Sicko: A libertarian perspective

I had wanted to watch this one for a while, but just now finished Michael Moore's movie, Sicko, a critique of the US healthcare system.  Although more is very biased in most of his films, it is tough to argue with the statistics.

The US has one of the lowest life expectancies in the developed world and spends more on healthcare than anyone else.  

While I have health insurance, and suspect most of my readers do, there are a lot of people without it.  But it is not them that are mainly affected, for many people are denied coverage everyday for routine conditions.  Herein lies the problem, where the medical insurance industry has basically taken over as our doctors.  It is generally they who decide what treatments are allowed, unless you have hundreds of thousands to spend on your own.  

Everyone knows the cost of prescription drugs here is ludicrous, that's why many go to Canada.  In Sicko, someone went to Canada for healthcare too, using a fake name.  She could not afford healthcare here, so she pretended to be married to a Canadian.  It is sad that a country as great as the US is unable to provide all of its citizens with some measure of healthcare.

Sicko tries to distill some myths:

1. Doctors in other countries are paid low wages.  He shows a family doctor in London who owns a million dollar house, plus an Audi.  

2. There are waiting lists for surgery in other countries.  Not for emergencies.

3. They pay so much in taxes for this, the people can't live well.  Not in France.  Despite having free healthcare, 35 hour workweeks, 5 weeks paid vacation for even part time workers, and even free babysitting, most people in France who had an education live as well as Americans, if not better.  (Maybe we should be more like the French).

Moore even shows us that Cuba has better healthcare than we do (he fails to talk about their human rights record on other issues though).  

He also fails to talk about one reason why our healthcare costs so much.  Lawyers suing doctors.  Massive malpractice insurance costs.

So, what do I say our solution should be?

National healthcare is not such a bad idea, but we also need to reduce lawsuits.  We should pass a law so that only actual damages can be sued for, not punitive.  

Doctors should be paid bonuses like in the UK.  

Here, insurance companies and some doctors make more money if they treat people less, since their costs are lower.

Under a national healthcare plan, doctors are paid based on outcomes, for example, by getting a certain percentage of their patients to have lower blood pressures, cholesterols, etc.

This makes sense, since it pays doctors for being good doctors.  

So where is the libertarian angle on this, I know what you are all thinking, what I've written above makes me look like a socialist pig.  Well, socialist pig I am not.  Most libertarians (other than the anarchists who you hear about the most) generally believe there are certain responsiblities that need to be left to the government, the so-called "night watchman" responsiblities: police, fire, some roads, national defense, and courts.  These are vital functions that protect the safety of the citizens.  Why should healthcare not be on that list?  Why should we have to worry about getting claims denied for being sick.  Government paid car insurance would not make sense, since the worst thing that happens if you lose your car, or go broke from getting sued for you DUI accident.  Health insurance, on the other hand, protects a much more important asset, ourselves.

Can anyone look a young mother in her face and tell her that her kids will die because they can't have a heart transplant because she can't pay for it?  Is that the type of society we want to be?  

I certainly don't want us going down that road.

That is why national healthcare would be a positive thing for us.  It would also give anyone, including myself, flexibility in job searching.  So many people stay with a job they hate, or will not go into business on their own, because they are concerned about losing their health coverage or paying up the ass for it.  

The other argument I can make, not necessary as a libertarian, but as a logical human being: we spend more on healthcare than any other country, yet our quality of care is lower.  That does not sound like a good deal to me.  Why not emulate the French or UK system, since they have been time-tested?

We need to come up with a solution to this crisis.  People are dying, people (like me) are spending way too much on healthcare.  We will probably have to do this in babysteps.  First, insure the elderly (already done), then insure the kids (will likely be done by our next president), then insure everyone else.