Health Care on Film: Clips from SiCKO and Its Competitors

CAPITOL HILL BRIEFING

Thursday, June 21, 2007

8:30 AM (Breakfast Included)

With comments by: Stuart Browning, Fellow, Moving Picture Institute; Michael F. Cannon, Director of Health Policy Studies, Cato Institute; and Ezra Klein, Writing Fellow, American Prospect.

B-340 Rayburn House Office Building

Michael Moore’s new documentary SiCKO unfavorably contrasts the U.S. health care system with government-run systems. According to Moore, the U.S. system leaves millions of Americans behind and allows insurance companies to profit by denying care to cancer patients. Meanwhile, patients in Canada, Cuba, and the United Kingdom receive quality care free of charge. Several short films from the Moving Picture Institute argue the opposite. Do these films provide an accurate or complete picture? Clips from SiCKO and the Moving Picture Institute will serve as a launching pad for a discussion of health care system failures, domestic and foreign.

You should come!

Ezra Klein is a former Prospect writer and current editor-in-chief at Vox. His work has appeared in the LA Times, The Guardian, The Washington Monthly, The New Republic, Slate, and The Columbia Journalism Review. He’s been a commentator on MSNBC, CNN, NPR, and more.