Greed is Good in Healthcare?

Went to Montpelier for the Vermont premier of Michael Moore's Sicko at 9:30 this morning at the Savoy.

Yours truly and WPTZ-TV were the only media to show up for the presser at the front door of the Savoy Theater that Dr. Deb Richter organized.

Powerful stuff. Mind-opening. Heart-breaking. It's about a whole lot more than the visit to Cuba part that's received all the pre-opening U.S. mainstream-media hype. The visits to Canada, yes, Canada and Paris, France and London, England will blow your all-American mind. They certainly did mine.

Closer to home, he refuses to see Al Gore's An Inconvenient Truth, still, so I'd be shocked if Vermont's Republican Gov. Jim Douglas, a governor who publicly supports opening up our state to every cherry-picking health insurance outfit in existence, went anywhere near this flick.

More later....

Much moore.

Comments

[vermonter]

Jeezuz Freyne, when you gonna give up on the "he refuses to see an inconvenient truth" baloney. It's not on my list either, but not because I don't believe in global warming. I haven't seen a movie in years. Some people are freakin busy, ok? What makes you the arbiter of what movies a public official MUST see?

[JPC]

Also, keep in mind that although it is a documentary things can still be taken out of context. Several people who have used both the british and canadian health care systems have stated that MM makes them out to be better then they really are. I agree that something is wrong with our health care system and needs to be changed, but honestly Freyne. You don't believe everything written in print but seem to think if it is on the big screen then it is law. A good start for the health care system would be to get medicare to pay the full amount of the bill so that the balance isn't passed on to the consumer, or make it illegal for hospitals to overcharge to cover their losses.

[Nate]

"Some people are freakin busy," eh, Vermonter? I agree with you in that my first choice for a movie this week is Ratatouille or maybe a live performance of Brigadoon at the Chandler, but Jeezuz, Vermonter, it seems like the only thing making you too freakin busy to see a movie at 8pm on a Friday night is posting your opinions on Freyneland. With all due respect, start a blog of your own, and since you're clearly smart enough, people will come visit. I promise I will. Hey, it worked for SnarkyBoy last year, didn't it? The imaginary character started out flaming in blog posts, then stole the show with his own blog. It's hard to say if you are a real person or an imaginary character since you seem so conflicted as a self-proclaimed dem, but, hey, go for it, and in the long run it won't matter if you are real or an imagined character, as long as you're speaking a legitimate viewpoint rather than simply riding Freyne's backside.

By the way, I liked your nod to Dean for guv the other day. Bring him home, he can provide more national leadership from Vermont than he can from Washington, now that he's got the 50 state initiative up and running.

Nate Freeman

[vermonter]

I've hear rumors that SnarkyBoy was that self-righteous, humorless, fact-challenged, saving-humanity-from-itself jerk Michael Colby. I've read his writing and he's not somebody I'd want to emulate. Even giving oneself the handle "snarkyboy" says something foolish about the owner, even if unwittingly.

I don't really consider myself conflicted. My family on both sides have been Dems since they got off the boats generations ago. Working stiffs. FDR people. Truman people. Kennedy people. Not socialists. Not "progressives." Unlike the current crop of Vermont Dems, they didn't seem to mind working for a living in actual, traditional jobs. Ralph Wright was a Dem. Was he conflicted? Dean was a Dem. Was he conflicted? I'd argue that the conflicted Dems are the the Prog wannabes in this state who don't seem to give a shit about middle-class me and my job and my goddam tax bill and where I'll find the money for the college tuition payments I'll soon have to make. Frankly, I really don't see a damn bit of meaningful philosophical difference between Symington and Zuckerman, both of whom moved here from the tony suburbs of other states and whose respective childrens' college tuitions will probably be paid out of family trusts or grandparental gifts. Why do so many Democratic politicians in this state have to be professional "social activist"? Get it over with and just join the Progressive Party for chrissake.

And, no, although I've had time to take a few minutes and blog, I still can't take four hours and drive to Burlington or Montpelier and back for the leisure of watching An Inconvenient Truth or Sicko or the must-see left wing documentary of the day because I have to finish paperwork from my office, mow the lawn, do the grocery shopping, do some projects around the house, drive my kids around, and all the other stuff associated with having a job, a house, and a family. Guess I'll have to miss today's protest-of-the-day march on Church Street, too.