Maher cites flawed healthcare study during chat with Reason’s Gillespie
Monday, June 25, 2012 at 9:13AM 
Comic/pundit Bill Maher (left) yammers about government healthcare with an actor. Not shown: Reason's Nick Gillespie who did his best to inject logic into nonsense.Nick Gillespie, online editor for Libertarian-leaning Reason magazine, did a guest stint on Bill Maher’s comedy show on Friday.
Gillespie attempted to talk about single payer healthcare with Maher and select wealthy guests like media mogul Mort Zuckerman and comic/pundit Rachel Maddow.
Maher, a fan of ObamaCare and big government in general, cited a figure from a report whose editor considered it flawed.
Gillespie, the only small government guy in the group, managed to get a couple of words in despite Maher’s customary interruptions in search of a laugh line.
Zuckerman touted a single payer system like Canada’s.
Canada did a study in 2002, and bureaucrats weren’t very eager to share the data. The Canadian Medical Association finally got a copy of the report and the assessment was less than stellar. Aside from wait times as long as 8 hours in the emergency room, Canada came up short on social justice:
“There appear to be significant disparities between ‘have’ and ‘have not’ provinces and regions in their capacity to address public health issues.”
It’s useful to point out that no one on Maher’s show would be subject to government-run medical care—the wealthy will still have access only big money can buy. That will always be the case no matter what kind of system exists anywhere in the world.
That’s one reason proponents of the healthcare bill like Rep. Jared Polis (D-Colo.) were snapping up interests in medical tourism companies as Democrats pushed the government takeover of U.S. healthcare. *
Maher cited a study single payer proponents have relied on without looking into the integrity of the study. Maher said the UN ranked the U.S. 37th when it came to healthcare.
The U.S. ranking of 37 came from a World Health Organization study done in 2000. Even Philip Musgrove, editor-in-chief of the WHO report, called the ranking “nonsense.” There was little actual data available for the rankings.
Think about it. In many third world countries, deaths are reported in different ways or sometimes not reported at all. Furthermore, the U.S. has what amounts to an open border policy. How many sick people come here for healthcare? Don’t look to the government to tell you—that’s one figure you won’t hear socialized medicine fans mention.
The Wall Street Journal analyzed the WHO report, pointing out a number of critical flaws.
None of the guests on Maher's show had a background in healthcare.
Source/Related
Overtime: Nick Gillespie on HBO's Real Time with Bill Maher (Reason)
Obama goes FDR on Supremes... (The US Report)
*Print Source
Schweizer, Peter. Throw Them All Out. New York: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2011. [pp. 9-10]
(Commentary by Kay B. Day/June 25, 2012)