Get ready to see Michael Moore’s new film documentary “SICKO” scheduled to have it’s national release this Friday, June 29. Sicko focuses on the more than 250 million people who have insurance, but highlights those who are betrayed by it in their time of need. Moore’s film shows the American healthcare system’s dangerous focus on profits, exemplified in the stories of average Americans such as Donna, 52, and Larry Smith, 62, who were forced to file bankruptcy as a result of her cancer and his heart problems. They had health insurance, but it hardly paid for everything.

Moore shows the American healthcare system thru the lens of insurance company whistleblower Dr. Laure Peeno, who testified before Congress that she “denied a man a necessary operation and thus caused his death.” She went on to say that her actions were rewarded: “This secured my reputation and it ensured my continued advancement in the healthcare field.”

Moore puts the American healthcare system, which is rated 37th by the World Health Organization, into perspective by traveling to hospitals in Canada, Britian, Cuba and France - countries which have government run programs. Scenes showed the expressions of doctors and patients who laughed or looked quizzical when Moore asked about the cost of visits to the doctor. The horror of Moore’s expose is not that health insurance companies are posting too much of a profit, it’s that they are doing so at the expense of American lives. Healthcare is a life and death issue, says Moore, and it should not be based on profit. “We wouldn’t expect the fire department to post a profit. We expect a free service for everyone, because it’s a life and death issue,” says Moore, citing a utility that serves everyone and is supported by public taxation.

Moore’s film release is accompanied by a coalition of doctors and nurses who plan to co-host premieries of Sicko across the nation. Their campaign is titled, “Scrubs for Sicko”. They began gaining attention early this week as they began their bus tour with the goal of recruiting enough registered nurses and doctors to attend every theater in the nation. The nurses and doctors will be at the screenings to pass out literature on current healthcare campaigns, and will be urging the audience to help pass single payer legislation such as HR 676 and similar bills in several state legislatures.

Along with launching the film, Moore showed the film at a private screening to Congress and testified about healthcare, and later had a showing for pharmaceutical and insurance lobbyists. Moore also went to New Hampshire to give a private screening to members of the California Nurses Association, and later he arrived in Chicago to rally around healthcare change in Millenium Park.

“The release of Michael Moore’s SICKO is one of the most important developments in the national debate on our healthcare crisis since the Clintons attempted to pass universal healthcare legislation in 1994.” Representative John Conyers (D-Michigan)