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Michael Moore Exposed as a Shameless Liar on Cuba

Filed under: Cuba

michael_moore1.jpg

Whatever you do, don't get near the mouth . . .

Did you know that when Michael Moore bashed the USA for having a low score on medical care from the World Health Organization, pointing out that it is lower than many other developed countries and praising Cuba as offering better medical care, he neglected to mention* that Cuba actually has a lower score (#39 -- see page 152) from WHO than the USA (#37 -- see page 155) does? So when he packed up a bunch of sick Americans to take them to Cuba for treatment in his movie "SICKO," he was actually taking them to a place with worse medical care than the one they were in. Moonbat logic is a scary thing.

And that's not the half of it. It now turns out that the Cuban medical care he documents in his film SICKO isn't representative. Reuters reports:

Three New York rescue workers injured in the September 11 attacks got the best treatment Cuba can offer in Michael Moore's film critique of U.S. health care, the Cuban doctors who attended them said this week. Communist Cuba's universal free health system has achieved low child mortality and high longevity rates on a par with rich nations since Fidel Castro's 1959 revolution. But the hospital where SiCKO's patients were treated is an exception in Cuba, where patients of many other hospitals complain they have to take their own sheets and food.

It seems not to have occurred to anyone that the grotesquely obese Mr. Moore is hardly a role model for good health even if he told the truth; since he's a known pathological liar and propagandist, taking medical advice from him is probably the worst thing you could do for your health.

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*A helpful reader has pointed out in the comments that this criticism, made by CNN, has been challenged by Moore on his website. What the reader, not so helpfully, fails to mention is that the website only says a picture of the list was shown in the movie. It doesn't have a transcript of how the film handles in information so as to show whether it emphasized this reality appropriately for the viewer.

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Comments


Shaun M says:

Thanks for this. In fact Cuba's position is clearly shown in the movie. It's also visible in the trailer. You have no excuse for getting this wrong.

www.michaelmoore.com/sicko/news/article.php?id=10017


walter peers says:

The fact that the healthcare system in an impoverished nation crippled by our decades-old blockade (including medical supplies and drugs) ranks so closely to ours is more an indictment of the American system than the Cuban system.


La Russophobe says:

SHAUN:

Thanks for the link, I'll check it out! If there's an error, I think I'll submit to American medical care for my punishment, would that satisfy you as being sufficiently harsh? I guess you are admitting that Moore lied about the type of care that was received by the Americans who visited Cuba under his sham operation, so thanks for confirming that. It's the point of this post. If the US score was higher than Cuba's then there was no reason to take the Americans there, they got worse care than they would have received in America. If Moore knew it, that only makes things that much worse.

"No excuse"? Rather imperious, aren't you? Errors happen all the time even at paid publications. Only people like you, who never write anything and take no chances and do nothing, fail to make them.

WALTER:

That's not even close to being true. In a nation where you have freedom and democracy, you're going to have lots of social services that have gaps people fall through. It's called capitalism. But you're also going to have a much higher standard at the high end, and you aren't going to have mass murder in the Gulag. The USSR may have had great healthcare under Stalin, but that wasn't much good to the tens of millions it murdered. If you don't like freedom, move to a dictatorship where they'll "take care" of you just fine.


av2ts says:


And the stuff about "VIP" treatment is crap. First off, anti-Cuba journalist Marc Cooper has reported that he'd been in that same hospital with a friend who indeed needed to being their own sheets - like most hospitals during the special period. I don't know if it's true anymore. So poor journalism by Boadle in the Rueters piece there to assume Ameijeiras is "an exception" - other than it being a main, central hospital in Havana.

Secondly, a Spanish speaking 9/11 reponder with Moore snuck out the next day and got the same top notch care without cameras and Moore as she did before. They had no idea who she was.


