SiCKO, Part Three

So how is it that we have a health care "system" here in the U.S. that provides such mediocre care, on average, but costs so much more money per capita than other nations' systems? First, there are the problems that are specific to the health care industry; you may have heard some of these before, and some of them are actually true:

• The health insurance bureaucracy eats over 30 percent of all health care costs.
• Blame the lawyers! Medical malpractice insurance stemming from huge lawsuit awards drive up costs. Not really: malpractice premiums are less than 1% of total health care costs, according to the AMA. "Defensive medicine" administered to help guard against malpractice claims is estimated to be 2% of total costs.
• Too many doctors! You've probably heard that the opposite will be the problem as the Baby Boom generation ages, but it may just be that there are too many specialists and not enough primary care physicians.
  

Then there are the institutionalized behaviors and legal/political issues that are at the root of the problem, the breakdowns in how "our" government operates and how our political system works [this is where I start the real opionatin', so feel free to disagree and refute]. One scene in SiCKO that really struck me was of an American in France (in Paris?) commenting that in the U.S., people are afraid of the government, while in France, the government is afraid of the people. Then Moore showed footage of French protesters, footage that would probably elicit a "lazy French" - or worse - response from your average American. But joke all you want about white flags, surrender monkeys and the like, but when was the last time there were huge protests in this country? At least the French are fighting, even if they are sometimes fighting for rights that we might see as extravagances (then again, maybe we're just jealous of all their vacation time).

Meanwhile, back home we're stuck with an inept, corrupt government that few people trust. We have an entrenched two-party political system, strengthened by ridiculous congressional redistricting that protects incumbents. We have spectacularly expensive legislative and presidential campaigns that are almost entirely privately funded by corporations and trade groups. We have a Supreme Court that equates political donations with free speech, which serves to legalize this corruption. We have lobbyists that write legislation. We have ludicrous taxpayer-funded projects. We not only have private health care, but an increasingly privatized military. We have out-of-control educational expenses, expenses that are unheard of in other industrialized countries that provide free higher education to citizens. When that's the government that most Americans see, how could they ever be convinced to let it be in charge of their health? Looks like I am gonna need a Part Four....