How's this for another kick to working Americans who are struggling to get by? According to the guy that helped develop McCain's health care plan, no Americans should be considered uninsured.
His logic? Anyone who can get into a hospital emergency room is able to access health care, and therefore shouldn't be considered uninsured. His solution to the health insurance crisis is simply to define the problem away.
The following is from today's Dallas Morning News (bolding is my own):
But the numbers are misleading, said John Goodman, president of the National Center for Policy Analysis, a right-leaning Dallas-based think tank. Mr. Goodman, who helped craft Sen. John McCain's health care policy, said anyone with access to an emergency room effectively has insurance, albeit the government acts as the payer of last resort. (Hospital emergency rooms by law cannot turn away a patient in need of immediate care.)
"So I have a solution. And it will cost not one thin dime," Mr. Goodman said. "The next president of the United States should sign an executive order requiring the Census Bureau to cease and desist from describing any American – even illegal aliens – as uninsured. Instead, the bureau should categorize people according to the likely source of payment should they need care.
"So, there you have it. Voila! Problem solved."
Here's the full article: Texas still leads nation in rate of uninsured residents.
That, in a nutshell, is the Republicon solution to everything: instead of solving the problem, outright ignore it. Fire up those motorized goalposts and floor it until up is down, lose is win, and uninsured is suddenly, magically, totally insured.
I want these fuckwits to get their despicable lying hands off my country now, please.
(This thing took off right after I wrote and saved this post. The McCain camp wants us to believe Goodman isn't theirs, but Talking Points Memo and Think Progress have happily hung him around McCain's neck, and so the hilarity continues.)
Emergency rooms aren't the place to get preventive care (vaccines, check ups, etc.), nor are they famous for being responsive to non-emergency needs. In fact, those folks will be waiting around for hours for care.
ReplyDeleteYou'd have to think that this Goodman has never been to an emergency room, at least not while he was conscious.