[Cafferty:] Here's something to think about. Within ten years, $1 out of every $5 spent in this country will go toward health care. That's according to a report out from the centers for Medicare and Medicaid services this week. The new Bush Medicare drug plan meant to take some of the sting out of the costs of medicine for seniors is just six weeks old now. Our next guest says enrollment in it is very low. Dean Baker's a macro economist and co-director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research, which is Washington-based think tank. Dean, nice to have you with us.
[Dean Baker, Co-director, Center For Economic And Policy Research:] Thanks for having me on.
[Cafferty:] Why aren't they rushing to sign up for this thing if it's such a good deal?
[Baker:] Well there is two things about it. One is that it's extremely complicated. You are asking a lot of people who are older, they're over 65 by definition, they're not used to playing around with the web, they have bad eyesight, memory problems, you are asking them to make complex choices. The second thing for many people it is not a terribly good deal. They have to sit there and really figure out whether they'd benefit by signing up or not. It is not a very good deal for many seniors.
[Serwer:] Dean, after all these year, all these decades, this plan Hillary Clinton going back before her we've been trying to fix our national health care system. We haven't made any progress at all. Meanwhile the cost of health care is supposed to explode. Why can't we fix this?
[Baker:] I think it's basically the political interests involved, the insurance industry, the pharmaceutical industry, the doctors, they're too powerful. We're the only country that has this problem. We pay twice as much as they do in Canada, in Germany and France and they get better health care. They live longer than we do. That's the incredible scandal. We keep paying more and more. We are that has cost growing like this and we don't live as long as they do in these other countries. So we're paying a lot more and getting worse care because everyone's scared of the powerful interests here.
[Westhoven:] Can I just go to the president's plan on health savings accounts? I want to talk about that for just a moment. That's supposed to help people afford health care, but it doesn't really do anything about addressing the high cost of health care. What do you think the government should be doing about that?
[Baker:] Well, we clearly need an overhaul of our health care system. It is basically just broken. The president's plan on health savings accounts is giving tax breaks that would go to high-end people. These are not the people who have problems with paying health care. It does almost nothing about the costs because the costs aren't people going for doctor's visiting; the costs are for intensive care, very sick people the last six months of life. His plan will not affect that at all. We really have to talk about overhauling the health care system. Simply put, Medicare, the public run sector is far and away the most efficient it seems to me. Let's build on that. Why don't we open up Medicare for everyone? A very simple thing that could drastically reduce costs and get us on the path to national health care insurance.
[Cafferty:] So answer your own question, why don't we?
[Baker:] Again, you have very powerful political interests. Propose that tomorrow and see what the insurance companies do, see what the pharmaceutical companies do. You'll see a very quick, very strong reaction.
[Cafferty:] To what degree, and I hate to do this, but I think it's a point. To what degrees do the voters in this country get what they deserve? They keep re-electing these morons who are in bed with the pharmaceutical companies who are in bed with the insurance companies. They keep sending them back for term after term after term. I mean what are you going to wind up with at the end of the day?
[Baker:] Let me point the finger in the other direction. No one knows people don't realize that we have a very inferior health care system. They keep hearing politicians say that we have the best health care system in the world. They don't realize that, no, if you look at every other country, Germany, Canada, England, France I don't care who you pick, they have longer life expectancies than we do and they pay half the cost. That is something that most people don't even know, so they don't realize that we can do better. We're not that much stupider than people in France are. I really don't believe that.
[Serwer:] Well, Dean, I've got to differ with you on one point. We have the best health care system in the world if you happen to be a millionaire and have a net worth of $5 million or up, no question about that.
[Baker:] Maybe at the very top end, maybe for a very tiny segment of the population.
[Serwer:] I mean how can we make people aware, you know who is subsidizing drug cost around the world are the uninsured. So think about this the uninsured people in America are subsidizing drug costs for people in Canada and Belgium and all around the world. I mean it is a crime. So how can we raise awareness in this country about how things are not working? Why can't we get that out there?
[Baker:] Well, I think the key thing is just making these comparisons. When I've had occasion to talk about this in public and I tell people that we're spending twice as much, in fact more than that, it is close to three times as much for the average other rich countries. I'm not talking about Uganda. The other countries we compare ourselves to people are shocked. They usually don't even believe me. I often carry the data with me, so I can say you know here is a credible source. They will tell you that. People have to know that and they have to know that, no, they're not all waiting in lines all the time. Sometimes they don't. But in general they're not. They get good care; they live longer than we do. They have to know the basic facts. Then you can say how do we get from here to there? They manage to deal with the problem there. All those countries have problems with health care. It is a problem everywhere in the world, but it is nothing like the problem it is in the United States.
[Westhoven:] Dean, thank you very much.
[Baker:] Thanks for having me on.
[Westhoven:] This week's "Life after Work" segment is about pursuing your passion. Chickie Rosenberg is a 65-year-old grandmother who cuts up the slopes and in retirement she's become one of Killington Mountain's top snowboard instructors. She specializes in getting women to learn snowboarding. In the early '90s teenage snowboarders started shredding the slopes at Killington Resort in Vermont and Chickie Rosenberg decided it was time to try it out.
[Chickie Rosenberg, Snowboard Instructor:] I switched because I felt it was safer for me in terms of injury. And once I got on the snowboard, it was just much more fun. Woo!
[Westhoven:] Chickie left her job as an English teacher when her daughter was born and bought her first snowboard for her 50th birthday. She started training and 16 years later is one of Killington's top instructors.
[Rosenberg:] Stay on your toes and pick up a little speed. Once I got involved snowboarding was all really wanted to do. So I stopped doing everything and just taught snowboarding.
[Westhoven:] Now 65, Chickie says the age difference doesn't matter in the teen snowboarding culture.
[Rosenberg:] I was always a counterculture person myself. And I've always related well to teenage kids. The snowboard instructors they're all the kids and they're all my buddies.
[Westhoven:] You might not expect a grandmother of two out on the slopes teaching fearlessness and the thrills of snowboarding.
[Rosenberg:] Come across the hill. I had these two girls and they had a bad morning and they were terrified. They had the best afternoon. And that's a wonderful thing. That's a gift. It's a wonderful thing to be able to teach and to be able to make a happy day for somebody.
[Unidentified Female:] Thank you.
[Rosenberg:] The most important thing I teach people is to have confidence in themselves. That's really what I give them.
[Westhoven:] In next week's "Life after Work" we'll visit a colonial city in central Mexico, now home to a group of American baby boomers who went south of the border for retirement. Coming up, life's a party, but you don't need your potential employer to know exactly how you're celebrating. Find out why you might want to scale back that personal profile on the web. And while you're logged on drop us a line tell us what you think, the address is INTHEMONEY@CNN.com.