt.

That's for my three years college.

That way you'll be the kind of employee
they look for.

One who needs this job.

3,904, 3,905...

What employer wouldn't wanna employ
someone thousands of thousands in debt?

Because they won't cause any trouble.

In addition to have to pay
their college debt,

you need a job with health insurance.

It would be horrible
to loose that kind of job, wouldn't it?

You can always quit, you know?

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

And if that one job doesn't pay
all the bills, don't worry!

You can get another one,

and another one,

and another one.

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

- You work three jobs?
- Three jobs, yes.

Uniquely American, isn't it?

I mean that's fantastic
that you're doing that.

Get any sleep?

And if you're not getting
enough sleep... take pharmaceuticals.

You're tired all the time.
You may feel sad, hopeless.

If you suffer from excessive worry...

You could be suffering
from anxiety disorder...

It could be adult ADD.

- Talk to your doctor.
- Ask your doctor.

Ask your doctor.

Yes, ask your doctor,
and ask him for more drugs.

That should keep you pretty doped up
until it's time to retire.

Did I say retire?

Well if you do make it to 80,
I'm sure pension will still be there.

Unlike the new employees
who'll never see a pension.

But don't worry,
I'm sure our kid�s will take care of us,

considering the great life
we've given them.

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

so we don't have to fight them here.

KAISER PERMANENTE
is the largest H.M.O. in the country.

And Dawnell Keys was fortunate enough

to live fully insured by them.

It's a good thing, because one night,

her 18 months old daughter Mychelle,
developed a fever of over a 104�F.

So like any responsible mom,
she called 911,

and the ambulance took Mychelle
to the closest hospital.

The hospital checked with her H.M.O.
and they were told

that KAISER would not cover the tests
and the antibiotics necessary

to treat Mychelle.

She would have to take her
to an in-network KAISER home hospital.

KAISER said that I should bring her
by car

to the hospital and that she shouldn�t
be treated at Martin Luther King.

I just continued to ask them
to treat her, and they refused.

My daughter got worse...

and she had a seizure.

Dawnell bet the doctors to not listen
to KAISER and to treat her daughter.

I was escorted out of the hospital
because they felt that I was a threat.

After hours of delay,
she was transported to KAISER,

and got there just in time
to go into cardiac arrest.

They worked on her for about 30 minutes
trying to revive her.

And the doctors came in,

and let use know that...

She had expired.

I was in a daze.

A real daze, it just...
didn't seem real.

I just held her.

I held her and I told her
that mommy tried her best to help her,

to make sure that she was gonna get
the treatment she needed to receive.

And that I was sorry,

that I was unable to help her.

This is Corrina, and her daughter Zoe.

Corrina is a graduate
of Michigan State University,

and a native of my home town,
of Flint, Michigan.

Six months ago, Zoe,
like Dawnell's baby Mychelle,

came down with a high fever.

What happened is she stops breathing

for a little while,
turned blue and passed out my arms,

which was...

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

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

And I had no clue what to do.

At the hospital,
they gave her some medicine,

bring the fever down,
and examined her, took some blood...

And what they determine
was wrong with her?

It was a throat infection. But we stayed
at the hospital from Friday to Sunday.

Just so they can keep an eye on her.

- And you stayed there that long?
- Yeah.

They just basically kept an eye on her.

And how much
did all this cost you though?

- 3+ days in a hospital...
- Nothing.

- Nothing?
- Nothing.

- Nothing at all.
- And that's because...

- I live in France.
- You live in France?

Yeah.

Ah, France...

They enjoy their wine, their cigarettes,

and their fatty foods.

And yet, just like the Canadians
and the Brits,

they live much longer than we do.

Something about that
seemed grossly unfair.

This is Alexy Cromone.

He spent his entire adult life in the US
without health insurance.

I lived in America for 13 years.

I loved my life there.

But then when I discovered
that I had a tumor,

and I didn't have health insurance,

unfortunately I had to come back here.

And even though I never paid any taxes
in France, 'cause I never worked here.

I left when I was 18, I didn't even have
a social security number.

For them I was saying, well...

he needs treatment,
he has no income, so...

we're gonna give him,
you know, the treatment he needs.

How're you doing now?

I'm healthy now,

but I had 3 months
of intensive chemo therapy.

So after the 3 months, I saw my doctor
and he said "You wanna go back to work?"

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

"Just right now, I'm not ready."
He said, "How much do you need?"

