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BlueCross Secret Memo Re: 'Sicko' ... "You would have to be dead to be unaffected by Moore's movie..."
I looked and don't see that anybody has diaried this yet, if I missed it I apologize. I subscribe to Michael Moore's listserve and this came on my email this morning.
An excerpt from the email:
An employee who works at Capital BlueCross has sent us a confidential memo written and circulated by its Vice President of Corporate Communications, Barclay Fitzpatrick. His job, it seems, was to go and watch "Sicko," observe the audience's reaction, and then suggest a plan of action for how to deal with the movie.
The memo, which I am releasing publicly in this email, is a fascinating look at how one health care company views "Sicko" -- and what it fears its larger impact will be on the public. The industry's only hope, the memo seems to indicate, is if the movie "flops."
Follow me after the fold.
Here's a link to this really priceless memo which exposes the desperate squirming of greedy corporate bandits caught with their pants down.
Congratulations to Michael Moore for putting health insurance companies on the defensive and making them examine and defend their evil business practices!
Vice President of Corporate Communications, Barclay Fitzpatrick, writes:
In typical Moore fashion, Government and business leaders are behind a conspiracy to keep the little guy down and dominated while getting rich. Nixon Oval Office tapes are used to show how the initial idea of a 'less care = profit' enterprise was supported by the administration and became the HMO paradigm. Legislators are presented as bought stooges for the political agendas of insurers and big Pharma. Insurers are middlemen in the Medicare Modernization Act - which is presented as a trick to charge seniors more for their prescription drugs.
This just gets better and better. Can we really hope for changes in our tragically compromised so-called health care system? I have raised a son with serious life-threatening medical problems, so no one has to tell me anything about the heartless money-mongers who stand between us and the medical care that we need.
Michael Moore signs off his email:
In the meantime, I hope you don't mind me sharing your thoughts and impressions in your well-written memo. And if the rest of your executive team hasn't seen "Sicko," it opens in an additional 100 cities tonight for a total of over 700 screens across North America. Attendance went up a whopping 56% on the 4th of July, higher than any other film in the theaters right now. But don't be scared, and certainly don't be ashamed to be a capitalist. Greed is good! Especially good for you. There's nothing like having the pre-existing condition of being rich, should you ever get sick and need help.
Yours,
Michael Moore
F*cking brilliant!
The email ends with this invitation:
P.S. Join me at noon EST, today, when I'll be chatting with U.S. Steelworkers, the California Nurses Association, and whoever stops by to talk about "Sicko" and the industry's attempt to stop this movement. Check my website for details.
[Updated with correction.]