Ollie says:

You just don't get it or are you really that thickheaded. The object here is to point out the rip offs that are going on within the healthcare system and how it is being abused for the sake of profits. Who cares whether Cuba or anyone else is 20 or 30 or whatever number. The worlds richest nation can not even provide health care for 9 million children and another 38 million citizens, which is more than most populations in most countries. It is not the people and politician with iron clad health insurance that suffer it is our poor and old people and children.
Let's work together to make life better for mankind and not argue and bicker over statistics, whether one number is correct or not. Do we feel good about letting someone die when help is available, or someone having to loose their life savings and so on.
Think about it and then do the right thing


Ryan says:

I think it's hilarious that these Republican SiCKOs continue to regurgitate the same hollow points despite given links to the truth from both Michael Moore's website and CNN's response, in which it admitted fudging the facts for gullible Repubs. Thank God my generation is the future.

You wonder why there isn't a Republican version of Michael Moore? Well you do have one, his name is George W. Bush. His propaganda got you Repubs to jump on his gravy train by simply using the term "evil-doers". Wow.


Craig says:

"In a nation where you have freedom and democracy"... really? that "freedom" includes also government phone tapping, treat you in the airports like sick dog and look your inner parts to see if you have a hidden plastic weapon? That "freedom" you talk about also is about perhaps the same freedom of be able to go to Cuba? Because your government does not free you to go there!!! Ehem, well, ok, in your free and democratic country, how comes to glue a finger cost you 60.000 dollars? How come your Iraq veterans had such terrific advertisement when someone discovered they were pissing in their own hospital beds and no one cared! Tell me about a cuban bring a sheet to her/his bed... If the cuban do that is because they are all screwed up by the satan president, etc, if your veterans suffer all the things they suffer in your hospital, what's that called? eh, a mishap?


Daryn says:

Of course China and Cuba have low mortality rates - both countries force women to have abortions.


Lissa says:

I wonder if you EVER went to China and Cuba to tell your experience, or you are talking from what you get in your TV, internet sites, etc... because if you did the second one, then you still believe Iraq has weapons of mass destriction hahahaha. Did you actually know that in Cuba abortion is being regulated since a few years ago because neglected youth took it as anticonceptive?


Daryn says:

At NationMaster (http://www.nationmaster.com/graph/hea_abo_percap-health-abortions-per-capita) you will find that the top 4 nations with the highest abortion rate per capita are (1) Russia, (2) Bulgaria, (3) Hungary and (4) Cuba.

At Amnesty International (http://web.amnesty.org/report2005/chn-summary-eng), they make special note of the fact that China engages in forced abortions. Do you really think that if I believe this report that this is linked to Iraq, or as you note: "Iraq has weapons of mass destriction hahahaha." What is the connection between abortion and Iraq? Please explain.

I don't understand this line: "Did you actually know that in Cuba abortion is being regulated since a few years ago because neglected youth took it as anticonceptive?" Do you mean that abortion has only been regulated for the past few years? Who regulates it and how is it regulated? How many neglected youth are there in Cuba? How do you define neglected? Where is your evidence that neglected youth took it as "anticonceptive [sic]", and how can you reconcile that with the fact that Cuba has a Catholic heritage? Also, how would you explain the fact that Cuba's per capita abortion rate is the 4th highest in the world when, as you admitted, it is now being regulated?


Keith says:

Daryn,

I married to a Cuban that immigrated to the US 3 years ago and have spent much time there myself.

As screwed up as Cuba is one thing that I can admire is the way that they treat there children and elders. You will never see a homeless child unlike in the US and the only adults you will see homeless is by choice. Cuba takes care of there children and elders more than we do here in the US (with what little they have). You also rarely see people begging unlike here in the US.

As for abortion, yes as someone said it was used as birth control until fairly recently. Even today you can see this in many Eastern Bloc countries. Up to the mid 90's it was common for doctors to insert IUD's into many young women (without there consent).

Castro (much like Eastern Bloc counrties) did not permit Cubans to practice religion openly until Pope John Paul's only visit. Also, roughly 50% of the population also practices Santeria on some level.

Cuba is far from perfect and has its good points and bad. I can say that with the embargo in place and the poor economy and Socialist government it has a lot to be desired. But this being said money talks and if you have it you can get ANYTHING you want and including top notch health care. Cuba makes a fair amount of money with Medical Resorts that Europeans and Latin American's frequent for cardiology, plastic surgery, eye surgery, skin burns and neurological disorders.

