Clinton: American healthcare system 'insane'

Never really warmed to the guy. Slick Willie always seemed like a really apropo nick-name and the more liberal he sounded the more conservatively he legislated.

Of course, having now seen the alternative, the Clinton years now have a fuzzy golden glow about them with puppies, dot-com IPOs and hummers for all.

You know he would have been on the ground in New Orleans the day after Katrina hugging everybody in sight and under Clinton, Fema was getting high marks for efficiency, competence and the directorship was a cabinet position with full support and access to the President. It didn't take Bush long to turn it into a crony ridden mess.

And give Clinton credit for what he said about the US healthcare system today:

"It is insane," said Clinton. "It is a colossal waste of money. Don't go down that road. Don't do anything that will lead to increased administrative costs."

Clinton was pointing out that Canadian healthcare administrative costs are only 19% of total spending compared to 34% for the American system. He explicitly warned of letting the financial side of healthcare wag the dog over the medical side.

As to the privatization advocates who will frantically hype Clinton's mention of Sweden as an argument for private sector solutions - keep in mind that Sweden's privatization schemes were rejected by the Swedish voters and Sweden is very much returning to the public model for it's efficiencies.