As filmmaker Michael Moore is promoting his new movie, “Sicko,” which touts the universal health care in some foreign countries, including Cuba, a Cuban journalist, Normando Gonzalez, 37, has been imprisoned since 2003 for speaking out against the state and is suffering from chronic illnesses contracted in prison.

Asked yesterday about Mr. Gonzalez, Mr. Moore, speaking from the steps of Federal Hall yesterday, said he’d only comment on what he saw during his stay in Cuba: satisfactory, universal health care.

In one scene in ‘Sicko,’ released nationwide today, Mr. Moore takes rescue workers from the World Trade Center disaster site to Cuba for free healthcare.

“It’s embarrassing that 90 miles off our shores, a poor country can guarantee health care for every citizen,” Mr. Moore said.

The American government is investigating whether Mr. Moore violated an American trade embargo prohibiting travel to Cuba.

Mr. Moore said his alleged persecution by American officials had more to do with economic interests than the rule of law. Had he gone to communist China, he would not have been targeted, he said.

“Is it because China is the bank for people across the street here? Money to be made? Cheap labor to use?” he said, pointing at the New York Stock Exchange building.

Mr. Moore proposed revising the American system to comprise the best elements of foreign health care systems.

“There’s a lot to learn from these other countries,” Mr. Moore said. “All these other countries can show us how to do it in an efficient way.”

He called for people to divest from private insurance companies yesterday, arguing that they seek profit by rejecting as many claims as possible.

“We have to remove private health insurance companies from our health care system,” Mr. Moore said from the steps of Federal Hall.