I hope this helps..


Keith


av2ts says:

To say that Cuba's infant mortality rate is better than America's because the government forces Cubans to have abortions is absurd. Yes they have high abortions, as medicaal care is cheap, good and abundant - and there has been little societal (Church) stigma.

What I think Lissa meant is that Cuba has been trying to dissuade abortions in a big way the last 5-6 years. Government campaigns, education, condoms, etc. The rate has come down by more than 2/3 since the 1990s...

But none of that affects infant mortality, unless you believe Cuban doctors just flush babies away in order to have better statistics. It is absurd.

China and Cuba are 2 different countries. China, of course, has a one-child policy.


Daryn says:

Dear Keith and av2ts:

Thank you for your feedback.

Unfortunately, Cuba does force their woman and children to have abortions. See, for example, interviews and articles written by Armando Valladares (who was adopted by Amnesty International as a prisoner of conscience) and Dr. Oscar Elias Biscet, who has been called the Martin Luther King, Jr. of Cuba.

I disagree with av2Ts who notes: "Yes they have high abortions, as medicaal care is cheap, good and abundant." I think it is a leap in logic to say that abortion rates are high when medical care is cheap and good.

I also disgaree with Keith who says: "You will never see a homeless child unlike in the US and the only adults you will see homeless is by choice. Cuba takes care of there children and elders more than we do here in the US."

That being said, I still appreciate your feedback.


Cuban abroad says:

Cuban health system is based in semi-slave work of doctors and other personnel, a Cuban doctor earns about 10-15 usd dollars per month. I know a brain-surgeon that have to use its personal car as a taxi to earn some money to his family, other doctor sells pirated CDs, and so on.

Cuban health system actually sucks if you are a common citizen, there are 3 separate health systems, one for high level government officials, other for tourists (perhaps the one that you saw in the film), and other for the rest of the Cubans. In that one is difficult sometime to find something simpler like aspirin, or bandage, alcohol, sheets, etc. Installations are deplorable, but hey yes there are doctors, for 15usd per month you could have as many as you want.


av2ts says:

Cuban abroad, if Cuban health care "sucks" for the average Cuban, how did the WHO - and everyone else who has studied the sysyem - come to such an opposite conclusion? If their care "sucks" how good is the American system, which leaves 50 million out and forces the rest of us to deal with HMOs to make decisions on care, rather than doctors.

Daryn, you left out my other reason abortions are relatively high in Cuba (I think they have a lower rate than America now). Also, indeed serious researchers have noted that Cuba has no homeless children or otherwise, unlike you see everywhere else in Latin America.

They have other problems, but not many of the problems of capitalist countries (drug use, hunger, crime, inequality, segregation, etc.)


dave essel says:

Some pictures ('worth a thousand words') here:

http://www.therealcuba.com/Page10.htm

The hospitals look like hospitals in most socialists countries - that is to say DIRE


av2ts says:

Every time an argument is lost, these same pictures come out. No one really know where those first most horrific ones are from. The therealcuba.com author who posts these photos, quite embaressingly, doesn't even know what decade they are from. He's off by 8 years as they were supposedly shot in 1994, the height of Cuba's great depression (worse than ours). So why should I believe anything else about them? Full studies (by the WHO, UN, BBC, UK Parliment, Kaiser Foundation, etc.) are better than photos sometimes.

To make my point, consider the Walter Reed pictures. They were not representative of the situation and taken out of context.

I wonder what a picture of a poor woman suffering in in a Los Angeles hospital last month looked like as she died on the floor, being dragged by police officers out of a hospital that would not treat her for hours even as blood dripped out of her mouth.


Canadian Guy says:

Only one country separating them? Sounds like a virtual tie to me. Not bad considering the decades of genocidal US trade sanctions the Cuban people have had to endure!

More telling the is the level of health in each country. Cuba is #36. The USA is, ahem... #72!

Maybe the US moved up a couple of positions in the over all due to expenditures per capita -- we know how inefficient the US system is in this regard.


