Protesters at recent health care reform rallies on both sides of the issues speak their minds and concerns revealing some interesting and enlightening information not seen in the news media.
Protesters on various sides of the recent health care insurance reform issues, actively debated around the U.S. in the summer of 2009, are depicted as people at street rallies, protests, and town hall meetings give their views to filmmaker Jon Raymond. The film is not formally narrated but instead uses the interviews as a sort of narration and ongoing dialog that explains various aspects of the issues involved, from the question of socialism, to reports of people dying for lack of health insurance, to arrests of protesters at sit-ins.
The film was shot with a consumer HD camcorder with no producer, crew, or script. Highlights include interviews with doctors and nurses at various rallies such as the Hollywood "Mad as Hell Doctors" rally, where Dr. Jo Olson, Dr. Paul Papanek and Dr. Susie Baldwin explain how the proposed public option plan will likely fail and amounts to little more than an insurance industry "jobs program" to protect the insurance industry from it's demise as a single payer system would do.
Maureen Cruise, RN, very eloquently effectively narrates a sit-in protest at the Anthem Blue Cross offices in Los Angeles, and explains in detail how the public option plans are written by lobbyists and will have little positive effect in her view, how the U.S suffers from health care debt and how we compare to other countries that see health care as a human right.
The question of socialism is explored with Tamara Colbert of the right wing activist group, The Pasadena Patriots, as she points out her take on socialism, while reformers seemingly (through editing) respond with their views that socialism already exists for other public services in the U.S.
Throughout the film, President Obama explains his points as each issue is explored. Michael Moore describes how the foreclosure crisis is a result mostly of health care debt, and how our democracy is in jeopardy with so few controlling so much of the wealth in America.
A cast of over fifty people including actor, Lucia Brawley and musician Sam Pullen (arrested at the Los Angeles sit-in), make for an interesting street survey of the ongoing health care debate.
