Ken Blackwell: “Sicko Guides Liberals’ Health Care Agenda”
From Ken Blackwell’s latest column on Townhall.com:
Michael Moore got slammed by Larry King. The outlandish documentarian was bumped from the “The Larry King Show” by none other than an ex-con, Paris Hilton.
Moore’s film “Sicko,” though, is certainly abuzz among liberal pundits. Moore offers a solution to millions of Americans without health insurance — government-run health care, just like Cuba.
Moore correctly identifies health care reform as a pivotal issue for this country, but he dives off the liberal deep-end by claiming the Cuban health care system is somehow superior to ours.
Let’s put it this way. While Major League Baseball scouts may dream of free access to Cuban pitchers, shortstops, and clean-up hitters, few Americans would consider drafting a Cuban doctor for a critical surgery.
It’s easy to discount Moore as just another half-baked Hollywood activist on a misinformed, politically fashionable tirade. That is, until you tune in to what the Democrat presidential candidates are saying. They, like Moore, believe a federal government-run health care system is the solution to our health care challenges.
Read the rest of Ken Blackwell’s column here.
Ken’s support of a more conservative version of big government Romney-care was the only time I remember disagreeing with him. But using free market solutions to get people out of the state run health care bureaucracy is certainly a smarter idea than having the government take over a massive portion of the private sector.
Does Michael Moore mention that Senator Ted Kennedy of Massachusetts was one of the champions of creating HMOs in the first place? I guess I’ll have to wait to see when they show Sicko on cable.
minguskhan said,
Wrote on June 30, 2007 @ 6:57 pm
I think the GOP ought to consider a healthcare voucher program to provide funding for sick people who can not afford to pay for healthcare costs. These vouchers could be used to pay for the travel expenses and stay for places like Cuba, Canada, or even Europe.
This could add a new level of competition to the healthcare industry and at least then we could feel assured knowing that our citizens are getting some good affordable healthcare. Since we are living in a global economy now why not let the true market forces correct the market. Even with all the expenses for traveling and staying at some of these places for major medical operations, people would still save money compared to having the same procedures done here.
Of course, if we did that there might not be as much funding for sites like this one. ( The healthcare and pharmaceutical industries would not be pleased)
If the Cuban healthcare system was good enough for the Russians, Eastern Europeans, and Africans to be sent there for specialized treatment, what is the reason it isn’t good enough for the U.S.? Oh wait (snap of the fingers), that’s right the CIA, hotel industry, gambling industry, and the fruit industry are all still mad because Castro pissed on their parade while they were taking advantage of the Cuban people.
I am not saying Castro is some great guy by any means. However, the history of our (neo)realist foriegn policy has allowed our government to be the well- lubricated butt whore to some far worse regimes. (African and South American Juntas, the House of Saud, and Sadam) Ken Blackwell and the other neocon nuckleheads are just reeling from the fact that Castro beat you at your own game and the proverbial ideologue “Political Man” is wincing from getting a taste of his own medicine.
I don’t care who came up with the idea of the HMO or who helped create them. (Kennedy or Nixon) It was a fucking stupid idea! If a Cuban-style healthcare system works, use it. Our current system doesn’t and Mr. Blackwell and every other red-blooded conservative uber-pundit needs to get over themselves and come up some thing that works for a change. While you are at it, you might expand your cultural palette by taking a visit to Cuba and sample some fried plantains, black beans, and Cuban music. Maybe that might help alleviate some of the poignancy of Govenor Strickland’s quoted comments on this site about Ohio being a backward state…
Bear Claw said,
Wrote on July 1, 2007 @ 5:13 pm
Socialism is socialism. If we have managed health care anything like it was in the military, I don’t want it.