Filmmaker Moore, nurses rally for health-care bill

Nearly a thousand nurses, some from as far away as Massachusetts, descended on the Capitol today to join filmmaker and provocateur Michael Moore to push for guaranteed health care.

Members of the California Nurses Association swarmed the west steps of the Capitol to urge passage of Senate Bill 840, sponsored by Sen. Sheila Kuehl, D-Santa Barbara, which seeks to provide every Californian with affordable health care.

It was also an opportunity for Moore to publicize his movie "Sicko," which is due out for wide release in theaters June 29 in his latest film to jab at one of America's most powerful institutions: the health-care industry.

Two screenings of the film were being organized Tuesday; the first scheduled for this afternoon at the Crest Theatre Nurses Associations. A second showing is set to be held tonight and will be hosted by Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez.

Addressing the crowd, Moore railed against a health-care industry that he said denies coverage to millions of Americans.

"There is no room for the concept of profits when taking care of people when they are sick," he said. He asked the crowd: "What kind of sick, cruel system is this?"

The crowd responded with "Sicko."

"It's the real sicko, isn't it?" Moore said, referring to the health-care industry.

He called for the elimination of for-profit insurance companies, leading the crowd in a chant: "It's time for them to go." The crowd enthusiastically took on his mantra.

Several times he alluded to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, at one point joking that "Even if you are form the country of Austria, you are guaranteed health care."

Later he beseached the governor to "do the right thing" throwing his support to SB 840.

Before the rally with nurses, Moore appeared before a briefing hosted by Kuehl. She hailed him for his efforts to bring attention to a health-care dilemma faced by thousands of Californians, some of whom have no health insurance and others who may be insured but are often denied health insurance.

"The insurance companies are the problem, " said Rose Ann DeMoro, the executive director of CNA, at the briefing. She held the companies responsible for what she called "terrible atrocities."

The hearing was broadcast on large-screen TVs in tents pitched outside the west steps of the Capitol.