Sicko, the movie

Stephie and I recently watched Sicko, the Michael Moore film.

If in 5 years we've moved to France, it all started with this movie.

The movie raises this question--Why are we spending twice as much, but doing worse than other countries on health care?

I think part of our disadvantage is military spending. Other countries have a smaller budget item for war, so they have more for health care.

Even if all our war dollars were spent on health care, it wouldn't mean free health care--the insurance pay-per-procedure system is broken and more money won't fix it. Doctors are paid not to be your doctor but per test and procedure.

Here's what happened to doctors/hospitals. Medicare/insurance pays per test or procedure that a doctor runs. To make more money, doctors run more tests/procedures. Medicare responds to higher costs, with lower payments for procedures. Doctors feel financially squeezed and need to run more tests. Costs surge. The main beneficiaries are drug companies, medical device companies, and insurance companies.

So: socialize medicine? I don't know. What does the church do if the state takes care of the sick? Does the Bible say anything to this?

Here's what supports socializing medicine--God judges nations. Egypt, Edom, Assyria, Babylon, Moab, Sidon all get the smack down as a nation. What were their crimes--typically idolatry and oppressing the poor. We have built a system that oppresses the poor in health care. Getting sick can bankrupt or enslave the middle class in debt. The poor just die. America could have Canadian-style health-care for all. But many, many people are getting extremely wealthy off our system.

How much money would a business be willing to spend if its $10 billion company is about to wiped out by socialized medicine? Probably about $10 billion. CIGNA is worth $14 bil. Wellpoint is worth $45 bil. United Health $67 bil. Pfizer $150 bil. That's a lot of money, and it' a partial list.

So the possibility of US free health-care looks impossible by worldly estimations. In fact, if you consider the budgets of the health-care companies to invest in politics, they should only get stronger and richer in the coming years.