Michael Moore’s shortcuts

Michael Moore may make good documentaries, but his sunny reports about socialised health care don't seem to be all too representative, says David Whelan in Forbes Magazine.

Take Cuban medical care, says Whelan:

Roberta Gianfortoni, a dean at the Harvard School of Public Health, says doctors in Cuba know how to do many procedures but that doesn't mean those procedures are actually available.

As Moore reports, the government only spends $250 per person on health not much room in there for things like major surgery.

It doesn't seem to cross Moore's mind that when you confiscate a nation's private property that, yes, you can provide free dental care for public relations purposes.

Further:

As Moore points out, Canada is able to offer cheap drugs, and France and Britain can use imaging machines while emphasising how everything's free.

But what isn't mentioned is that those innovations would not have been developed by private companies if there was no profit motive.

After all, governments would be more inclined to ration care and have little market incentive to invest in technology, whereas in a competitive system, each hospital needs the most advanced devices.

Overall, you can't blame insurance companies and not also blame the U.S. government for creating and then never fixing the work-based insurance system we all endure, says Whelan. In addition, where's the blame for the state regulators who handcuff insurers from offering innovative products by forcing plans to all have the same features? Moore is right that the U.S. system is messed up. But that may be due to it being a contorted free market system, with limited competition and little consumerism.

Source: David Whelan, Sicko's Shortcuts, Forbes, June 21, 2007.

For text: http://www.forbes.com/opinions/2007/06/20/sicko-film-review-oped-cz_dw_0621sicko.html

For more on Health Issues: http://www.ncpa.org/sub/dpd/index.php?Article_Category=16

FMF Policy Bulletin/ 03 July 2007

Publish date: 13 July 2007
Views: 254

Film, News

The views expressed in the article are the author’s and are not necessarily shared by the members of the Foundation. This article may be republished without prior consent but with acknowledgement to the author.

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