June 27, 2007

Contact: Tim Rusch, Demos Press Office

(212) 633-1405 / press@demos.org

IS MICHAEL MOORE RIGHT?

Before there was Sicko, there was Sick.

 
New York, NY--Is America's health care system really a disaster?  Would we be better off copying Canada, England, France, or even ... Cuba?

Veteran journalist Jonathan Cohn has the answers.

Cohn is the author of Sick: The Untold Story of America's Health Care Crisis - and the People Who Pay the Price, published this April by HarperCollins. In the book, Cohn weaves the stories of real-life Americans with a comprehensive history of the U.S. health insurance system. He concludes with a call for universal health care, ideally modeled on some of the more successful systems abroad.  The book is based on original reporting and research that spanned more than five years.

Featured on NPR's "Fresh Air" and in the pages of Newsweek, Sick has won acclaim from the Sunday New York Times Book Review - which made it an Editor's Choice selection - as well as the Washington Post Sunday Book Review - which called Cohn "one of America's leading experts on health care policy."

Now Cohn has turned his attention to Michael Moore. Writing in the latest issue of The New Republic, where he is a senior editor, Cohn finds that Sicko has plenty of intellectual shortcuts, plus a few misleading anecdotes.  Still, Cohn thinks the movie's basic argument is correct.  The health insurance industry really does put profits before people -- by denying medically necessary treatments or trying to avoid sick people altogether. According to Cohn, that's a big reason why we need universal health insurance.

Because many people assume universal insurance inevitably means substandard care, Cohn applauds Moore for showcasing the virtues of French health care -- which Cohn's book also cites approvingly. The French, Cohn explains, have access to cutting-edge medicine with even more convenience than most Americans enjoy. Yet everybody in France has health insurance.  And the French spend less than Americans do on medical care. 

In sum, Cohn says, "Sicko got a lot of the little things wrong. But it got most of the big things right."

Cohn, who is also a senior fellow at the Demos policy center, has written for the New York Times, Rolling Stone, Washington Monthly, and Washington Post, and has appeared on numerous radio and television shows.

For publicity copies of Sick, or to book Cohn for an interview about Sick, Sicko or presidential candidate healthcare proposals, contact Timothy Rusch at (212) 633-1405 or press@demos.org.  For more information on the book, visit the website WWW.SICKTHEBOOK.COM.

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