Only a Liberal…

Most of the criticism of Michael Moore you find on the internet doesn’t bother to analyze his claims; instead they attack his character without explaining the specifics of his character deficiencies. His new movies Sicko puts for the hypothesis that the American health care system is screwed up, and that socializing it, or having the government run it, is the solution. He backs up his assertions with evidence of the success of such healthcare programs in other countries.

Testimonials can only DISPROVE, not prove an assertion

Pretend I show you a video of Padres pitcher Jake Peavy hitting a homerun. I then claim that the logical conclusion is that all national league pitchers hit a homerun every time they come up to bat. Your likely response would be, “That’s ridiculous. You can’t base a conclusion like that on one at bat.”

On the other hand if I make that claim, you could show me one at-bat by one national league pitcher where he does not hit a home-run, thereby disproving my assertion with only one piece of evidence.

Moore attacks the subject of privatized health care with the intellectually dishonest tactic of omitting information in his evidence. He only puts forth the evidence that supports his conclusion. This is not a documentary. Documentaries document reality. He presents his “reality” by only showing the worst testimonials. I don’t even have to analyze the specifics of the testimonials. The testimonials can be broken up into two groups:

• Those without insurance
• Those with insurance that are denied claims or have trouble paying the bills

Those without insurance generally claim they could not afford it. Moore does not analyze their reasons at all. One sob-story shows a couple that goes broke because of copays and decutibles. Interestingly enough this is the only story with that plotline. More evidence is needed to consider this proof. Also, we would need to analyze the full financials of this couple to determine if the copays and deductibles were the sole, or main, cause of their financial problems. The couple owns two cars and wasn’t living in the poorest of neighborhoods. Did they have any credit card debt? Leaving all these details out and only showing one testimonial is certainly not proof. This testimonial, without supporting evidence, could easily be a ridiculous anomoly, or a flat-out lie.

But the testimonial is so convincing!

A friend of mine dismissed my criticism of such testimonials: “He’s not making this up. You can tell it’s real.” Folks, his movie is unsubstantiated hearsay. You can never tell if a testimonial is really true without research. Statements like this are why I write this; you MUST inoculate yourself from propaganda. Here’s an example reported by NewsMax: Joseph Testa was president of the Dallas Vietnam Veterans of America chapter. He had been drafted in ‘67 and served 18 months in Saigon. He often wore fatigues with sergeant stripes, sometimes wearing a Silver Star, and was one of the better volunteers.

Never went to Vietnam

The truth is Joseph Testa enlisted in ‘67, went AWOL twice, and received court martial sentences of 9 months hard labor. He never went to Vietnam, nor did he receive any valorous decorations. To top it off, he hs 4 credit card abuse and theft by check convictions. He waltzed around as a veteran, representing all Dallas veterans as their leader, but he was a total, utter fraud.

But Moore has lots of testimonials, they can’t ALL be liars

Short answer… yes they can. Allow me to illustrate with the story of Agent Orange. Agent Orange was a defoliant designed to clear area for landing, etc. during the Vietnam War. Some veterans claimed that an “orange powder” or mist sprayed out of a plane descended upon them, and later caused them to develop an astonishing number of different sicknesses, with an endless list of symptoms. To this day, veterans can apply for aid for Agent Orange symptoms. Terrible tragedy, right?

Agent Orange is not orange, it is clear

So all those people are lying? Yes, they are. Agent Orange was given that name, because the label on the barrel it was stored in was orange. They also had Agent Blue, Agent Red, etc. They heard what it was called, and made up a story that seemed feasible. Their ignorance illustrates their fraud. It’s true that not all claims of Agent Orange side-effects cited an orange powder as the source of their exposure. On top of the fact that no scientific study has ever been able to link contact with Agent Orange to any sickness, the Air Force unit that handled it on a daily basis had no increased incidence of any disease. Operation Ranch Hand had 1200 members over the course of the entire war, and as initiation, the unit would drink a glass of Agent Orange.

Fake or unrelated symptoms

So how did all these people contract all these symptoms? Some of them probably have some sort of sickness, but it has absolutely nothing to do with the trace dioxins in Agent Orange. Perhaps a combination of Munchausen and pure greed. Read the details in Stolen Valor by B.G. Burkett. If you search for Agent Orange in google images, you will find ENDLESS pictures like the one to the left. Sad pictures, but NOT ONE OF THEM has anything to do with Agent Orange. The federal government, despite the presentation of evidence that there is no connection between Agent Orange and sickness, still pays for care of the non-existent diseases. This should make everyone angry; it is criminal.

9/11 volunteers denied care

A large portion of the movie is devoted to a handful of people claiming to be people who volunteered at ground zero of the 9/11 site. They all have breathing problems, and no healthcare. A fund was setup after 9/11 to handle claims by such people, and yet these people claim to have been denied care. Moore is unconcerned with why they were denied care, simply that it was wrong to deny them. Ask yourself… should every claim be filled, no questions asked? The fund was not a bottomless pit, so measures to prevent fraud were put in place. How else would you prevent people that didn’t volunteer from claiming they did?

The people in the movie appear to have very real symptoms, one telling the story of how he must sleep sitting up because he can’t breath when he’s laying down. Mr. Moore, please provide all the documentation you have on this man so that we may truly see the injustice that is being done to him. I submit that Moore will make excuses for why he can’t do that, and will never let anyone scrutinize his claims.

