It turns out that the politically incorrect Bill Maher is reportedly unhappy with the Baucus bill.
That’s the good news.
The bad news?
Bill Maher’s opposition to the Baucus bill is not based on the sentiment that it goes too far; rather, Maher doesn’t believe it goes far enough.
Earlier this year, Maher wrote this Op-Ed in which he decries the entire notion of a profit-motive in the practice of medicine.
Now Maher makes some points worthy of discussion.
But he goes on to lament the higher costs of medical treatment today and wrongly attributes the medical inflation associated with such procedures to Capitalism.
Yes, there are many new medicines and medical procedures that cost money. But these drugs and treatments produce favorable medical outcomes, otherwise they would not be profitable.
However, Maher utterly fails to connect the dots between the increase of government’s role in health care and medical price inflation.
Evan Falchuk writes: “In 2007, federal, state and local governments paid for more than 46 cents of every health care dollar – more than $1 trillion. In fact, since 1980, the government has paid at least 40 cents of every dollar, and as early as 1960 – 5 years before Medicare – government paid a quarter of health care expenses. Government is a massive health care customer and has the impact one might expect such a big customer to have.”
With that level of government spending, is it any wonder why medical spending is so high?
Yet Bill Maher wants to cede total control of the health care sector to the government. A brilliant idea!
How about this?
I think entertainment should be free. There should be no profit-motive in comedy and entertainment. Bill Maher has a moral obligation to entertain people for free. We all have a right to happiness. Comedy and entertainment makes us happy. Obscene profits must not be made on the backs of people in desperate need of humor and entertainment. Therefore we can all expect Bill Maher to forfeit his salary from HBO from this point on.
Sound good? Well, it's about as logical as Bill Maher asserting we can maintain a quality medical system free of profit.
Maher continues by suggesting that the existence of a public fire department is somehow reason enough for us to adopt a government-run health care system:
“And if medicine is for profit, and war, and the news, and the penal system, my question is: what's wrong with firemen? Why don't they charge? They must be commies. Oh my God! That explains the red trucks!”
Repetition of trite sound-bites from Michael Moore’s Sicko may qualify as proof of intellectual profundity in Hollywood but here in the real world, Bill, you’re going to have to do better than that.
Health care is very personal – apparently a fact that escapes Bill Maher. The doctor-patient relationship is about the individual and each person’s specific medical needs.
The Fire Department serves a community, a town, or city. The analogy is ludicrous on its face but that doesn’t stop the simple-minded from repeating it endlessly in arguing for government seizure of the health care sector.
Indeed, most of us exercise individual responsibility by keeping one or more fire extinguishers in our homes because to rely on the fire department to reach your place in time during an emergency would be taking a huge risk with one’s life.
Not to mention, there are private companies such as Rural/Metro Corporation which specialize in fire protection services and many volunteer fire departments serving communities across the country.
Does Maher mention all the volunteers, physicians, and charities dedicated to providing medical care to poor Americans every year free of charge? Of course not.
Suffice it to say, Bill Maher’s time would be better spent speaking to real physicians who work diligently every day to treat and care for patients and less time at his HBO studio if he has any interest in understanding our health care system.
