The United States is Not 'Sicko'; MPI Short Films on Health Care Released at FreeMarketCure.com

The United States is Not 'Sicko'; MPI Short Films on Health Care Released at FreeMarketCure.com

WASHINGTON, June 20 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Shirley Healey, a resident of British Columbia, was scheduled for "urgent" surgery on her blocked mesenteric artery -- in four months' time. Ontario man Lindsay McCreith was offered a "critical" MRI on his cancerous brain tumor -- again in four months' time. Both gravely ill patients crossed the border into the United States, where they received life-saving treatment within days.

The stories of Healey, McCreith, and several others are available at FreeMarketCure.com, a new film website dedicated to educating the public about single-payer health care. Sponsored by the Moving Picture Institute (MPI), FreeMarketCure.com is America's one-stop answer to the dangerous fantasy that the government can and should manage your health care.

Created by MPI fellow Stuart Browning, FreeMarketCure.com features short films that reveal the truth about health care in Canada and in the United States. The site will also host commentary and a weblog by policy experts David Gratzer (a physician and senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute), David Hogberg (a senior analyst at the National Center for Public Policy Research), and David Catron (an expert on health care finance).

"As our national debate about health care heats up, it's crucial to distinguish between facts and spin," Browning says. "Canada is facing a health care crisis -- but you won't hear about that from those who argue that America should resolve its health care woes by modeling itself after the Canadian and Cuban systems."

Browning's films reflect the reality of health care in Canada, where government control has resulted in unconscionably long waiting lists for critical care, where private health insurance is illegal, and where more and more frustrated patients are taking matters into their own hands, crossing the border into the U.S. to get the timely, quality care they need.

On June 21, Browning will premiere his films in the U.S. Senate's Rayburn Building in Washington, D.C., at a panel discussion on health care reform hosted by MPI and the Cato Institute. Featuring commentary by Cato director of health policy studies Michael Cannon, American Prospect writing fellow Ezra Klein, and Browning himself, the panel will debunk some of the demonstrably inaccurate claims Michael Moore makes in his new film, Sicko.

"Moore is promoting the myth that government-run health care is a magic bullet," Browning says. "But the facts just don't support his claims. People need to have a rounded understanding of the issues. Only then can we hope to have a meaningful debate about what kinds of reforms will actually work."

MPI is a non-profit film production and distribution organization dedicated to promoting human freedom through film. It is based in the Tribeca Film Center in New York City.

Contact: Audrey Mullen

email: audrey@advocacyink.com

Source: Moving Picture Institute

CONTACT: Audrey Mullen, +1-703-548-1160, audrey@advocacyink.com, for the
Moving Picture Institute

Web site:

http://www.thempi.org/
http://www.freemarketcure.com/

-------
Profile: intent