WASHINGTON — On Wednesday, Michael Moore held a special
screening of Sicko for health care lobbyists in D.C. at
the Phoenix Theaters at Union Station. I and other members of the
media tried to get into the screening, but Moore kept us out,
saying that it was only for lobbyists. That left the screening with
an audience of twenty.
Nevertheless, at the press conference just beforehand, Moore was
entertaining. The folks from the feminist anti-war group Code Pink
showed up and chanted, “Health Care Not Warfare!” One of the ushers
asked them to stop, since it would disturb the people who were
watching movies in the other theaters. I found that a bit ironic
since the theaters at Union Station attract the sort of clientele
that doesn’t know how to shut up (or turn off its cell phones)
during a movie.
Anyway, Moore made a number of comments during his press
conference that laid out much of the left-wing case for
government-run health care. Since I am, at present, unable to give
you my review of the movie, I will instead comment on some of his
remarks:
1. “Remove private health insurance from the equation. There is
no room for it in an ethical and human society.”
That begs the question, how humane and ethical are societies
that have no private health insurance? We only have to look north
to Canada to answer that question. People end up on waiting lists
for surgery, where they suffer considerable anxiety and pain, and
sometimes die. Word has it Moore’s documentary leaves out those
details in its examination of Canada. Perhaps we need to raise the
question of what makes an ethical and humane filmmaker?
2. “I favor the removal of private health insurance companies
from this country. I don’t believe that there is room for them in
the equation. When you are talking about people’s health, you
should never have to worry about profit.”
One sees this anti-profit argument a lot on the left. I have to
wonder, does the left have the slightest clue about the function of
profit in a free market? (I know, that’s a rhetorical question.)
Profit is what drives producers to provide goods and services at a
lower price while also improving quality. Profit also acts as a
“signal” to producers, letting them know where to invest their
resources. Products and services that people find more useful tend
to yield higher profits, incentivizing producers to put more
resources into them. Without profits, doctors and other providers
won’t know which services patients find most useful, pharmaceutical
companies won’t know which drugs are most effective, and insurance
companies won’t know which insurance products are most desired.
3. “I believe that pharmaceutical companies need to be regulated
like a public utility. We need medicine, but we need government
control and regulation, so that the medicine is affordable for
everyone, so that we are producing the right medicines, so that we
are producing safe medicines.”
Someone who makes such a remark must know next to nothing about
the Food and Drug Administration. The FDA’s regulatory process for
new drug approval averages eight-to-ten years. That adds a huge
cost to new drugs. We need to find ways to reduce this regulatory
burden. Moore wants to increase it. Anyone who believes that will
make medicine more affordable, or that government will be able to
figure out how to produce the “right medicine,” please purchase a
one-way ticket to Fantasyland.
4. “Forty-five years ago, 30 pharmaceutical companies were
working on cures and vaccines. Today there are five. You need to
get back to working on the cures and vaccines. Once you cure
something, the person doesn’t need to take a pill for the next
forty years.”
There are two main reasons why there are so few vaccine makers
today. First, the trial lawyers began suing vaccine makers in the
1980s, subjecting the industry to huge liabilities and making
vaccine production less profitable. Second, in the early 1990s the
federal government got into the vaccine purchasing business with
the Vaccines for Children program. This program buys massive
quantities of vaccines to distribute to children. But over time the
government has pushed down the price it pays for vaccines, making
them less profitable, thereby driving more companies out of the
vaccine business. Moore wants you to think that the reason for
fewer vaccine makers is that pharmaceutical companies aren’t
compassionate enough. The real problem is that trial lawyers and
government have taken much of the profit out of it.
5. “I want [the American people] to demand that candidates of
both parties come forth with specific health care
proposals that will guarantee health insurance for all
Americans and profit not be involved in it. I hope the people
support John Conyers’ bill, HR 676, in Congress right now. I think
all the polls show that health care is the number one
domestic issue right now….My general hope is that we have a free,
universal health care system for all Americans and that no
private company acts as a middleman to determine whether someone
gets care.”
Two points on this comment. First, I added the italics to show
that Moore makes the common mistake of conflating health care and
health insurance. Health care is the treatment we receive to
diagnose and cure illness. Health insurance is a way of paying for
health care. Having universal health insurance does not guarantee
universal health care. Most systems that have universal health
insurance ration care by implementing waiting lists and canceling
surgeries. In short, universal health insurance leads to very
restricted access to health care. (For a more extended
discussion of this, go here.)
Second, clearly Moore does not like the idea of a private
insurance company deciding whether someone gets care (and neither
do I). But Moore wants to move us to a government-run system. What
he won’t tell you is that under such a system, the government will
decide whether or not you get care. In Britain, smokers are to be denied surgery if they
do not quit smoking four weeks before surgery. In New Zealand, the government recommended that patients
aged 75 and over be denied kidney dialysis. Switching to a
government-run health care system does not eliminate the denial of
treatment; it just changes the entity that does it.
Will Sicko be any more illuminating than Moore’s press
conference? I’m eager to find out. Hopefully I’ll be able to get a
sneak peek of the film over the weekend and give you a review on
Monday.
David Hogberg is a Washington writer and host of the
website Health Hog.
