Insurance Companies' Sicko Strike

FACE OF HEALTH CARE Moore

Was Michael Moore punished by insurance companies even before he started shooting Sicko, his cinematic jeremiad about the evils of the health-insurance industry?

At last night's Manhattan premiere, the director noted the irony that he had difficulty getting film insurance before starting production. Moore said that it only cost him $65,000 to get insurance before production started on his controversial 2003 movie Farenheit 9/11.. But, this time around it was damn near impossible to get a policy.

"I guess we had a pre-existing condition," he joked to the crowd at the Ziegfeld Theater. After five months of negotiating with insurance companies, Moore finally got his coverage, but it cost him a half-million dollars, a huge increase.

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