One common theme that Michael Moore is saying in his drive for national health care, is that it is free. When comparing the relative quality of health care between Canada and Cuba, he rated Cuba's health care better because Canada charged for crutches and Cuba did not. I think this is a telling point that we should all examine. How much weight does Mr. Moore and socialist organizations such as the World Health Organization place on so called free medicine when they rank the comparative quality of health care?

But the idea that health care can be free is a big lie. This big lie is used by Mr. Moore to sugar coat a large and unpleasant pill that he wants to force down our throats. Socialized health care like other big government programs is not free. Somebody has to pay for it and that somebody is you and me. There is no doubt that our health care system is in a mess. There are a lot of reasons for it. Exorbitant malpractice suits, administrative overhead caused by non-standard insurance forms, and government regulations that create a drain on hospital and doctors resources. If the government takes over health care these conditions will still exist. The only difference will be that the bureaucrats do not have to worry about profit and loss or maintaining customer satisfaction. A bureacrats concern is politics and spending their entire budget for the year so they can get an automatic increase the next year.

This will not reduce the cost of medical care. It will increase it. We need to find a better way to reduce the cost of health care. And the government does not have a very good track record when it comes to reducing cost.

- Thomas Paine 2

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