Las Vegas Undressed

Capitalism and Health Care

The heart of the health care issue is that it is about people not corporations and political posturing. Like many of you I am tired of the incompetence in Washington; they were elected to find solutions and work for the American people not to just spend the next 4 years trying to get re-elected. What a joke this political system has become! Poor losers don’t do anything constructive they just distract. 

Michael Moore, whether you like him or not, tries to shake up the system. His film “Sicko” filmed in 2007 presents a different picture of health care in other parts of the world.
 
Moore’s film indicates that people have to wait to get help just like in the United States, nothing surprising here.
 
However, “did they have to ask for permission to come to the hospital?” No (Canadian)

“You don’t have to get pre-approval from your insurance company?” No (Canadian)

“Can you choose your own doctor?” Yes (Canadian)

“What’s your deductible?” Nothing (Canadian)

“So what do you pay to stay here?”  No one pays. They’re asking, “How do people pay?” And I said, well there isn’t, you don’t, you just leave. (British)

“Even with insurance, there’s bound to be a bill somewhere. So where’s the billing department?” There’s no such thing as a billing department. (British)

“What did they charge you for that baby? You’ve got to pay before you can get out of here, right?”  No. (British) No, no, no. Everything’s on NHS (British) You know, it’s not America. (British)

Potter believes that Moore “hit the nail on the head”. The insurance companies were afraid that the public would actually believe Moore so they set out to discredit him as a “Hollywood type”.

Moyer indicated that they had obtained a game plan that was adopted by the industry’s trade association. Click here and here.

Potter says that “The industry has always tried to make Americans think that government-run systems are the worst thing that could possibly happen to them, that if you even consider that, you’re heading down on the slippery slope towards socialism. So they have used scare tactics for years and years and years, to keep that from happening. If there were a broader program like our Medicare program, it could potentially reduce the profits of these big companies. So that is their biggest concern.“

So just what is political pressure and how is it used” Moyer asks.

Potter says that the insurance companies and the lobbyists use pressure “Look, you don’t want to believe this movie. You don’t want to talk about it. You don’t want to endorse it. And if you do, we can make things tough for you.”

Moyer quoting from the game plan “Message to Democratic insiders. Embracing Moore is one-way ticket back to minority party status.”
 
There is that re-election issue again. Are our politicians that shallow?  

So, what is it that the insurance companies are so worried?

“We shouldn’t fear government involvement in our health care system. That there is an appropriate role for government, and it’s been proven in the countries that were in that movie” says Potter.
 
I’m going to editorialize a bit here. I have seen other videos and reports on the Canadian health care system and they do have problems. I have had friends who have had family members come to the U.S. so that they could receive a procedure that was taking too long in the Canadian system. It is not a perfect system by any means. However, everyone has access. People having acces to health care can act as preventative medicine and reduce costs. We can make the whole system better; it will never satisfy everyone.

This country is becoming addicted to prescriptions; the doctors and the pharmaceutical companies are pushing them down our throats. People go to the doctor for any reason because they do have health care. Those that don’t have health insurance just have to hope that life won’t be cruel to them.
 
As Potter says “You know, we have more people who are uninsured in this country than the entire population of Canada. And that if you include the people who are underinsured, more people than in the United Kingdom. We have huge numbers of people who are also just a lay-off away from joining the ranks of the uninsured, or being purged by their insurance company, and winding up there. “

“And another thing is that the advocates of reform or the opponents of reform are those who are saying that we need to be careful about what we do here, because we don’t want the government to take away your choice of a health plan. It’s more likely that your employer and your insurer is going to switch you from a plan that you’re in now to one that you don’t want.”

“But the chances are, pretty soon, you’re going to be enrolled in one of these high deductible plans in which you’re going to find that much more of the cost is being shifted to you than you ever imagined.”

Moyer then shows a few videos and what you hear are key words and messages that seem to have come directly from the insurance companies.

REP. JOHN BOEHNER: “The forthcoming plan from Democratic leaders will make health care more expensive, limit treatments, ration care, and put bureaucrats in charge of medical decisions rather than patients and doctors.”

SEN. MITCH MCCONNELL: “Americans need to realize that when someone says “government option,” what could really occur is a government takeover that soon could lead to government bureaucrats denying and delaying care, and telling Americans what kind of care they can have.”

SEN. JON KYL: “Washington run healthcare would diminish access to quality care, leading to denials, shortages and long delays for treatment.”

REP. JOE WILSON: “How will a government run health plan not lead to the same rationing of care that we have seen in other countries?”

REP. TOM PRICE: “We don’t want to put the government, we don’t want to put bureaucrats between a doctor and a patient.”

Moyer rightly asks “Why do politicians puppet messages like that?”

Potter believes the “they are ideologically aligned with the industry. They want to believe that the free market system can and should work in this country, like it does in other industries. So they don’t understand from an insider’s perspective like I have, what that actually means, and the consequences of that to Americans.”

“They parrot those comments, without really realizing what the real situation is.”
 
“So it’s money that can buy access to have their arguments heard, right?” Moyer asks.

It does appear that they ordinary citizen cannot be heard; sound familiar?

Potters responds to Moyer “Absolutely right. It’s the way the American system has evolved, the political system. But it does offend me, that the vested special interests, who are so profitable and so powerful, are able to influence public policy in the way that they have, and the way that they’ve done over the years. And the insurance industry has been one of the most successful, in beating back any kinds of legislation that would hinder or affect the profitability of the companies.”
 
Why this fierce opposition to public health insurance?

Potter believes that “The industry doesn’t want to have any competitor. In fact, over the course of the last few years, there has been a shrinking in the number of competitors through a lot of acquisitions and mergers. So first of all, they don’t want any more competition period.

They certainly don’t want it from a government plan that might be operating more efficiently than they are……… The Medicare program that we have here is a government-run program that has administrative expenses that are like three percent or so.”

Moyer ask about industry comparisons.

“They spend about 20 cents of every premium dollar on overhead, which is administrative expense or profit. So they don’t want to compete against a more efficient competitor.”

Moyer makes the note that “You told Congress that the industry has hijacked our health care system and turned it into a giant ATM for Wall Street. You said, “I saw how they confuse their customers and dump the sick, all so they can satisfy their Wall Street investors.”

How do they satisfy their Wall Street investors?

We will find out the answer to those questions and more in the final post in this series.