Michael Johnson says:

the idiot that runs the real cuba is CIA fucking asshole
he is paid off
Cubans are the most educated in the americas
stupid brainwashed USA people
what a shame and a scam, obese rates are going up,
this person on this blog is also wrong on all counts


strifer says:

Who cares?

The US health system is still a fucking joke. The facts he presented from Britain were not blurred in any way.


turboloso says:

why don't you commie loving comemerdias get a clue?

the cuban health system is a sham and you're being had assholes.

the surest way to measure a society is to observe how they "vote" with their feet.

when was the last time you heard of people wanting to move and live in the communist paradise of docto fidel?

nuff said.


mglesne says:

I knew we get this response soon... but it the real sham.

Given the automatic US citizenship (only) Cubans receive along with the thousands of dollars in housing assistance, food stamps, free health care, job-training, etc., it is amazing more don't try the 90 milies journey. Only a few thousand try to cross each year, most in fast boats, paid for by their family in Florida. This pales in comparision to even the more distant island of Hispanola, who normally sends twice as many migrants. And forget about Mexico, China, Phillipines, Colombia, etc..

Who migrates to any developing country?? Cuba actually does get Haitian migrants...


elmer says:

There is nothing that Michael Moore adds to the discussion about health care. He obviously wants to socialize it on the basis of anecdotal and emotional appeals.

What I find amazing here is that the US is being blamed for "genocidal trade sanctions" against Cuba!!!

You have got to be kidding. Cuba's economy, and apparently its health care system (no, wait, its health care system is better than the US), are cripple, crippled, because there are no other countries in the world to trade with, and Cuba's entire existence (well, except for its health care system, which is being supported by Maradona, apparently, and by Michael Moore) depends on whether Cuba trades with the US.

When I've been to Canada, I've enjoyed some find Cuban cigars there.

Apparently, Canada, Europe and South America don't count as anything, because the US "genocidal trade sanctions" are the key.

Blame the US for everything - well, except for Cuba's wonderful health care system.

Michael Moore should move to Cuba.


Kenya Autie says:

Hello all - I am so outraged about Michael Moore's movie "Sicko." He is a total opportunist who filters the information he presents to the pubic.

I am a natural born Cuban and lived in that country for 28 years. The majority of my family still lives there, and I have visited the Island a few times. My last visit was in February of 2007.

The health care in Cuba simply does not exist. We lack medical equipment, medicine, and specialized training for doctors and nurses.

Any tourist that goes to Cuba can get medical treatment because that is part of the communist propaganda, but Cubans themselves can not. The health care industry is controlled by the government in the same way everything else is.

If you think people are dying in the US because they lack a health care, you have to see the atrocities of the Cuban poor (and lack of) medical treatment.

Michael Moore should be punished for selling a movie that lacks facts and alters reality. Denouncing the health care problems in the US and praising the health care in Cuba is not something that a fair and honest person would do.

He contradicts himself when in his movie he shows a list of countries and their rank based on health care quality. In the list he shows that the US ranks as number 37, and on that same list Cuba ranks as number 39.

He is a hypocrite and a liar, and I hope people don't get brain washed by his false statements about the Cuban health care industry.

Cheers!

Kenya


happinessisfree says:

somenthing beter to do?.....stupid afirmations.....


whitebaron says:

The thing all of you critics fail to realize is that the WHO does not rate countries based on quality of health care, but rather, mostly on universal coverage. The U.S. has the best hospitals in the world, and Moore exaggerates stories, often cutting people out, and finding extreme stories in the midst of many successes. It is true that our system has many flaws and needs revision, so I reccomend the following. First, if anyone wants universal health coverage then they should pass it in their home state, not nationally, otherwise it is unconstitutional. Second, company's should follow a nonprofit organization, where since profit is no motive, costs go down, and other motives come into play. Intermountain Healthcare contains the best hospitals in the world,and they used to be owned by the Mormon church, but are now privately owned, and nonprofit. Their costs are lower, and they have the best quality on Earth. The Mormon church, when it turned its hospitals public in order to help more people said "Be a model healthcare system" and they are. Looks like the U.S. and the rest of the world could learn a thing or two from Utah.









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