Kansas City Star - "Yes, Mr. Romney, Americans die for lack of health insurance"

[TomCADem]

Nice article in the Kansas City Star blasting the dangerously false idea that Americans do not die due to lack of health insurance.

http://www.kansascity.com/2012/10/11/3863048/yes-mr-romney-americans-die-for.html

While discussing the U.S. health care system, Romney amazingly and wrongly said that Americans don’t die for lack of health insurance.

“We don’t have a setting across this country where if you don’t have insurance, we just say to you, ‘Tough luck, you’re going to die when you have your heart attack,’” he said.

“No, you go to the hospital, you get treated, you get care, and it’s paid for, either by charity, the government or by the hospital. We don’t have people that become ill, who die in their apartment because they don’t have insurance.”

Oh yes we do, Mr. Romney. This nation has millions of people who become ill because they can’t afford preventive medicine. We have sick people who can’t get well because they can’t afford medications. We have people who live in pain because they can’t pay for treatments.

And yes, Mr. Romney, we have people who die sooner than they should because they don’t have insurance. Different studies have placed the number from 18,000 to nearly 45,000 people a year.

“He is ignorant of the facts,” said Sharon Lee, a physician and chief executive of Family Health Care, a clinic in Kansas City, Kan. “I see patients all the time who die or have very high morbidity because of a lack of insurance.”

[Nancy Waterman]

1. This story really needs to be a campaign ad

Romney has two quotes from the past week or two that could be used: the one about going to the ER to get care and theone about no one dies, etc. This could really be a cudgel against him if used!!

[TomCADem]

2. This story needs to break through the corporate media censorship!

The cable media is largely giving Romney a free pass on his many contradictions and lies. Instead, the media narrative engages in a superficial focus on the "Romney surge," which in turn helps power the "Romney surge" along with millions in late October ad buys. The Romney surge is primarily being powered at this point by the corporate media's refusal at this point to hold Romney-Ryan accountable. It has gone into he-said, she-said mode where it refuses to call out the truth.

[savannah43]

6. The media is almost completely owned by the corporate powers.

Why would anyone with the ability to add 2 + 2 believe anything they put out as "news?"
Here's a question that should be asked: Is there any amount of money that is too much? Greed is what is driving these people. And I use the word "people" loosely, as they are well on their way to losing their humanity. Do they care at all? No, they do not.

[savannah43]

7. I almost forgot--truth is the last thing they want out there.

[stillwaiting]

22. 99.9% of the time the media is he said/she said. It serves to keep the people divided very well.

Therefore, it is serving its intended purpose of the media owners very, very well.

The media has near zero desire to actually inform or provide meaningful perspective/analysis.

Romney "seemed Presidential" as he lied his ass off during the debate according to the mockingbirds in the media, and the media clings to this narrative to prop him up since Romney will clearly advance their financial interests in a most disgustingly obscene manner.

I have refused to watch any mainstream media for 5 years now. All it did for me was raise my blood pressure, and there are plenty of people who continue to document the atrocities so I don't have to subject myself to it any longer.

[barbtries]

3. remember medicaladmin?

i do.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/1002252691
the slaughter of innocents

http://www.democraticunderground.com/1002632763
re: MedicalAdmin

I thought everyone should know that my husband passed away a little more than a month ago. He had devoted the last part of his life to his family, but I know that he really appreciated Democratic Underground and often mentioned to me some particularly good argument he had, or some new information that he learned while posting here.


it happens every day in this country "the greatest country on earth." if republicans regain the presidency only a very very few of us will be able to live out our lives secure and healthy.

[BeyondGeography]

4. In addition to everything else wrong with that statement

I love the implication that losers live in apartments. Renters, you know. People who can't afford to live in "real" homes.

Yes, that's right, Mitthole. You have more tells than an inebriated horndog when it comes to your contempt for people.

[zbdent]

5. and often, when the hardship cases make the national news, businesses actually get discounted

advertising for "saving" these people ... far more in PR value that they get than what they would have to spend to "save" the person.

And then, when someone else with a similar or the same problem shows up on their doorstep, saying "Well, what about me/us?" ... they are attacked as the "entitlement" scum ...

[Momgonepostal]

8. Maybe it says this later in the article...

but we also have people die because the insurance they do have refuses to pay for the procedures they need.

[surrealAmerican]

15. It's a valid point, and there are also those ...

... who can't afford the co-pays or deductibles even when their insurance does "cover" their treatment.

[tblue37]

9. Sometimes I wonder whether he might actually be sincere when he spouts such nonsense.

He has lived his whole life in a bubble created by his wealth and his religion, and I think it’s pretty obvious that as much as possible he avoids contact with “you people.” His evident discomfort around the hoi polloi suggests that he has little experience of them and their lives.