I said, "Well, I don't know..."
He said, "Would 3 months be okay?"

I said, "I think 3 months will be fine."

He said, "Okay, so take 3 months off",
so he wrote me a, you know, a note,

that I gave to my employer
so as to make sure that I get paid.

- So I went to the south of France...
- Wait a minute... you get...

three months off with pay?

Yes. Yes.

I get 65%...

paid by the government,

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

To make sure you got a 100%.

So, it was April. I was free again.

So I started right away.
Sucking up some sun.

And that really, you know,
helped me a lot to get allowed of

recharge my batteries and...

I mean, it was like...
night and day.

In 3 months, I went from
a 95 year old man to

35 year old man, you know, again.

And that's because I had that time
to take care of myself.

I'm not really in a position to make
any judgment

concerning the American system.

I think the United States are
a great, great country

Americans are great people.
I really love them.

But as a doctor... first,

as a citizen, second,

and eventually as a patient, third,

I'm very glad to be in France.

It's kind of a luxury here.

You are sick.
You step into a hospital

You got the care you need.

It doesn't depend on your premiums.
It depends on what you need.

One main principle is solidarity.

People who are better off
pay for those who are worse off.

You pay according to your means

and you receive according to your needs.

Do you think that would ever work
in America?

No.

He could barely contain
his seething anti Americanism.

And I just didn't want
to listen to anymore of it.

So I found a group of Americans

currently living in Paris

who I know would tell me the truth.

I was diagnosed, 5 years ago,
with type 1 diabetes.

I was actually a little bit nervous
to tell them that I had...

- To tell the French.
- To tell the French.

There's a place to check off

whether or not
you have a chronic condition.

I was nervous that they were going
to charge me more or something.

And instead, I went into a hospital,

and had round the clock care

and they do an amazing amount
of preventative care.

So they asked you
if you have a pre-existing condition

- not to punish you...
- Yes.

- ...but to give you more help?
- Yes.

I was in a hospital for a year

and as soon as I was in,
it was...

"Well... Don't worry. Just rest."

- Yes.
- People said "Rest".

How many sick days you got in a year.
Three, four ?

- I think it's unlimited.
- Yeah.

- You're sick...
- Unlimited?

Yes. How can you limit sick days?

If you're sick, you're sick.

I've gone to the emergency rooms
numerous times

with four boys.

And I've never waited more than an hour.
Never.

I can call and have somebody
come to the house within half an hour.

- No way ?
- Yes.

Making a house call ?
At your place ?

How many of you have had
a house call from a doctor?

- No!
- Last, 3 AM last Friday.

- And how much does this cost you?
- Nothing.

What's the service called?

Where are we going?

We are going to see a man
who has abdominal pain.

- Abdominal pain?
- Yeah.

So... If it's just a stomach ache,
why are we going so fast?

Where do we go next?

- The next visit?
- Yeah.

One thing that I say to anyone
who'd ask me why I'm in this country

it's that I think it's one
of the familiest,

friendliest country than I know of.

And talk about family values.
I mean child care, health care...

We don't pay for day care,
we don't pay...

The day care where I set my daughter...
and I was a teacher,

I mean, the standards are very high.

So how much does that cost you
to have 2 children here in day care?

How much per hour?

Are you happy with
how they're cared for?

Here, my kids, they are sure
that they are going to get

you know, a certain level of care,
a certain education.

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

What do you mean?

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

For nothing?

You can get college education for free.

- No way!
- Yes!

There's not a sense of desperation!

That's the worse part.

Then they're happy?

They can spend time with their kids,
they've vacations, family time...

So how many weeks of paid vacations?

Minimum 5 weeks...

5 weeks ?
Minimum of 5 weeks.

That's the French law.

Except if you work for a large company.
Then you get sometimes 8, 10 weeks.

Remembering that there's a 35 hour week.

The productivity rate is so high here.

I read that it was higher
than the United States.

They're relaxed!

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

they get extra days off.

That is for half time
and full time employees as well.

You get 5 weeks paid vacations
even if you're a part time employee?

- Of course, yeah!
- Everybody.

If you get married,
you get an extra week,

or extra 7 days for your honey moon.

In addition to your 5 weeks.

- You're paid on your honey moon?
- Yes.

- You got 2 days off too...
- Yeah, if you move.

If you're gonna move
from one apartment to another?

- Yeah.
- One day.

You've a day to move
and they pay you that day?

When my daughter was 3 months,
a free service

sent somebody
to your home to give you tips

on how to put your kid to bed...

every single day, for free.

