Moore Defends His Tactics in Latest Film

June 12, 2007 — -- Oscar-winning filmmaker Michael Moore is back in the ring, and he's defending his fighting style.

When asked about his infamous guerilla journalism tactics, Moore says he's just doing what any other responsible journalist should do.

"I'm using satire to make a larger point politically and socially," he said. "And you want to call that a stunt, it's certainly no different than what you would do on 'Good Morning America' on any given day except you wouldn't actually confront the government in the way I would do it."

His latest film, "Sicko," opens June 29. Though Moore is a favorite target of many people, his critics are struggling to fight the new film's basic premise: America's health-care system is in trouble.

On "Good Morning America" today, Moore said he was not just taking a shot -- after comparing the U.S. system to others around the world, he's also proposing a solution to the country's health-care crisis.

"It's a system that essentially is run by greed," Moore said about the current U.S. health-care system. "The only way the insurance companies can make huge profits is to not pay out claims to people who get sick."

While making the film, Moore said he learned that tales about countries like Canada and Britain having so-called socialized medicine was essentially a lie. According to him, health care in these countries is removed from politics and available to everyone.

"In these other countries, they have a basic core belief that if you get sick, you have a human right to see a doctor and not have to worry about paying for it," he said. "They wouldn't even question that. And it doesn't matter in those countries if you're liberal or conservative or whatever. It doesn't know any political boundary."

Moore admitted universal health-care systems weren't utopian -- they come with huge tax burdens. However, he doesn't focus on the financial cost of universal health care in "Sicko," because he believes the media do a good enough job covering that side of the story.

He also doesn't include the perspective of insurance providers in "Sicko." But to those who say his film is one-sided, Moore counters that America's health-care problem is bigger than the insurance companies.

"I didn't want anybody to think that the problem was just one insurance company," he said. "If I went and knocked on the door of Aetna or went and knocked on the door of Pfizer, it would take people away from the larger point I'm trying to make, which is it's the actual system itself that has to be upended."

Investigation Ensues After Cuba Trip

One of the most sensational parts of "Sicko" is Moore's trip to Cuba with Sept. 11 first responders in need of treatment. He said he found that detainees at Guantanamo Bay got better medical care than heroes at home.

"I found out that the al Qaeda detainees in Guantanamo have completely free medical, dental, eye care," he said. "They have nutrition counseling. They have teeth cleanings. They have all this free universal health care. And here we have these 9/11 rescue workers in New York City who have these incredible now respiratory diseases as a result of working down at ground zero for months. And many of them have no health care, nobody helping them."

After the Cuba trip, Moore kept a master copy of the movie hidden in anticipation of a government investigation.

"They're investigating me for bringing these 9/11 rescue workers down there to get some help," he said. "We took a master copy of the movie out of the country immediately the day that we were informed of this investigation."

In the end, Moore said his film didn't just blame the government or insurance companies for America's health-care crisis. He wants it to move the audience to go out and do something about it.

"What's different with this film from my other films is that instead of Mike going up to the chairman of General Motors or Mike going to Capitol Hill to confront a congressman or the president of the United States, in this film I'm essentially asking the audience to do it," he said.