Yes! Finally someone explains health care reform in terms that regular people like me can understand. By creating this video, Will Farrell has branded insurance companies and their executives as bloated, greedy and ruthless. The reason this format works better than the thousands of scathing articles and reports, is because it’s funny. It uses satire and irony to create a dramatic and very memorable message. And an A-list celebrity backing the cause helps a little too…
Health care reform is so complicated that in order to influence the American people to support one side or the other, oversimplifications such as this are necessary. President Obama, in his media blitz the past few days, has admitted repeatedly that he made the mistake of not creating a catch-phrase or other simple concept that his supporters could latch on to. ‘Public option’ anyone? This video was produced in part by Moveon.org, a grass-roots political action organization with 5 million members in the US.
For the record, insurance companies do not make a ton of profit (around 2%). However their overhead costs are around 15%, compared to 4% overhead for most government-run agencies. This overhead is what pays the bloated salaries and covers excessive costs that make the system inefficient. This information is from CNN – Wolf Blitzer and Paul Begala on September 22.