Dean Baker is usually good for insightful and spot on analysis in regards to our corporate economy. He delivers again with this essay on Michael Moore’s film “SiCKO” and the dismal state (and causes) of America’s health care system, and the fraudulent and hypocritical claims towards ‘market choice’ that private insurance companies hide their bloated and inefficient (though personally lucrative) processes behind.

The pundits are working overtime trying to defuse the message from “SiCKO,” Michael Moore’s new film. They are trying to convince the public that the United States could not possibly do what every other rich country (and even some not so rich countries) have managed to do: guarantee their people decent health care.

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This experience is important. We cannot afford universal health care if we don’t bring the costs of the US system more in line with the rest of the world. We currently pay more than twice as much per person, with no obvious benefit in terms of outcome. The key to creating a more efficient system is to have a government-run system comparable to the traditional Medicare system.

But, we don’t have to pontificate about American values and the role of government - leave the silly pseudo-philosophical debates out of it. This is a straight dollars-and-cents question that can be determined by the market. Give people a choice and let them decide whether they want to be insured through the government-run system or want to stick with private health care providers.

The pundits have managed to flip reality on its head. It is the health insurance industry and their partners-in-crime, the pharmaceutical industry, that are scared of the market and competition.

Read The Full Essay

Update: Paul Krugman nails it again with this piece on the criminal state of America’s health care system and the immoral lengths the specially benefitting minority will go to maintain it with his essay Health Care Terror