Ass-kicking

As you probably know by now, Michael Moore took "the Beard" to the woodshed yesterday:


And here as promised is the rebuttal -- and it's pretty devastating. Let's see how CNN responds to a series of factual errors. The most embarrassing of which is this -- demonstrating that Gupta never saw the film, but read his report from HMO Industry pamphlets:

CNN: "Moore asserts that the American health care system spends $7,000 per person on health. Cuba spends $25 dollars per person. Not true. But not too far off. The United States spends $6,096 per person, versus $229 per person in Cuba."

THE TRUTH:

* According to our own government – the Department of Health and Human Services'
National Health Expenditures Projections – the United States will spend $7,092 per
capita on health in 2006 and $7,498 in 2007. (Department of Health and Human
ervices Center for Medicare and Medicaid Expenditures, National Health Expenditures Projections 2006-2016. )
* As for Cuba – Dr. Gupta and CNN need to watch 'SiCKO' first before commenting on it. 'SiCKO' says Cuba spends $251 per person on health care, not $25, as Gupta reports. And the BBC reports that Cuba's per capita health expenditure is… $251! (Keeping Cuba Healthy, BBC, Aug. 1 2006. )
* As Gupta points out, the World Health Organization does calculate Cuba's per capita health expenditure at $229 per person – a lot closer to $251 than $25.