So, those of you who believe the movie, based on the history laid out above, is it possible that someone went to Ground Zero to volunteer and to this day is still faking a cough they developed from the air they were breathing that day? If people are willing to lie and fake symptoms of the time they didn’t spend in Vietnam, why is it such a stretch to suspect these 9/11 volunteers? Couldn’t they just be looking for a handout?

The undeniable economics of healthcare

He praises that the health care in Canada, UK, and France are better than here. Everything is free. In the UK, the cashier GIVES you money, not takes it from you, so that you can take a cab to and from the hospital.

Folks, a quick lesson on economics. Government gives away free stuff… so how do they do that? Where does the government get the money? From taxes… and where do taxes come from? YOU. Nothing is free, even from the government. I give Moore credit for not cutting out the scene where an American goes into Canada and lies about her address to get health care. The clinic gets suspicious so she leaves. The reason she left is because she’s not allowed to get health insurance unless she’s paying taxes. And remember taxes are what pays for the free health care… so she is DENIED MEDICAL ATTENTION BECAUSE SHE DIDN’T PAY. Even Canada understands economics. If you can explain why the government rejecting people is different than an HMO, I’m all ears.

In the movie, a Canadian went golfing in Florida, tore his bicep, and the hospital wanted $24,000 to fix it. This is framed as ridiculous by Moore… how cheap does he think hospital equipment is? If an American goes overseas, it is very easy to get the coverage extended internationally. This Canadian did not seem to bother, or he did and left out that the charge would be reimbursed. Why would you reward those who didn’t bother to plan ahead and tell people who had the foresight to plan ahead that they were idiots for doing so?

Free care = emergency rooms closed

So what happens when you don’t make sure everyone is paying into whatever system your country has? Emergency rooms go bankrupt. Between 1993 and 2000, 20 emergency rooms were closed in Ontario, Canada. In 2004, Los Angeles county lost 6 emergency rooms, or the ability to treat 75,000 patients. A public health study showed that in a ONE MONTH period in Los Angeles County, the cost of uninsured patients “unable to pay” was $39.6 million. Who pays for that?

Michael Moore points out all the advantages of Universal Health Care but NONE of the disadvantages. He ignores the economics of it, showing a positive anecdote here and there, with no proof to back up his anecdotes. He correctly points out that Americans are behind almost 10 other countries in life expectancy, which he attributes to not have national health care. Hawaii has a life expectancy that is more than those other countries (except Japan), yet Hawaii is only ranked 19th in the United States for income. So what causes people in one area to outlive those in another? There are COUNTLESS reasons, and health coverage may be one of them, but to pretend it is the ONLY factor, as Moore does in his movie, is preposterous, and obviously agenda-driven. Having more vacation time in Europe probably contributes to lower stress levels, and therefore longer life. Perhaps that is the answer. So, we have lower life expectancy than other countries… he’s right about that.

Capitalism applied in socialized medicine?

He pointed out a doctor in the UK that described merit-based salaries for doctors based on the healthy habit changes of their pages. I am not against that if data backs up that it is a good thing. Unfortunately, the legal system as currently set up, doctors would be sued for that sort of thing, how dare they benefit from doing their job, GASP! The other point he made that got me thinking, “Why don’t we have that anymore?” was house-visits by doctors. They used to do it all the time, but not anymore. My suspicion is that it was not cost-effective, meaning it just takes too many years and too much money to find someone LICENSED as a doctor to be willing to travel from place to place like a plumber. The hospitals have probably found it more cost-effective to make patients come to them, or pick them up in ambulances.

All of this leads to a totally different conclusion than Mr. Moore comes to. His claim is that evil HMOs dont care about patients and THAT is the problem with private health care. The fact is private health care is just fine, but legal issues make it impossible for them to run at optimal efficiency, thereby making it easy to find fault with them. LEAVE THE HMOs ALONE, and competition will create the greatest health care possible.

Everyone understands this in other areas. If you want cheap life insurance, you go find the cheapest life insurance. Car insurance is REQUIRED in order to register a car in most states, let alone drive one, yet we don’t feel compelled to get our car insurance from our employer or the government. Why is that? We all need it if we drive a car, so why don’t we all get it for free from the government? For any of you who respond with, that’s ridiculous, I agree and it is NO DIFFERENT with health insurance.
This movie is a commercial, not a documentary. If he believes Universal Health Care is hands-down the way to go, fine, I’d love to hear his evidence. “Sicko” does not stand up to the test. Moore is an extremely good salesman, but you shouldn’t believe everything he tells you because he tugs on your heart strings. He says big business is corrupt, so they can’t be trusted with healthcare, but he wants to hand it over to the government?! Because they’re NOT CORRUPT?! I’ll take corrupt and cheap over corrupt and expensive ANY DAY.

Anti-capitalism, not pro-socialized healthcare

Conclusion: Stop applying jury room logic to the mostly privatized healthcare system of America. Of course it’s not perfect, but its as good or better than anywhere else in the world. If it weren’t people would leave in droves. Instead, people are coming here in droves. And the problems with it are CAUSED by government and our over-litigious legal system, not FIXED by them.
On a side note… here’s a response from the webmaster of MooreWatch.com whom Moore claimed he wrote a $12,000 check that saved the webmaster’s wife’s life. He points out each instance of Moore taking emails and comments out of context, and out of chronological order to misrepresent the events involving them. Moore did this is a previous film with some video of Charlton Heston.
Question everything.