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Health Care Overhaul Summarized Via MASSIVE PIG

2009-08-17 · John · watch on YouTube · US politics & society · news analysis

Using Walkin' Tall, the Indiana State Fair's giant boar, as a metaphor, John summarises the 2009 US health-care reform options (public option, nonprofit insurers, no change) and argues the US already has inefficient socialized medicine because it treats health care as a right.

What is said

00:00:00 — At the Indiana State Fair John sees Walkin' Tall, the world's largest boar, who reminds him of America's healthcare system

  • ★★ John went to the Indiana State Fair the day before and saw the world's largest boar, named Walkin' Tall. — 00:00:01
  • ★★ John says the boar weighs more than 1,100 pounds and cannot stand up because his body is too big for his legs. — 00:00:05
  • ★★★ John likens the boar to America's healthcare system: impressively or distressingly huge; the debate boils down to killing him, putting him on a diet, or feeding him. (playful) — 00:00:18 · United States

00:00:35 — Kill the pig, diet or keep feeding: the healthcare debate; John wants a non-partisan talk without death panels

  • ★★ John wants to discuss the healthcare debate non-partisanly, without screaming or treating viewers as if they were brain-damaged goldfish. — 00:00:44
  • ★★★ John says death panels are not in the bill, and that the unsophisticated debate about them has distracted from a large and significant issue. — 00:00:53 > «I don't wanna talk about death panels because they're not in the bill»

00:01:05 — Shared premises (too much GDP, unfair system) and the three positions: public option, nonprofit insurers, keep feeding the pig; John's partial empathy with the status quo (chocolate-covered bacon)

  • ★★★ John says nearly everyone, conservative or liberal, agrees the US spends too much of its GDP on healthcare and that its system is radically unfair. — 00:01:05 · United States
  • ★★ John says good healthcare in America depends largely on working for a big company, which must provide benefits, and on not having a pre-existing condition, often not one's fault. — 00:01:21
  • ★★★ John explains the public option: a large government-run insurer anyone could buy into, cheaper for poorer people, negotiating lower costs and fewer procedures. — 00:01:30
  • ★★ John says private insurers hate the public option, though it would not eliminate them, because its size would let it negotiate lower prices and draw customers away. — 00:01:46
  • ★★★ John describes the 'put the pig on a diet' camp: create nonprofit insurers that compete with private insurers and work for patients rather than shareholders. — 00:02:03
  • ★★ John says the downside of the nonprofit-insurer plan is that tens of millions of people would still have no health insurance. — 00:02:19
  • ★★ John says the 'keep feeding the pig' camp opposes an overhaul; many are happy with their healthcare, and he thinks they don't want to pay for people's stupid decisions. (hedged) — 00:02:25
  • ★ John partly empathises: seeing chocolate-covered bacon at the fair, he didn't want to be on the financial hook for people who eat it. (playful) — 00:02:36

00:02:47 — America already has a lot of socialism and an inefficient socialized medicine; health care as a right the government must protect; sign-off

  • ★★★ Despite cries against socialism, John says America already shares the cost of schools, roads and the military, and already has bloated, inefficient socialized medicine since hospitals treat anyone. — 00:02:47 · United States > «We also currently have socialized medicine»
  • ★★★ John argues that the inefficiency of this socialized medicine is what makes US healthcare more expensive than anywhere else in the world. (hedged) — 00:03:13
  • ★★★ John asks whether healthcare is a privilege or a right: if a privilege, the uninsured who can't pay should go untreated; he thinks we treat them because we believe it is a right. (hedged) — 00:03:20
  • ★★★ John concludes that if healthcare is a right, like life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, it is a government's responsibility to protect it. — 00:03:41

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