The dustup between Michael Moore and CNN's medical expert, Dr. Sanjay Gupta, included Gupta's critique about so-called "free" healthcare systems in places like France and Cuba. "To just say to someone who doesn't have a sophisticated understanding of exactly how health care works that it's free is simply not true," Gupta said. Moore stuck by his belief that, despite taxpayer funding, those systems are free.
What he should've said?
"Their healthcare is free the way our Iraq War is free."
Yes, we pay, but we're not constantly reminded we're paying.
In war, we should have a more direct connection to the realities of what we're underwriting. In healthcare, perhaps it's fine to just know it's there when we need it.
In the U.S., citizens without health insurance probably are having fabulous sex in exotic vacation locales even as we speak!
ReplyDeleteMichael Moore should not say that coverage is free in other countries with universal health care. What he should say instead is that under such a system, if you had a serious injury or illness, you would no longer receive a staggeringly big bill that causes you to have to consider selling your home and file for bankruptcy. Instead, it would be exactly like, say, calling the fire department or the police, or using the public highways or libraries. You don't get a bill after you use those services and you wouldn't get a bill under a universal health care system.
ReplyDeleteInteresting perspective. Saying something like it's, "collectively paid for" with the Iraq example would make sense to me.
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