Michael Moore fancies himself as an expert on everything. He runs around with a camera and gets lots of footage and then he edits it and splices things in order to make things appear the way he wants. He is quite egotistical and lives in a delusional world where he believes that what he puts on film is correct. He has defended F 9/11 and said that everything in it is 100% accurate and that no one has been able to prove otherwise even though he offered $10,000 to anyone who could. There was one guy who found around 50 or so inaccuracies in the film. It will not matter to Michael because he is in need of mental help.
Mikey was on CNN with Wolf Blitzer in order to promote his new film Sicko. The film is about the health care system in the US and how it sucks compared to the rest of the world. He is in favor of getting rid of health insurance companies and having the government pay for everyone’s health care. Of course, this means that the taxpayer will foot the bill for everyone’s health care. Those who pay no taxes will get a free ride, but that is OK with Michael.
Michael tells us that socialized medicine will save us money and we have already proven we can run good socialized medicine because we do so already with Medicare and Medicaid. He even said that the Social Security System was a well run social program. Mike told Wolf that doctors prefer Medicare over a poor HMO because they will get paid by the government (taxpayer) but not the HMO. I happen to know this is untrue. Many doctors are opting out of Medicare because of all the burdensome regulations. In addition, doctors must take the fees that the government dictates are fair rather than what the care is worth. Mike even said that Medicare is underfunded which means he wants us to pay even more in taxes to fund a social medicine program that is terribly wasteful. What he also fails to tell is that many seniors pay for Medicare Part B in order to be able to afford their heath care.
Additionally, Medicare is set up so that the system is easily scammed. Each time a patient comes back to the hospital for another treatment the hospital is entitled to another payment, even if the hospital caused the problem (such as nosocomial infections). Medicare is not as efficient as private insurance where abuses of the system are not as great as they are under Medicare. Additionally, Medicaid covers about 59 million uninsured people and costs hundreds of billions of dollars. Add this to the hundreds of billions that Medicare costs and one can easily see that private insurance can be purchased for our seniors and the poor at a fraction of the cost of these programs. A 2006 study by the Council for Affordable Health Insurance which compared Medicare to private insurance concludes with:
However, the issue is not and should not be which segment, private sector insurers or government-run plans, has the lowest administrative costs. The issue should be which does the best job of providing quality health insurance coverage for the best price. When one looks at all of the money pouring into Medicare, even with the price controls imposed by the government, the answer has to be the private sector. Report [pdf]
Moore’s claims that Medicare is great and we have shown that the government can run things efficiently is absolutely wrong (where is my $10,000) and Michael should do his homework. One only needs to look at what happens to Medicare money to know why the government does not privatize health care. It is the same reason they will not privatize Social Security. The government takes the money and spends it on other things and then puts an IOU in the box. There is no hope that this money will ever get paid back.
Medicare spends much more than is necessary for health care and Medicaid has similar wastes associated with it. These systems along with Social Security will be bankrupt before too long. The government has wasted our money for so long by running expensive schemes that they will need to raise our taxes once again to keep up with spending. There are solutions to these problems and they do not involve socialized medicine as Michael Moore would have you believe. We need to take the insurance out of the hands of government and make it all privatized, just like we need to do with Social Security. Those plans are for a discussion at another time. Today we stick to Moore’s flame out.
Watch the video and listen to Moore. He is a rabid animal who spews out vile stupidity. He really needs mental help. One telling thing is when Blitzer offers to tape more of the interview (after they run out of time) and Moore tells him that he does not do taped interviews because they get edited. This comes from a man who got rich filming people and then editing the film to present things the way he wants. I agree with Clint Eastwood who told Moore if he ever knocked on his door and shoved a camera in his face, he [Eastwood] wood kill him. I like that plan.
The video is about Moore making fun of an Indian doctor’s name. Sanjay Gupta, who is quite skilled and well respected, is called a liar by Moore who says that the doctor has his facts wrong. Michael Moore tells Wolf that he [Moore] knows more than the doctor about health care. I wonder which of the two has actually seen patients and billed insurance companies?
I will offer that insurance is expensive because of the litigation that guys like John Edwards have been involved in. Additionally, ILLEGALS cost us billions in health care that taxpayers pay.
Moore might not understand this because he wants socialized medicine. I have one word for people who want socialized medicine:
SICKO.