[Mitai-announce] Sicko the Movie: Monday 3/15/10 6:30PM

[Karen Li]

MIT Amnesty International presents:
Sicko

Date: Monday, March 15
Time: 6:30PM-9:00PM
Place: 6-120

Join us for resfreshments and a screening of Michael Moore's 
documentary/op-ed about healthcare in the U.S.

About the movie:
/SiCKO/ is more like a controlled howl of protest than a documentary. 
Toning down the rhetoric of past efforts--no CEOs, congressmen, or 
celebrities were accosted in the making of this film--Michael Moore's 
latest provocation is just as heartfelt, if not more heartbreaking. As 
he clarifies from the outset, his subject isn't the 45 million Americans 
without insurance, but those whose coverage has failed to meet their 
needs. He starts by speaking with patients who've been denied 
life-saving procedures, like chemotherapy, for the most spurious of 
reasons. Then he travels to Canada, England, and France to see if 
socialized medicine is as inefficient as U.S. politicians like to 
claim--especially those who receive funding from pharmaceutical 
companies. Moore finds quality care available to all, regardless as to 
income. He concludes with a stunt that made headlines when he assembles 
a group of 9/11 rescue workers suffering from a variety of afflictions. 
When Moore is informed that detainees at Guantánamo Bay--technically 
American soil--qualify for universal coverage, he and his companions 
travel to Cuba to get in on that action. It's a typically grandstanding 
move on Moore's part. And it proves remarkably effective when these 
altruistic individuals, who've either been denied treatment or forced to 
pay outrageous costs for their medication, experience a dramatically 
different system. Nine years in the making, /SiCKO/ makes a persuasive 
case that it's time for America to catch up with the rest of the world.