Posted on Friday, June 29, 2007 - 4:08 pm:

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He makes a graphic start by finding, among the nearly 50 million Americans lacking any health coverage, a guy obliged to take matters into his own hands, picking up needle and thread to stitch a wicked gash in his knee. Another fellow is no longer capable of such dexterous self-help. Having severed two fingers in an industrial accident, he was forced to make a hard financial choice: to sew back the utilitarian middle digit for $60,000 or the romantic ring finger for a mere $12,000. Amour, and economy, won out.

Moore's primary focus, however, is not on the unfortunates without health insurance, but on the equally neglected people who possess it, forcing them to do battle with the profit motive that rules the system. Insurance companies are in the business of making money; ergo, they make more money by paying for treatment as infrequently as possible. We hear from guilty company doctors confessing to their complicity in 'denying referrals,' and to the fat bonuses received for doing so. Mainly, of course, we hear from the victims themselves, all with paid-up coverage, and their tales of bottom-line abuse are truly shocking.

Like the 22-year-old woman with ovarian cancer: Denied treatment. Why? Patient deemed 'too young' to contract the disease. Like the middle-aged man in life-saving need of a bone-marrow transplant: Denied treatment. Why? Procedure considered 'too experimental.' And like the fatally feverish child brought by her anguished mother to the nearest emergency ward: Denied treatment. Why? 'Wrong hospital.' Each tragedy was readily preventable, and each inspires our righteous anger.

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