‘Sicko’ showing draws crowd, emotions

Advocates of American health care reform filled the chairs of the Buskirk-Chumley Theater on Sunday.

They silenced themselves as IU Jacobs School of Music Sylvia McNair sang an a cappella version of “Down to the River to Pray.”

“As I went down in the river to pray / Studying about that good ol’ way / And who shall wear the robe and crown? / Good Lord, show me the way.”

McNair and guitarist David Gulyas treated the advocates with four other songs: “Blowin’ in the Wind,” Harold Arlen’s “Over the Rainbow,” “Greensleeves” and “Let There Be Peace on Earth.”

“We let them choose the songs they’d be sharing,” said Dr. Rob Stone, director of Hoosiers for a Commonsense Health Plan. “They chose well.”

Bloomington residents and other locals were there to watch Michael Moore’s 2007 documentary “Sicko” and speak with the whistle-blower Wendell Potter about his insight to health insurance companies in America.

Potter stopped by the Buskirk-Chumley Theater during his book tour of the newly released “Deadly Spin: An Insurance Company Insider Speaks Out on How Corporate PR Is Killing Health Care and Deceiving Americans.”

“We thought showing ‘Sicko’ would nicely complement the book tour,” Rob Stone’s wife and fellow advocate Karen Green Stone said.

Rob and Karen housed Potter during his weekend visit and organized the free event sponsored by Hoosiers for a Commonsense Health Plan.

John and Rosalie Neel are members of Hoosiers for a Commonsense and ushered the event.

“We’ve never seen ‘Sicko,’” Rosalie said. “We’re very excited.”

The couple, along with other ushers, wore shirts that quoted Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.:

“Of all the forms of inequality, injustice in health care is the most shocking and inhumane.”

The fronts of the shirts read “Medicare for All.”

“We’re on Medicare,” John said. “We get the quality that everyone should get.”

Although they receive full benefits from Medicare, they still firmly believe in the Hoosiers for a Commonsense mission.

“We went to our first meeting about a year and a half ago because of an ad in the paper,” John said. “We’ve been going ever since. One meeting is all it takes.”

As the Buskirk-Chumley house filled to more than 415 people, the largest attendance yet of Potter’s book tour, the anxiousness for the 3 p.m. showing of “Sicko” grew.

“The movie ‘Sicko’ itself is a wake-up call,” Potter said. “It is both emotionally affecting and effective. Michael Moore achieved his objective.”

Potter screened the film twice before its release in 2007, while he still held the PR executive position for CIGNA.

“I thought, ‘Oh my, I can’t believe he made a movie this accurate,’” he said. “I knew it’d be a challenge to discredit it.”

Potter confirmed the authenticity of the documentary, admitting that it uncovers a side of health care that most choose not to see.

“The arts have a significant role to play in communicating and reaching people,” he said. “You can reach people on an emotional level. The movie ‘Sicko’
does that.”