John Stossel Continues Slapping Michael Moore
John Stossel devotes this weeks Real Clear Politics column to slapping Michael Moore around again. In a continuation of last week's attack, Stossel picks right up where he left off.
Michael Moore loves government.
OK, he doesn't love a government headed by George W. Bush, but he believes that once the Democrats are in charge, government will do a better job providing health care.
In his new movie, "Sicko," he praises government-controlled health care systems in Canada and Europe. He suggests that Americans pay more for health care but have a shorter life expectancy than people in other countries because our health care is driven "by profit."
He is wrong in so many ways.
First, life expectancy is no measure of a country's medical system. Lifestyle and culture matter more, and Americans are different.
Interviewing Moore for an upcoming health care special on "20/20," I said, "In America we kill each other more often. We shoot each other. We have more car accidents. Forgive me, more of us look like … you."
He smiled at that, but still argued that that people live longer in Canada "because they never have to worry about paying to go see the doctor. That means at the first sign of being sick they go right away to the doctor cause they're not worrying about whether or not they can afford it."
Please.
It is another must read column, I'd urge you to read it. Stossel notes that government simply does not do much of anything well. He relates the story of the Jersey City, New Jersey water department. Unable to do anything about unbelievably bad water in the city, the city turned the department over to a private company. Within months, the water quality improved enough to meet the highest standards at an annual savings of $35 million to the taxpayers. Stossel challenged Moore to name one thing government did better than private industry. Moore couldn't. Read Moore's reply, it is telling.
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Health Care BS — July 18, 2007 @ 2:06 pm
By Chris, July 18, 2007 @ 9:08 am
My mother bought a house in my town, and is moving from the West Coast in a month. I call the private utility company, and they transfer the utilities to my name, with a different account number, over the phone. I call the city water company, and they want my mother to come in to the office and present them with copies of the closing documents. After I repeat several times that she is in Washington, they decide that she can fax those documents, plus an affadavit from her present water company. No chance of just transferring the service to me, a customer for over twenty years. So, there is power in her house, but no water as of now.