Welcome to Cato Daily Podcast

Today is Wednesday, May 23rd. I'm your host Anastasia Glova.

Though not out until June 29th, some have already seen Michael Moore's new

documentary, Sicko, detailing health care horror stories from the richest country on earth.

His fact-checking, however, may be more horrible even than the stories he tells.

Here is Cato's Director of Health and Welfare Studies, Michael Tanner for today's podcast.

Michael, what did you think of the film?

Well, I think Sicko is more than just a little bit wacko.

The fact is that this is a tribute to socialized medicine.

It just sort of ignores the flaws in national health care

systems around the world. It does a pretty good job of dramatizing some of the

problems in the US system, although it certainly overstates them. We do still have the best health

care system in the world. After all, when former Italian Prime Minister

Berlusconi needed heart surgery, he didn't stay in an Italian hospital he didn't go to France or Cuba or

Canada even he came to the Cleveland clinic in the United States because that's

where sick people go when they really need health care

but you do admit that michael more identified some serious problems in

u.s health care what were those problems

well there are problems with u.s health care we have problems with quality it's very very uneven and people sometimes don't get the

treatment they need even when they have access to care. We do have too many people

without health care, although Michael Moore sort of implies that if you're one of the 47 million Americans without

health care it means you were born without health care and you'll die 70 some odd years later without

...