Moore plays 1971 tapes from the Oval Office as Nixon discusses the original Kaiser plan for an HMO. "It's for profit," he says admiringly. Have you ever understood exactly what benefit an HMO provides while it stands between you and the medical care system and acts as a toll bridge? Do its profits not depend on supplying as little health care as possible, at the lowest possible price?Ebert has spent the last 9 months battling a severe illness. He knows something about how the system works. I've spent the last 20 years working on the financial side of health care administration. I know something about how the system works.
Moving to a single payer non-for-profit government run system will be a huge boon to health care in America. It's just a matter of time now. The most hilarious argument against a new system, is the sympathy for the insurance companies and their profits. Oh no!!! We're destroying capitalism!!!
If that's your rationale, you've got a horribly warped value system.
Ebert continues to make the point that we've already got a socialized program. I've been talking about that for a while. I'm not sure why it's so difficult to get that point across to people, but HMO's (managed care) is socialized medicine. Duh.
As for the film itself, I have not seen it. I'll likely wait for the DVD, however I have read some nit-picking reviews. Does Moore operate a bit loosely with the facts? Quite possibly. For example, Moore claims 50 million Americans are without any health insurance. The actual number is something like 45 million, or so I have read. Because Moore may be 5 million off, critics dismiss his entire argument.
It's weird that so many people can't understand the point isn't the difference between 50 million and 45 million. The point is that millions are without any sort of insurance at all. In that sense, Moore is exactly right, just as he was exactly right with Fahrenheit 911.
But there's room for irony when the owner of an anti-Moore Web site can't afford to maintain it when his wife gets sick.Karma is a bitch...
5 comments:
It has been proven time and time again that socialized medicine is a bust. Waiting periods go up, quality goes down, and you are still paying for it, but with socialized medicine it is mandatory through your taxes. And on top of that, this idiot Moore was hob-nobbing with anti-American, Communist Castro trying to show how wonderful their system is. It is in shambles. I can't believe you seriously support government run medical care. Government can't even get the basic shit right, and you want to trust them with this too? And don't give me this "I know all about it because of my job" crap. Fucking insane. I have spent a lot of time around the system too. Does it need improvement? of course. It is an imperfect world, and we will tinker and tinker forever, probably, but to put such an important matter into the hands of government is idiotic, not to mention the economic backlash when insurance companies go belly-up as a result.
Rick, again I think you're missing the point.
You and many other right wingers are more concerned with this "backlash" from the insurance companies than you our with American's health and safety.
I'm all for a few big profit insurance companies going belly up if it meant that a few million more american's could afford medical care.
And I find it funny that you thing that because Tom works in the industry he's "fucking insane" to think he knows how it works. How else do you learn something? Oh, that's right, you do it every day.
But I'm sure you're a much better critic on things because you've heard a few things, or read an article here or there about how bad it's going to end up.
Steve.
Dar I should proofread... Busy at work today... anyway some corrections...
Should say, "than you are with American's..."
Should say, "funny that you think that because..."
Steve.
Moore was a giant tool with Farhenheit 911. If you actually read about his "misrepresentations of the facts" it makes Al Gore look like Schroedinger. Seriously, I can't abide stogid dogmatacism in any form, and Moore epitomizes it.
Sicker and sicker
lol that's you...sicker and sicker.
But the link above is to the movie that debunks Michael Moore's.
Good luck with the leftist dependence on government for everything...
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