MichaelMoore.com

'Sickos' take their show on the road

By Lolis Eric Elie / Times-Picayune

NEW ORLEANS, LA -- In those months after the levees failed, many of our bodies failed as well.

Diabetes, high blood pressure and arthritis that had been tamed by diet, exercise or medication, suddenly got off leash and ran amok. Depression soared as hopes for a quick, safe return home died.

Stranded in Texas or Georgia or Arizona, many of us learned the cold geography of health insurance. Depending on where you were, what kind of coverage you had and what kind of ache pained you, your health insurance might or might not help you get well.

Among the many post-Hurricane Katrina lessons the people of the Gulf Coast can teach the nation, we must be sure to include this one: our country needs health insurance that is portable enough to allow Americans traveling in any of this nation's states or territories to receive quality health care, no nonmedical questions asked.

Shocking movie

That is the sort of medical care that Healthcare-NOW envisions.

That group has helped to organize the Sicko-Cure Road Show to drum up support for a national health insurance program that would provide coverage for all needed medical care without copayments or deductibles.

A key component of the tour is the screening of Michael Moore's documentary, "Sicko," a stark and humorous portrayal of our ailing health care system.

In that film, Americans who are unable to afford health care are cast into bankruptcy and forced to choose which finger to keep and which one to do without. Health insurance professionals tell shocking tales of earning financial bonuses by denying needed health care to patients who are destined to die if they don't receive treatment.

Coming to town

The Sicko-Cure Road Show hits Louisiana starting Saturday.

Supporters are hoping to convince our representatives in Congress to support H.R. 676, a bill before Congress also known as the Expanded and Improved Medicare for All bill. Rep. William Jefferson, D-New Orleans, is the only Louisiana official listed as a supporter of the bill.

So much of our national mythology is tangled up with the idea that the free market cures all ills that it is difficult to have any serious discussion of other approaches to our most pressing problems.

But we in Louisiana see the deficiencies of free markets in ways we might have been unable to imagine three years ago.

If ever there was a time for us to help lead our nation into a radical new direction, this is it.

The SICKO-Cure Road Show will begin with a discussion of the proposed demolition of New Orleans public housing at 11 a.m. on Saturday at the Loyola University Law School at 526 Pine St. "Sicko" will be screened for free at 7 p.m. at the Ashé Cultural Center, 1712 Oretha Castle Haley Blvd. Sunday, the road show travels to Baton Rouge before returning to the Lower 9th Ward Health Clinic on Monday.