And they'll come to your house
and do your laundry!

- It will! Sure!
- No!

Stop! Stop!

What are you doing?

You from the government?

Can she do anything else?

If I want, yes.

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

And I think if I ask her to

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

No problem.

She's coming twice a week,
4 hours a day.

So I can do everything I want

for me, for the house, for my husband,

during 4 hours.

It's very precious for me.

You don't have any associations?
Nothing to help like that?

No.

Nobody from the government
comes to your home in America

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

- It's difficult.
- Yeah.

Something that I experience a lot
with my own family is guilt.

Guilt for being here almost and seeing

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

Things that my parents
work their whole life for

and haven't even come close to touching.

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

in a very privileged position

you know, not living the high life,

but in comparison, definitely.

And that seems completely...

unfair.

One of the things that keeps
everything running here is that...

the government is afraid of the people.

They're afraid of protests.

They're afraid of reactions
from the people.

Whereas in the States,
people are afraid of the government.

They're afraid of... of...
of acting up.

They're afraid of protesting.
They're afraid of getting out.

In France, that's what people do.

Free college education,

free medical care,

government employed nannies...

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

And then I realized...
They're drowning in taxes!

I wanted to see what effect
this might have

on a average middle class family.

So I went to find out.

- Hello!
- Hello.

- Welcome.
- Welcome.

It's really nice.

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

What is your combined income
for the 2 of you together

for... say one month?

And yet you live very nicely
on that income.

And how much do you pay
each month on your mortgage?

How many cars do you own?

- Two.
- Two.

Do you owe any money
from medical bills?

Is there any other debts,
loans, anything?

Only the apartment.

And, what are your other big expenses?

The fish.

Vegetables.

Vegetables are
a big month expense for you.

Yes. Fruit.

- Yoghurt.
- Yoghurt.

What are your other big expenses?

Holidays.

Very important.

- Kenya.
- We like.

Are you happy?

Yes.

After seeing all this,
I began to wonder...

Was there a reason our government
and our media

wants us to hate the French?

Are they worried
we might like the French?

Or like their ways of doing things?

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

Meanwhile, back at home,

hospitals had found a new way
to deal with patients

who didn't have health insurance

and couldn't pay their bill.

I was standing up against the wall
and I saw a cab

do a u-turn,

pull up to the curb,

and I watched to see
what was happening

because I had a feeling
what was going to occur,

'cause it's not a new thing.

They pulled up right here
by this yellow fire hydrant

and dropped Carol off and
immediately pulled away.

And as soon as they pulled away,

she walked out into the street
about out to here.

She did walk all the way down
to the drive way down here,

completely confused,

not knowing...
has no shoes on whatsoever

and just a hospital gown.

If you've ever been to a hospital,
you know they're thin.

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

and asked Carol
if she needed any assistance

and found out that she was confused
and disoriented

and didn't know where she was.

Kaiser Permanente in Bellflower hospital
had put her in a cab

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

But the names of the hospitals
had been taken off of both bracelets

before she arrived here.

I have seen others here
that have come through our doors,

who have got IV still on their arms.

They told me
that at their shelter alone,

over 50 patients had been dumped there
by hospitals.

Their options are very few :

either open the front door
and let them out,

which isn't the humane thing to do,
something we don't want to do,

or we try to find some place
for them to go.

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

In fact, the night before we were there,

the county hospital run by
the university of Southern California,

one of the richest private schools
in the country,

dumped another patient off on the curb.

A woman unable to pay her hospital bill.

Do you know how you got here?

- By the cab.
- The cab?

From General Hospital,
[they] gave him the cab fare.

He dropped me off there,
he actually forced me out of the car.

Ma'am, are you in pain right now?

- Are you in pain?
- Yes, I am.

Is there anything we can...

She, at this time, has broken ribs,
broken collarbone,

and stitches
that are not completely healed

across the top of her head
and on the side of her head.

Now let me ask you, ma'am.

Before they dropped you off,

- did they ask you
if you knew where you were going?

So they didn't ask you any questions
about your orientation,

whether or not you knew
what was going on.

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

May I take a minute to ask a question
that has been on my mind?

Who are we?

Is this what we've become?

A nation that dumps its own citizens

like so much garbage
on the side of the curb,

because they can't pay
their hospital bill?

I always thought and believe to this day

that we're good and generous people.

This is what we do
when somebody's in trouble.

Anybody gets sick,
we all get together and help.

