Snake eyes and crapshoots

Outgoing CEO Jiřina Musílková of VZP health insurer has a nickname for Health Minister David Rath. She calls him "Snake Eyes." This of course conjures up a devious, reptilian image, but there's also a gambling connotation. When a craps shooter throws two ones, he gets "snake eyes" and loses the bet. Given the way Rath has made so many enemies, it might seem that Premier Jiří Paroubek has thrown snake eyes by naming Snake Eyes as health minister. But ODS is increasing Paroubek's odds at the table by its own blunders. Its shadow health minister, Tomáš Julínek, wasn't able to explain on Jan Kraus's talk show on ČT1 why he thinks it's good for hospitals to show a profit. He didn't come up with anything about how profit can motivate people to perform better. It was a perfect opportunity to give television viewers a brief lesson on Adam Smith. Instead, Julínek gave the impression that any vote for ODS, and not ČSSD, is the crapshoot.