Mike Huckabee almost gets it

So, presidential candidate Mike Huckabee (R-Quixotic) responded to Michael Moore's latest film "Sicko" with the retort, "Well, he's fat." OK, he said a little more than that. Quoth he, per The Associated Press:

"Frankly, Michael Moore is an example of why the health care system costs so much in this country. He clearly is one of the reasons that we have a very expensive system. I know that from my own personal experience," said Huckabee, who lost more than 110 pounds and became an avid runner after he was diagnosed with diabetes.

Well, yes, actually, that's not a bad point, Mikey, despite the childishness of the premise that, in order to retain a higher ground, is preventing me from making any Arkansas jokes. And he goes on:

"Anything we could do to help steer people to healthier habits comes back to us many times over and that's a real focus that needs to happen," Huckabee said. "Right now, insurance companies will pay $100,000 or more for a quadruple bypass but wouldn't pay a couple hundred dollars for a person to have nutrition counseling and maybe to work with an exercise physiologist to determine how to get those extra pounds off. ... It's a lot better to spend some more money on the prevention side than it is on the intervention side."

Again, a good point. I'm lucky enough, in fact, to have insurance that covers my yearly check-ups in full. But guess what? Do you think all those uninsured people have the money to spend those hundreds of dollars for nutritional counseling for their whole family? Do you think they even can afford regular doctor visits so that their first medical treatment is a severe problem in the emergency room, when the enormous bill gets shifted over to the taxpayers anyway?

Perhaps it's time for the government to take that last bit of advice, eh?