Here is a review of Michael Moore's latest movie Sicko, which the author points out should be more correctly called Pinko.

http://www.americanthinker.com/2007/06/prepare_to_be_sickened_by_sick.html

Moore never wears black, because people tend to mistake him for...outer space.

moore is surely a piece of work.

I seen him here during the last presidential election.He was at one of our local colleges and the way this man spoke and the language he used,,I wouldnt waste my time to print, was simply outrageous.

To bad he is the way he is cause I do believe he is a smart man but his idealogies are terrible/

This is a bit of a touchy subject with me.  I'm self-employed and because I'm a large weightlifter I fall out of the BMI tables used by insurance companies and have been denied the ability to purchase health insurance.

Michael Moore was defending socialized medicine. While I hate that foolish fat man as much as the next guy, He did make a legitimate point...that the medical industry is controlled by corporate CEO's whose only interest is in goughing as much money as possible from the rest of us peons, and that the CEO's of media corporate entities are also invested in the medical industries, and will disseminate propaganda for them. I think this is entirely true. Rush likes to make the statement that the U.S. has the "best health care in the world", and is not socialized.

45 cents out of every medical dollar spent in the U.S. comes from some government entity, be it WIC, medicare, medicaid, etc. Add this to the fact that medical aid from our tax money is also sent overseas in enormous amounts, and you have to come to one conclusion.

All this money is being essentially "washed" through the government and dumped into the already bulging pockets of the various corporations involved in health care. This money is taken from the citizens of the U.S. at gunpoint, by force, through taxes.

I myself cannot buy health insurance...but am forced to subsidize health care for everyone else, including citizens of other countries...does the word "slavery" come to mind at all?

And I wish Rush would stop comparing our system to the systems of poor countries such as England, Cuba, Spain, etc., and try comparing our system to Japan's or Germany's...and he should admit that our system is already almost half socialized, but only available to some people.

Oh, and here's a little trick the last place I worked at engaged in.

We had been made "salaried" personnel and were all called into a meeting. We learned that the company had everyone pay an equal amount into the health care plan every pay period...seems fair, right?

Only we were paid every 2 weeks...the hourly were paid every week...they paid twice as much for their health care than we did, even though they could afford it less, essentially subsidizing the health care the more wealthy employees would get.

And I'm sure there were others above me being paid every month, paying half as much into it as I was....probably chuckling to themselves and calling us "suckers" under their breath...

Moore is weird and whatever...

But his movie, is not totally out there. Every single politician is campaigning a universal health care. Even hillary, who abonded her dreams of one when the insurance companies bought her out.

It is not our health care system. Those with money, have access to the greatest health care system on this planet...

It is the insurance industry that is the problem. Get rid of it, or start it over. It shouldn't necessarily be government ran, but they have deep pockets, and I don't see a move to make a real change.

Only thing the politicians want is everyone to be required or subsdidized onto bad health insurance.

Fix the real problem, don't make it worse.

ravdav wrote:Moore is weird and whatever...

But his movie, is not totally out there. Every single politician is campaigning a universal health care. Even hillary, who abonded her dreams of one when the insurance companies bought her out.

It is not our health care system. Those with money, have access to the greatest health care system on this planet...

It is the insurance industry that is the problem. Get rid of it, or start it over. It shouldn't necessarily be government ran, but they have deep pockets, and I don't see a move to make a real change.

Only thing the politicians want is everyone to be required or subsdidized onto bad health insurance.

Fix the real problem, don't make it worse.

I am by no means an expert on insurance, or the healthcare "crisis".  However, you seem to share a view with many Americans these days that any industry (e.g., insurance, oil) which actually makes a profit  has somehow done so at the "expense" of average Americans.  That "profit" is somehow a dirty word.

Again, I am not an expert in the insurance industry, but I know generally how insurance works.  And I do not (as you seem to) assume greedy, evil conspiracies around every turn, especially when a particular industry or market does well.  

As far as insurance, this is what I know:
A) The customer pays a premium -- which entitles him to coverage when something goes wrong.
B) The insurance company determines how much to charge as premiums basically with the following equation:
    Premium (in $) x Number of customers = (Estimated) Amount paid in claims + X% profit

Just so you are aware, every company in America exists to make Profit -- including whatever company you (personally) work for.  Morover, every individual living in a free society makes a "Profit" -- called a wage.  In a free society, and in a free market, all individuals seek to maximize their "Profit" (i.e., their wage).  Similarly, all companies seek to maximize their Profit -- do you know why???  Because they are made up of individuals (employees, officers, and investors) each of whom seeks to maximize their "Profit" (i.e., return on investment)



Let's go back to the Insurance equation.  

If we assume a constant number of customers, and a constant (say, 1%) profit margin; then the premium is determined solely by the amount paid out in claims.  If the insurance company must pay a greater amount in claims -- then, in order to maintain a 1% profit margin, they must COLLECT more in premiums.  In other words:

Paid Claims + 1%profit = Premiums charged.

SO -- If the amount paid out in claims increases, then the amount charged for premiums increases -- thus putting health insurance out of the financial reach of some individuals.

To compoound the problem, as premiums become too expensive for a portion of customers, and those customers stop paying, the cost of premiums for the remaining customers increases -- thus shutting out more customers.

The relevant question here is NOT what EVIL, GREEDY, CONSPIRACY the Insurance companies are  involved in.

Instead, the relevant question is this: Why have Paid Claims increased so much that, in order to remain in business, insurance companies must charge such high premiums?

The answer to that question has at least two major answers:
A) Doctors charge more
B) Hospitals charge more

Why do doctors charge more? Because they, too, are paying higher insurance premiums.  Why do doctors pay higher insurance premiums?  Because the amounts paid out for malpractice claims have gone up.  

Why do hospitals charge more? Two reasons:
1) just like doctors, they must pay for insurance to protect them from legal claims.  As awards for plaintiff's increase, so do premiums for insurance for hospitals; AND,
2) They MUST provide services to individuals who cannot or will not pay.  In order to stay in business, they must charge more from those individuals who will pay.

In my last semester of school, I had a sub-moronic pofessor who acknowledged that much of the problem with health care costs had to do with the cost of doctors' malpractice insurance.  Nevertheless, to her warped leftist mind, these increased malpractice premiums had nothing to do with the market or with the increased costs to insurance companies.  Instead, (again to her warped leftist mind) this was a conspiracy of the ultra-greedy and super-evil insurance industry.  I asked her what, exactly, these insurance companies had against doctors that they desired to drive qualified doctors oout of the market with their high premiums.  Why was the insurance industry trying to destroy its own customer base ANd (via some ambiguous, unexplained bias) trying to put all docors out of business.

Needless to say, this professor refused to respond to my questions, and I received a grade of C+ in the class even though I had a B+ on the anonymously graded final exam.

So, in short, do you simply not understand the free market system? OR Do ho have and unreasoning hatred for it like most leftists?