Across America, protesters took to the streets to voice their concern for universal healthcare. Many of them were doctors and nurses, and were organized by groups like PNHP (Physicians for a National Health Care Program), the Mad as Hell Doctors, based in Oregon and California Nurses Association. At issue was legislation to reform national healthcare. Countering the doctors were groups like tea party organizations, including the Pasadena Patriots. Numerous Congressional local town hall meetings were held in addition to rallies and sit-ins. During a week in September 2009 over 100 were arrested and hundreds more backed them at sit-ins at health insurance organizations around the country. These events comprise the locations in this film.

Economic pressures by US corporations continue to threaten universal health care insurance systems in other countries, such as Great Britain where a 2012 corporate takeover of the NHS resulted in a debt run up of £4.1million within six months with patient satisfaction down by 14 points.

The fallacies of the new ACA law (Obamacare - authored by industry insider, Liz Fowler) allow insurance industry control over people's health with unregulated rate raises, making health insurance ultimately out of reach, despite its new availability.

The concern by proponents of national health care was and still is the lack of health care for 48 million Americans, the death of over 48,000 due to lack of care annually, the high 30% overhead of private corporate insurance, the ubiquitous standard of denial of claims by insurance companies, and the fear of health care being motivated by corporate profits and greed. PNHP claims that over 65% of doctors support universal healthcare and that the most acceptable method of doing this is through a single payer system whereby the government provides all people with basic health insurance coverage. This is a standard used by nearly every other developed country in the world.

Those who opposed reform are proponents of the health industry profit model and argue for ways to keep profits high, with little regard for human life, suffering, and exclusion to services. They claim services would be diluted and that those who now receive “the best health care in the world” would have to share resources with everyone else.  Their wanton greed and lack of compassion for those who suffer and die for corporate profits is sadistic.

Supporters of universal care cite research that indicates the U.S. ranks 37th in the overall quality of health care services among nations of the world. Though the U.S. does have some of the best resources and technology, it is only available to those who can afford it or who have insurance. It is the delivery aspect of care that gives the U.S. a low ranking.

The passage of he complex ACA reform bill in 2010, of over 2000 pages, written primarily by Liz Fowler (former Wellpoint PR executive), was a victory for the insurance industry in passing laws that mandate all people must carry private health care insurance. Though the bill was initially written to decrease insurance rates, parts of it have been repealed and are under continued revision as rates continue to increase.

This film incorporates interviews with over 65 intelligent and eloquent speaking people at rallies, protests and sit-ins. It uses a unique stream of conversation style, where there is virtually no narration. Instead answers to questions posed to one interviewee are posed to others who then retort. In this way nearly all the issues for and against reform are discussed. The definitions of terms like single payer and public option are discussed and defined clearly by doctors, nurses and the President. White House footage of Obama’s health care reform press conference and other talks are also used to state his position and reactions to it.

Maureen Cruise RN (retired) is used throughout the film, in what could be thought of as a narrator. Although nearly all of her clips are taken from one 28-minute interview at a sit-in where she describes nearly every aspect, argument and concern of the issues. Numerous other doctors add to this with their own descriptions of the issues and statistics that validate their concerns. These include Dr. Susie Baldwin, Dr. Matt Hendrickson, Dr. Jo Olson, Dr. Paul Song, Dr. Paul Hochfield, Dr. Margaret Flowers, Dr. Carol Paris, Dr. Marc Sapir and many others, all with very compelling arguments.

Three other filmmakers provide clips of important scenes, including the arrests of Drs. Flowers and Paris in Washington DC at a Republican retreat, the heart wrenching appeal of handicapped Marianne Hoynes at a New Jersey town hall meeting, and the arrest of Dr. Matt Hendrickson in Glendale CA at a CIGNA sit-in.

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