People with a good heart...

You feel like you're sacrificing,

but then you get a blessing
from doing this

and that's the way we all feel.

... and a good soul.

We've got a lot of community support,

and we're gonna all keep working
until we locate this child.

Neighbors who are quick
to lend a helping hand

to anyone in their hour of need.

I deliver meals to them,

but my life has been so blessed
that it's just the least that I can do.

They say that you can judge a society

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

But is the opposite true?

That you can judge a society

by how it treats its best?

Its heroes?

The firefighters and police,
rescue and recovery workers

have responded with true heroism.

It was their initial heroism

that thwarted
the objectives of the terrorists.

Without regard, in many instances,

to their own safety and security...

They truly are heroes.

We owe them everything!

Here they are, folks, the men and women

who have been on the frontlines,
for New York,

and for all of us in America!

Tonight is dedicated to you!

Don't forget about the raffles
going on over there,

we got $1 each.

I spent two and a half year down there,

I got upper and lower,
breathing problems.

I need a double lung transplant

but I was diagnosed
for pulmonary fibrosis.

I haven't slept in a bed
in over 5 years, I sleep on a chair...

with a blanket in the living room,
because if I lay down, I can't breathe.

There were hundreds of rescue workers
on 9/11

who were not city employees,

but rather went down to Ground Zero
on their own to help out.

We need volunteers for Thursday!

And many developed
serious respiratory illnesses.

That's when the government said,

"They are not our responsibility,
because they weren't on our payroll."

John Graham is an EMT volunteer
from Paramus, New Jersey.

He was in Lower Manhattan
when he heard the planes hit,

and rushed over to help.

He worked in the rescue effort
for the next few months,

but then had trouble receiving benefits
for his illness.

No, they'd just deny it for any reason.

It's just a terrible waiting game.

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

It's terrible.

I never thought that we would do this.

That the United States would do this.

William Maher is a volunteer member
of New Jersey's fire service.

He spent two months
working on the pile at Ground Zero,

recovering bodies or body parts,
and it deeply affected him.

I'm experiencing
a lot of disturbing dreams,

or whatever you'd like to call them,

and it affected
what I was doing at night,

and you know, unaware of it

because I was asleep and I just kept
grinding and grinding my teeth.

The upper fronts are damaged,
practically beyond repair

because of my constant grinding
over the last three years.

Before, I was
at workers-comp. board already

for the 9/11 volunteers fund,
and I've been denied 3 times,

and hopefully I will go
on my 4th appeal soon,

if I can get
the necessary documentation.

Of course,
there was a $50 million fund set up

supposedly to help rescue workers.

Ladies and gentlemen,
the governor of New York, George Pataki.

But the government,
like the health insurance companies,

made it very difficult
for people to receive help.

You have to have spent
a certain amount of time at Ground Zero,

you have to be able to establish that,

you do have to file an affidavit
within the next year,

relating your work experiences
at Ground Zero

and even with all of that,
it's not automatic.

There is a presumption,
when certain illnesses occur,

but that presumption can be rebutted
by other medical evidence.

So we think it is a very fair approach
that protects our heroes.

I'm sorry.

Reggie Cervantes was a volunteer
emergency medical technician on 9/11.

Nothing makes it go away sometimes,

not water, not cough medicine,
not anything,

It's just...

burning in my throat and irritated
and it just gets to me coughing.

Sometimes I have trouble breathing

because I can't catch my breath.

Reggie spent her days at Ground Zero

carrying bodies
and treating other rescue workers.

My airway was totally burnt
that first week,

and I had trouble breathing by then.

But we wanted to see
if we could dig anybody up alive,

we wanted to see...

if we had lost anybody,
if we were still missing somebody.

I wanted to help.
I was trained for this.

You know, you see somebody
who is in need, you help them.

Reggie had difficulty getting treatment.

Too sick to work, and with no income,

she was forced to quit her job,

and used her savings to move her
and her kids out of the city.

It's hard to figure out
how you're supposed to get help.

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

But we're ignored.

But not everyone after 9/11
was ignored by the government.

We're now approaching the 5-year
anniversary of the 9/11 attacks.

So I'm announcing today
that Khalid Shaikh Mohammed,

Abu Zubaydah, Ramzi Binalshibh,

and 11 other terrorists in CIA custody,

had been transferred to
the US naval base at Guantanamo Bay.

On that island today

are some of the world's
most ardent enemy combatants.

