Moore recalls when health care wasn’t ‘Sicko’

AP: Have you had any health care nightmares of your own?

Moore: I’ve been very lucky. I have not had any serious illness or whatever. Tonsils and appendix, that’s my health care history. I think genetics do play a lot in this. My grandfather lived to 88, my grandmother lived to 95. These things certainly help. And since belonging to the Directors Guild, I’ve had great union health coverage that most Americans don’t have, because most Americans don’t belong to a union.

AP: Your grandfather was a country doctor. Can you contrast stories you heard of health care in his day with the way things are now?

Moore: He went to medical school in the late 1800s and actually lived until 1956, practiced right into his 80s, delivering babies. He was the village doctor. ... He was born in Canada, so he came out of a Canadian mentality of we’re all in this together. He was also a Republican, because to be conservative in those days literally meant to conserve. Conserve the environment, conserve money, don’t spend money you don’t have, don’t live in debt. Conserve the rights of human beings in terms of civil rights, being the party of Lincoln, which is what Republicans were. He didn’t charge a dollar an office call. He would go to people’s homes, he’d deliver babies, and they’d pay him with chickens and eggs and milk. He wasn’t a rich man. They lived well by the standards of those times, but not extravagantly.

Thinking about that era, back in the first half of the 20th century, where you had for instance the man who invented the kidney-dialysis machine. He didn’t want the patent for it, he felt it belonged to everybody. Jonas Salk and the polio vaccine, again, he wouldn’t patent it. The famous quote for him is, “Would you patent the sun? It belongs to everyone.” He wasn’t doing this to become a millionaire. He was doing it because it was the right thing to do. During that era, that’s the way people thought.

AP: In your travels on this film, did you find many health care providers with that sense of altruism?

Moore: I find doctors these days pretty demoralized by the whole system. Because family doctors don’t make that much money any more. Insurance companies really give them a lot of grief and make them jump through a lot of hoops to collect their money. Remember when you were a kid and went to the doctor? There might be one woman sitting behind the glass making the appointments. You go today, there’s five or six people behind the glass, filling out forms, fighting with the insurance company. We’ve really gone down the wrong road here by allowing profit to enter the equation. That’s what’s wrong.

AP: Harvey Weinstein says his initial reaction over the investigation of your Cuba trip was elation that the federal government was helping to publicize the film. Did you ever feel that?

Moore: No. This is serious. I’m being investigated by the federal government, for what? I’m a free citizen in a free country. I can travel freely. To tell me I can’t go somewhere is antithetical to what freedom and democracy are about. ... I read a lot when that happened, like, “Oh, boy, Michael Moore and Harvey, they must just love this.” But I don’t really need to do anything to get people to come to my movies. They come. ... Everybody knows who I am at this point, I think. They know what my movies are about. They’re either going to come or not come. It may seem stupid of the Bush administration to have done anything to help publicize the film, but the film was going to be known, anyway. We weren’t going to make any big deal about it. We were just going to open the film, and we thought people that saw “Fahrenheit” would probably come and see this, or at least some of them would. My goal is, I hope we do as well as “Bowling for Columbine,” and if we do better than that, to me that would be considered a great success.

AP: You assailed President Bush over the Iraq war in your Oscar speech for “Bowling for Columbine.” If you got a chance to make another Oscar speech, would you play nice?

Moore: I will always be true to myself, and I will always follow my conscience, but I also am a person who is very appreciative of those who are thanking me for the work that I do. And I think there’s something to be said for being a good guest when you’re in someone’s house. My films have a mix of comedy and tragedy. I’ve given my tragic Oscar speech. If I was lucky enough to have that happen again, I think I will roll with the comedy this time.

MORE FROM MOVIES

Movies Section Front

You’ll wish you didn’t ‘Hear About the Morgans’ Jeff Bridges is Bad to the bone in ‘Crazy Heart’ Clooney, Streep, Bullock earn SAG Award nods Cameron aims for ‘Titanic’ results with ‘Avatar’ Effects wow, but story in ‘Avatar’ is unsatisfying This was not the decision Lucas was looking for Streep, Bullock enjoy new lease on career life ‘Avatar’ joins tradition of Hollywood colossi Golden Globe nods don’t ensure Oscar love 70 years on, ‘Gone With the Wind’ still holds up Movies Section Front   Add Movies headlines to your news reader: