Meaningless Rants

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Just a couple of months ago I finally watched Michael Moore’s Sicko. In case you’re wondering, it’s about the United States’ broken health care system and the comparison between Canada, France, England, and Cuba. If you’re interested in moving the the United States, or if you’re into politics, or if you’re into a good documentary, you should watch this movie. Heck, you should watch this movie, period. Especially if you’ve been following the election and hearing Sarah Palin and Fox News cry of the evil SOCIALISM! (speaking of which, I have to blog about Sarah Palin… but… eh).

Well, Indonesian and US health care is probably not much different. Good quality health care is prohibitively expensive, so if you don’t have health insurance, or cannot afford one, then you better pray that you don’t get seriously sick. Heck, I think in US, ANY health care is expensive. And if you’re lucky enough to have health insurance, then pray that you won’t be denied coverage due to “pre-existing condition” or “experimental treatment” and a bunch of great excuses for the profit of health insurance companies.

I try not to spoil too much from the movie, but let me talk a little about one of the country in the movie: France. Yeah, in France, the health care is awesome. Everything is totally free, and health care is truly a right. Yeah, the government has a 24 hours doctor for call. Yeah, they even have a post-natal helper to watch for the baby or help the laundry or make carrot puree twice a week. The French lady asked Michael Moore whether in the states “you have this kind of association to help.” And when told that there isn’t one, she said “that’s hard!”

OK so far so good, but it comes with a cost, right? Well, Michael Moore went on to interview a middle income family. The husband and wife were happy with their condition. They earn a good wage, and they spend them on quality food, luxuries, and vacations. They don’t worry about health care or pension. Great, but what about the rich who pays 50%+ tax for all these programs? Moore didn’t interview any rich French people. I wondered what they would’ve said about this health care system.

Well, in my business, there are foreign customers who visit us on a regular basis. One of them is a rich French guy who is frankly kindda obnoxious. He’s filthy rich as in rich enough to have a villa down at the Riviera. He hates the “Arabs” (North Africans) who come to France. He voted for Le Pen, the ultra-Right candidate. He complains about many things - lazy French workers, government, etc.

So at one time in a dinner, I remembered about Sicko. I asked him what does he think about the French health care system, fully expecting him to rant and complain about it. He then was silent for a few seconds, and said (I paraphrase): “I think the French health care system is the best in the world. It’s one of the things the government did right.” Even if you pay a lot of taxes? I asked. “Yes, but it’s really high-quality health we receive.”

“I was shot in the leg with shotgun once,” it was an interesting story, but I’ll cut it short here. “They didn’t check for insurance. They didn’t check for money. I was unconscious. I was taken to the emergency room, and they did the best job they could.” For your information, this guy now runs an hour everyday.

He then conceded this much: “yes, the government has deficit, and yes the government can be inefficient. But there are many things they did right: justice, police, the train [transportation], and health care. Although the problem is that the ‘Arabs’ come to abuse the system and….” and there he went on ranting about the North Africans.

Wow, I was actually quite shocked that this rich guy admitted that his tax money is put to good use. Which makes me wonder, how can rich Americans be so greedy? I asked him if he would move to the US if he could halve his tax? His answer is a flat no. He wouldn’t want to live anywhere but France, even if he pays 50% tax.

I guess Socialism isn’t a bad term anyway. The thing is, people keep forgetting that so many good policies are actually ’socialistic.’ The Tories in Britain will never admit that the NHS is a ’socialistic’ policy. Republicans will never admit that Social Security is ’socialistic.’ Well, socialism is a terrible idea for free enterprise, and Capitalism is still the best way for value creation. So what’s the balance here? For me, the true yardstick is whether the public has bargaining power in the market. Non-essential goods or services will not fall into this category. But health care is essential: how can you bargain with a doctor over a fee to cure Tuber-culosis, for example?

I can go on ranting about capitalism and socialism for the whole day, but let me cut it abruptly here and say that you should watch Sicko.