These detainees are deadly
and include the 20th hijacker,

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

and others who had a direct role
in the September 11 attacks.

The kind of people held in Guantanamo

include terrorist trainers,
bomb makers...

Many of them have
American blood on their hands

and they are certainly
the elite of Al-Quaeda.

It seems to me we have an obligation

to treat these individuals
as enemy combatants.

And then I learned
it wasn't all bad news, at Gitmo.

Detainees representing a threat
to our national security

are given access
to top-notch medical facilities.

They have acute care, 24 hours a day,

in which surgical procedures,

everything can be performed right there,
in the detainee camps.

This is the dental clinic,
well, the health clinic/dental clinic.

We have a physical therapy department,

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

We have one single operating room.

Health personal to detainee ratio
is 1 to 4, remarkably high.

We do sick call on the blocks
3 times per week,

care for them there if they can.

We'll bring that detainee
back to the clinic to be seen there.

Screening for cancer
is taking place there.

Colonoscopy is a procedure

which is performed there
on a routine basis.

We have diabetes, high blood-pressure,
high cholesterol.

We do periodically monitor of the weight
and nutrition of the detainees,

so that we can track those detainees

to make sure
we're seeing them frequently,

monitoring their labs [test results]
and their overall health.

Their medical attention...

They're getting
way better medical treatment than...

I've ever had.

So you think it's as good as most HMOs
in the US?

Certainly very similar and as good, sir.

I live with an impression
that health care there is...

clearly better
than they received at home

and as good as many people
receive in the USA.

So there is actually one place
on American soil

that had free universal health care.

That's all I needed to know.

I went down to Miami, Florida,

got myself a boat,

and loaded up Bill,

Reggie,

and John...

- Thanks.
- Welcome, sir.

... and anyone else I could find

that needed to see a doctor
and couldn't afford one.

So many people showed up,
I had to get a couple extra boats.

And I called up Danna Smith from Denver,

who is now on 9 different medications,

and asked her
if she'd like to come along.

I figured she'd like to get out
of her daughter's basement for a while.

All right, let's go!

Which way to Guantanamo Bay?

Can we go?

We're not going to Cuba,
we're going to America!

It's American soil!

We made it.

There it is. There's the runway.

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

- We're very close.
- Yes, we're very close.

The white building is the hospital,
I think.

Okay, let's go.

We commandeered a fishing boat,

and sailed into Guantanamo Bay.

As we approached the line in the water

between the American
and Cuban side of the bay,

we were told to be careful for mines.

Permission to enter.

I have three 9/11 rescue workers.

They need some medical attention.

These are 9/11 rescue workers,
they just want some medical attention.

The same kind that Al-Qaeda is getting.

They don't want any more
than you're giving the evil-doers.

Just the same.

No one in the guard tower was responding
and then,

suddenly we heard a siren

and we figured
it was time to get out of here.

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

and no one to help them.

I mean here, we were stuck
at some God-forsaken Third-World country

and communists, no less.

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

What was I supposed to do?

Excuse me, we're looking for a doctor.

Is there a doctor here in Cuba?

All right, thank you very much.
Thank you.

OK. OK. I know what you're thinking.

Cuba is where Lucifer lives.

The worse place on Earth.

The most evil nation ever created.

How do we know that?

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

... that a series of offensive
missile sites

can be none other than to provide
a nuclear strike capability

against the western hemisphere.

I'm not gonna yield until Fidel Castro

allows freedom on the island.

You can count on it.

Put it in the bank.

It seems that what really bugged us
about Castro

was that he overthrew
the dictator that we liked.

And replaced him with a dictator
that we didn't like:

himself.

And so now, after all these years,

the one thing the Cubans do have,

is free universal health care.

They've become known around the world

as having not only one
of the best health care systems

but as being one of the most
generous countries in providing doctors

and medical equipment
to Third World countries.

In the US, health care cost
run nearly $6.000 per person.

But in Cuba, they spend only $251.

And yet the Cubans are able to have

a lower infant mortality rate
than the US,

a longer average live-span than the US.

They believe in preventative medicine.

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

Their only sin,
when it comes to health care,

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

Anybody got any medication right now
for the pharmacy?

Hello. Are you the pharmacist?

You have this?

- Cause this one's similar to yours?
- Yeah.

It's a $120 in the US.

- This is a $120 in the US.
- Yes.

3.20. So how much is that
in American dollars?

It's like a... 5 cents.

- 5 cents?
- Yeah.

