Will Ferrell Pushes Public Option

By: Amanda Sterling
Topics: Health Care

Protect Insurance Companies PSA from Will Ferrell

MoveOn.org, together with the Web site Funny or Die, have released a video featuring Will Ferrell and other celebrities in an effort to drum up support for health care reform efforts, as well as the public option.

In the video, which you can see at left, Ferrell, Olivia Wilde, Donald Faison and others sarcastically argue in favor of privatized health care and defend the worst practices of insurance companies.

"Insurance companies are detailed enough to deny claims for things like typos," Ferrell says, facetiously, in the video. "If you spell something wrong, do you really deserve surgery? I don't think so."

The clip comes via MoveOn.org Political Action, which backs the public health insurance option. In a release, the organization said the actors participating in the video agree that a public option must be included in the health care reform bill in order to expand coverage and avoid inflated insurance costs.

President Obama has signaled that he is open to leaving the public option out of the health care bill.

"As the health care debate enters the homestretch, humor can serve as a powerful reminder to Americans about what exactly is at stake," Justin Ruben, Executive Director of MoveOn.org, said in the release. "We were thrilled to partner up with the folks at Funny or Die and I think we've hit a homerun with this video depicting who exactly the 'victims' are in this crisis and the profit motive that will keep the insurance industry fighting tooth and nail against a public option."

MORE: Health Care Special Report

7 Comments Have Your Say
Email Story Send to a Friend
Share This Tell Your Friends
Tweet This Tweet This
More Share It

Add a Comment


by ehoffbuhr September 29, 2009 1:03 AM EDT: Haha this is good. But have you seen the remake? Help spread the word and save our celebrities!

http://healthcarecrisisnews.com/savethecelebrities/; Reply to this comment


by jcroy September 23, 2009 1:54 PM EDT: Great satire. About time somebody points to the real problem of healthcare. Why do you think anybody would vote against the insurance companies? Who's going to back your next campaign.; Reply to this comment


by JourneyHomeBurke September 23, 2009 12:58 PM EDT: If you think the insurance companies are going to lower their cost while having a monopoly over the process ? well I?ve got a bridge to sell you ?and I think Wall Street should be completely unregulated ? I trust strangers with my money?and pollution is good and we should take all of the air bags out of the cars?.

When industry has an iron lock grip on distribution and the markets ? the government is driven by the people to take corrective action create competition and safe guard the markets and its assets through the rule of law. It?s our saving grace. Our market systems depend and only will thrive on competition; unregulated markets are a roller coaster ride of boom, bubble and burst.

Individual businesses operate at a cross hair as to what is good for the markets and its assets and resources ? those resources are not only minerals, timber, coal and oil but you and I and the air we breathe. Individual businesses want to eliminate all competition in order to maximize their profits ? from the guy that runs Kinko?s ? who worries about Copy Connection opening up down the street to Microsoft out maneuvering Netscape and Firefox to be the only player in the operating system market, to AT&T wanting to be the only Phone Company, or Cable wanting to shut out Satellite from operating in your neighborhood.

The winner takes all mentality doesn?t take into account the whole system. Each sector of the economy impacts each other. It needs to be maintained through the rule of law in balance to operate at its most efficient. That?s what governments are for. The pure free market system is a myth. It doesn?t exist and as an economic model is closer to pure anarchy than anything else.

Unfortunately a bill of goods has been sold to a section of the public ? so much so they are willing not to vote their pocket book but emotionally respond to buzz words and fear mongering and to protest against their own self interest. The media is a powerful tool well underestimated by the millions sitting on their sofas watching it passively every night. But well understood by those who want to shape public opinion ? not for the public's own good but for their own profit and powerful self interest.

As we are forced to re-regulate the markets because of the enormous damage done to our economy by the unregulated markets, foreclosures, unemployment and stagnating wages, and as we are forced to roll back the take of the middle men who run the insurance sector, and as we are forced to wean ourselves off oil and dirty energy sources that are crippling our economy by holding back the clean energy job sector and being a national security risk ? we are going to hear all kinds of horrible things about those elected leaders pragmatic enough and smart enough to know that change is necessary. We are going to hear horrible lies, distortions of truth and promotion of violence as the status quo looses part of its grip.

The bellyaching coming from their media outlets is going to be enormous.

But at the end of the day if you vote your own pocket book and don?t care what happens to the millionaire strangers trying to pull the strings in Congress, and don?t take up their causes as if they were your own, and keep your eye focused on what is best for you and your family ? then the Country will be fine.

There is nothing dirty or evil about the words ?Public? or ?Option? ? in fact those words are what make this Country go!; Reply to this comment


by JookieJeff September 22, 2009 8:19 PM EDT: 63% of u.s. physicians support the public option. i'll take my doctor's advise on the issue over my mechanic's; Reply to this comment


by stuart-johns September 22, 2009 4:59 PM EDT: I love those new ads by MoveOn.Org......great stuff and to the heart of the matter. And I love how they display the republicans stupid arguments without even directly attacking the republicans.

Will Ferrell is great!; Reply to this comment

by stuart-johns September 22, 2009 4:56 PM EDT

The majority of doctors (75%) and Americans (62%) want the public option.

We will have the public option. Believe it. Not only is it an advantage to America, it's a political necessity for Obama.

Reply to this comment