Michael Moore (of Roger and Me fame) is making a documentary on the US health care industry called Sicko. When asked about why he thinks the US government can handle the task better than the private sector he notes:
Ask anyone on Social Security if their check comes on time every month. Like clockwork. And it comes through the so-called dilapidated U.S. mail. My dad’s check literally will come on the same day every month. The government has been quite good and efficient at creating a number of systems.The government can mail checks on time, ergo can provide more efficient health care! QED.
Nothing crystallizes a problem like a good analogy, and nothing highlights a miscomprehension like a bad analogy.
HedgeFundGuy - am 2007-05-18 23:12
Kevembuangga (guest) meinte am 19. May, 10:17:
Holy shit!
The dreaded nationalised French or even Cuban medical systems, while still costly and not perfect, beat US medical care hands down on efficiency and cost.That must be another whacky conspiracy theory fueled by secret PSYOP funds from the commies.
BTW: What about this ambulance bill?
HedgeFundGuy antwortete am 19. May, 18:17:
It doesn't take much imagination to see that something bad can be made worse.... But i agree that the US system is deficient because we spend so much more than other developed nations and have rather similar life expectancy rates
wcw (guest) antwortete am 21. May, 03:24:
er..
..you're a smart kid, it appears, when it comes to survivorship bias and performance simulation. Let me gently suggest that you apply the same skills to global warming data and health care. Just recall that the solid assumptions you make differ depending on context.Long story short, whatever your (apparently strongly held) ideological prejudices, the data really say only two things: one, even crappy national health care systems like Canada's have outcomes (not just life expectancy) similar to the US at much, much lower cost; two, a polemicist like Moore will always utter polemics, rather than mention how well the VA did under Clinton when it had competent administration.
Moore's films tend not to be very good when you inspect them closely. True. That's because they are agitprop, not cold, clinical documentary. As agitprop, I tend to find them vaguely successful. As documentary, less so.
Caravaggio (guest) meinte am 22. May, 02:37:
I do tire of this MM guy.
hummbumm (guest) meinte am 1. Jun, 21:35:
by the way, life expectancy is certainly not the best way to measure the effectiveness of the health care system, because there are other factors that impact life expectancy: murder rates, accidents, obesity, smoking etc... so making comparisons across on life expectancy is kinda silly. There are otehr metrics, maybe cancer survival rates, or maybe some measure of preventive care coverage, immunization percentage etc...