Thank you very much.

Muchas Gracias.

A $120 is a lot of money
when you're getting

a $1000 in security disability [checks]
and you need 1 or 2 a month.

5 cents here,
it's like the biggest insult.

It just doesn't make any sense.

I wanna fill a suitcase up
and go back home with it.

I took my group of sick Americans
to a hospital

to see if they could get some care.

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

Just their name.

That was the entire intake session.

Thank you very much for doing this.

I asked them
to give us the same exact care

they give their fellow Cubans citizens.

No more, no less.

And that's what they did.

I'm Dr. Roque. I'm going turn
on my decent specialties.

- John Graham.
- How are you feeling?

My lungs hurt. I have pain.

I get pretty severe
nose bleeds at times.

I get terrible headaches
in the middle of the night

but I haven't been evaluated

for the sleep apnea for 9 years.

- Yeah, I have...
- Many medications for lungs problems.

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

After 9/11, since the things that have
happened, my teeth sort of falling out.

Because of certain conditions,
I was grinding.

There's one test
that they recommended I take,

that is about 5 to $7.000.

The dentist that I talked to,
it's like $15.000 or more.

Now it's 2 years
I have no medical coverage

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

It's okay, everything's gonna be okay.
Right?

I am so...

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

Because 20 years of our lives
have been spent fighting.

So I am so grateful. I...

No, You don't need to say that.

Come on, don't cry.
Everything's gonna be okay. Right?

At least what we can do, right?

Reggie was diagnosed with a series
of pulmonary and bronchial problems.

The Cubans doctors gave her
a treatment plan to follow back home.

Along with some
of those 5 cent inhalers.

William Maher received a number
of treatments on his neck and his back.

And having ground down his teeth
for 3 years straight

due to post-traumatic stress disorder

he left Cuba with a new set of teeth.

After a series of test on his heart,
lungs, blood and stomach,

John now knew
what his ailments were.

He was given a strict plan to follow,
plus a number of treatments

and was feeling better
than he had in years.

The Cubans doctors were able
to take Donna of 5 of her 9 medications.

And with a correct diagnosis,

gave her a treatment plan
to help her live a more normal life.

When the firefighters and paramedics
in Havana

heard that the 9/11 rescue workers
were in town,

they invited them over
to one of their fire houses.

And so, on our last day there,

as we arrived, they stood at attention

because, they said, they wanted to honor

the heroes of 9/11.

My brother.

The brothers we lost on 9/11
was felt around the world.

Don't hesitate to hug your brother.

It's very important to them
to wear the SCBA

so they don't end up like me.

These tanks.

SCBA :
Self Contained Breathing Aparatus.

If this is what can happen
between supposed enemies,

if one enemy can hold out his hand
and offer to heal,

then what else is possible?

"Mike, fahrenheit is not
a temperature measurement."

That's when I heard that the man
who runs the biggest

anti-Michael Moore website
on the internet

was going to have to shut it down.

BAD NEWS
He could no longer afford to keep it up

because his wife was ill

and they couldn't afford
to pay for her health insurance.

He was faced with a choice of
either keep attacking me

or pay for his wife's health.

Fortunately, he chose his wife.

But something seemed wrong about
being forced into such a decision.

Why in a free country

shouldn't he be able
to have health insurance

and exercise his 1st Amendment right

to run me into the ground?

So I wrote a check for the $12.000
he needed to keep his wife insured

and in treatment,
and send it to him anonymously.

His wife got better

and his website is still going strong.

It was hard for me to acknowledge that

in the end,
we truly are all in the same boat.

And that,
no matter what are our differences,

we sink or swim together.

That's how it seems to be
everywhere else.

They take care of each other.

No matter what their disagreements.

You know, when we see
a good idea from another country,

we grab it.

If they build a better car,
we drive it.

If they make a better wine,
we drink it.

So, if they have come up with
a better way to treat the sick,

to teach their kids,

to take care of their babies,

to simply be good to each other,

then what's our problem?

Why can't we do that?

They live in a world of "we",

not "me".

We'll never fix anything until
we get that one basic thing right.

And powerful forces hope
that we never do.

And that we remain the only country
in the western world

without free universal health care.

You know, if we ever did remove
the chokehold of medical bills,

college loans, day care,

and everything else that makes us afraid
to step out of line,

well, watch out,

cause it'll be a new day in America.

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

to do my laundry.

Someone needs to stop Clearway Law.
Public shouldn't leave reviews for lawyers.