Maybe he really is as clueless as he seems about how the healthcare system works in this country.

He often says things that reveal an amazing lack of actual knowledge about the way our healthcare system and our political system work in this country. He really does seem to think that emergency room care is real treatment for serious illnesses, and he really seems to believe that the president can do all sorts of things that in fact the president cannot do.

For example, one of his ridiculous campaign promises is to “repeal AHCA on day one” of his presidency. He actually seems to think that the president has the power to do that!

In fact, some DUer pointed out a while ago that Money Boo Boo would have a very busy first day in office, since he is promising to do so many things on “day one,” most of them things that the president actually doesn’t have power to do.

[stranger81]

10. My parents were two of these tens of thousands of Americans that Romney says don't exist.

Just posted this Star article on FB. Thanks for sharing it.

[polmaven]

11. Yes...they do indeed.

Because there is a difference between health care one would get from having health insurance, and sick care one gets in the ER.

[courseofhistory]

12. Yes, Mittwit, there is NO Santa Claus! n/t

[justiceischeap]

13. I was having stomach issues and didn't go to the doctor because I didn't have insurance

and then, shortly after I started receiving insurance (probably about a week after it was in place) I was taken from work in an ambulance because of severe pain. Come to find out I had a gallstone stuck in my bile duct (which can cause the duct to burst and kill people). I still would have been taken to the hospital but a charity, the hospital or someone else would not have picked up the tab for my surgery that I'd ended up having to have. I would have been stuck with that bill. Which, if I didn't have a fairly decent job could have caused me to lose my housing, which would have made me homeless which could have added to early morbidity. Mitt's a twit.

[Cha]

14. Thank you, TomCADem! REC!

[GallopingGhost]

16. I'd like to know

just exactly what all these supposed charities that step in and pay everyone's medical bills are.

Back in the day when I was uninsured, and I had to go to the doc or hospital, I paid the bill, just like millions of Americans do now.

Guy's living in a made-up fantasy world.

[aintitfunny]

17. My 41 year old stepdaughter died.

She did not have insurance 2 years ago. Her husband lost his business and traveled the country filling part time construction jobs and she followed him. She had chest pains. She went to emergency rooms. She was told it was anxiety, gas, indigestion, whatever. No tests were done. She was told to go to a doctor, who she could not afford, especially since they said it was not a problem. He found a full time job, they found an apt. she basically dropped dead while buying furniture.

She was freshly 41 years old with a daughter, son and young granddaughter who counted on her. Life changed profoundly.

It will kill you.

[GallopingGhost]

18. I am so sorry for your loss.

That's terrible, and terribly sad. It's exactly the kind of story that needs to be told.

Yes, Mr. Romney, people ARE dying for want of health care/insurance. Life gets tricky outside of Richville, doesn't it?

[area51]

19. Rmoney is a psychopathic liar.

[br]
We have 100,000 people dying in the U.S. each year (273/day) due to lack of health care.

And to restate what folks have touched on, health insurance != health care.

It's amazing it's 2012 and the U.S. is no closer to first world nation status because it rations health care on the ability to pay.

[King_Klonopin]

20. What I find truly amazing

is that Mitty thinks it perfectly acceptable for hospitals to
pay the bill for providing "free care" (there's no such thing, BTW)
for the unfortunate, uninsured person who needs help. He sees
absolutely nothing wrong in this scenario.

For him, it is a far better alternative than using tax dollars
to provide universal health care insurance for all Americans,
or driving up HIS taxes a couple hundred dollars in order to care
for those lazy, deadbeat 47% who feel "entitled" to a longer life.

Uninsured people can't afford medication for high blood pressure,
insulin for diabetes, inhalers for COPD, etc., or to pay the full cost of
medications out-of-pocket. (one of my medications would cost
$270/month out-of-pocket!) Before they seek medical treatment,
the uninsured typically wait until they become so severely sick that
they must go to the local ER, which -- unlike Mitt -- is morally and
legally obligated to treat the sick.

It doesn't take a genius to surmise that these conditions will
result in a shorter life span for those without insurance and an
untenable financial burden for those who provide "free care".
-- BUT it takes a self-centered, cold-hearted, slimy fuckhead to
deny that these conditions exist and to pretend that all is well.

It also helps reduce the surplus population.


King Klonopin RN

[davidpdx]

21. Last year I was hospitalized for 5 days

The hospital bill was over $30,000. I was fortunate the hospital foundation paid for my bills, but had it not been for that I would have debt collectors coming after me.