On World Health Day, Michael Moore Sees Hope

Today is World Health Day. Since its founding on April 7, 1948, the World Health Organization (WHO) has worked to rid the world of deadly diseases and other threats to human health. WHO keeps data on international health trends and concerns. On each World Health Day, WHO identifies a theme that highlights a critical international health issue. This year’s theme is ”Universal Health Care.” How appropriate. Healthcare NOT Warfare.

Progressive Democrats of America (PDA) was founded fifty-six years later in 2004 to make progress on critical issues with campaigns like Healthcare NOT Warfare. We advocate for peace and healthcare as a human right so that the USA would join the so-called “advanced nations” guaranteeing high quality healthcare to all without financial barriers. Want to help? Click here to contact Mike “Phone Guy” Fox and sign up with the PDA Phone Team. No time to volunteer? Please give generously to support our struggle for healthcare!

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I asked Academy Award winning filmmaker Michael Moore—producer of Roger and Me, Fahrenheit 9/11, Bowling for Columbine, and the film in which I was one of the subjects, SiCKO—to share his thoughts on World Health Day. SiCKO is a documentary about the U.S. healthcare system, so I knew Michael would have something inspiring and insightful to say.

If ever you begin to doubt that our work is making a difference, consider Michael’s comments:

The World Health Organization must be wondering what prevents the United States from accurately identifying the one of the three leading causes of death of our children—homicide/assault (including gun violence)—as a public health emergency.

The WHO must also wonder why the U.S. continues to allow the people of Flint, MI, to be poisoned by their own public water supply months and months after Trump promised to “Make America (so) Great Again.”

On this World Health Day, the United States cannot lay claim to any honest desire to address the climate emergency during the precious years when we might still be able to save our planet from our own excess and abuse.

But the Progressive Democrats of America tell me we will promise one thing for certain: by next April 7th’s World Health Day, those young people of Parkland, the parents and friends of Sandy Hook, the loved ones of Pulse, the survivors of Columbine, the friends and neighbors of Dreamers, and all of those who are leading millions into the streets and to the polls will have elected fellow Americans who will value health, humanity, and our shared planet again.

We celebrate the power of community. We will not be defeated.

Thank you, Michael. We are inspired to rise up and do our part to resist the damage being done by the Trumpublicans and to insist on a healthy society, nation, and planet. If you want to help PDA fulfill our promise to elect candidates who share our commitment to “health, humanity, and our shared planet,” please give generously to our Win 2018 Action Fund. Money tight, but still want to help? Click here to sign up with the PDA Phone Team.

Together, we demand expanded and improved Medicare for All, a publicly-funded, patient-centered, caregiver-driven health program that would deliver healthcare to all of us—and eliminate bills, co-pays, deductibles, lifetime caps, and medically-caused bankruptcies. This policy would cover all of our medically-necessary care including dental, vision, mental health—everything—and would save lives and save the US economy (and patients) hundreds of $billions each year. Support us in the struggle for healthcare as a human right. Money tight, but still want to help? Contact Mike “Phone Guy” Fox to join PDA’s Phone Team.

In solidarity,

Michael Moore, Filmmaker and PDA advisory board member and Donna Smith, PDA Director

P.S. Despite spending nearly twice as much per capita as other so-called “developed nations” on health care, the private for-profit U.S. insurance-based bureaucracy wastes approximately one-third of all the funds spent, and big pharmaceutical firms overcharge and exploit patients and taxpayers through monopolistic price fixing and other unethical practices.

Leading economists and analysts have found that a Medicare for All / single payer-style healthcare program would save lives and money. Actual experience with the U.S. Medicare system (and similar plans in other nations) confirm these findings. Click here to tell your Senators to cosponsor Bernie Sanders’s Medicare for All bill. Then, click here to watch a short music videoexplaining single payer healthcare, and please share it widely.