New Health Care Ad: If Dick Cheney Didn’t Have Government Care, ‘He’d Probably Be Dead Now’

[babylonsister]

http://thinkprogress.org/2007/12/10/cheney-health-ad/

New Health Care Ad: If Dick Cheney Didn’t Have Government Care, ‘He’d Probably Be Dead Now’


In Iowa today, 10 newspapers are running a full page ad advocating for a single-payer health-care bill, highlighting the fact Vice President Dick Cheney has benefited from his government-provided coverage. “If he were anyone else, he’d probably be dead by now,” the ad claims. Cheney, as the ad notes, has a long history of health problems:


The patient’s history and prognosis were grim: four heart attacks, quadruple bypass surgery, angioplasty, an implanted defibrillator and now an emergency procedure to treat an irregular heartbeat

The ad, which is sponsored by the California Nurses Association and the National Nurses Organizing Committee, argues that without his government-provided health care, Cheney’s recent heart problems would have been “a death sentence“:

For millions of Americans, this might be a death sentence. For the vice president, it was just another medical treatment. And it cost him very little.

Unlike the average American, the president, vice president and members of Congress all enjoy government-financed health care with few restrictions or prohibitive fees.

In response to the ad, Cheney spokesperson Megan Mitchell told the Wall Street Journal that “something this outrageous does not warrant a response.”

The factual and provocative ad isn’t outrageous. What is outrageous is the fact that there are roughly 47 million people in America without health insurance, including 3.2 million children, but President Bush vetoed legislation in October that would have extended coverage to 4 million more children.

While it is certainly good that Vice President Cheney was able get the medical attention he needed, the groups’ ad is right. “The rest of us deserve no less” than Cheney.

[benddem]

1. the same could be said

for a number of members of Congress. I wonder if Bush hadn't been receiving the care he does...if s doc would have picked up his deer tick bite?

[NC_Nurse]

2. What's "outrageous" about this ad?

Not a damn thing. It's outrageous what a condescending comment his spokesperson made.

Go f*ck yourself, Mr. Cheney...and you too, Ms. Mitchell. The rest of us aren't any less deserving of quality care paid for by our own taxes;
in fact, a case could be made that we are MORE deserving than warmongers and war profiteers like you and your boss.

[Libby2]

3. Bravo! Well said! n/t

[bunkerbuster1]

5. Cheney's spokesmodel said it didn't warrant a response. I agree.

Just STFU and deal with the blowback, you evil little turds.

[NewJeffCT]

6. BREAKING: Congress votes to condemn nurses for Cheney ad

it wouldn't surprise me.

[babylonsister]

9. Me neither. nt

[Recursion]

10. My only worry was if medical confidentiality had been breached

That is, if they were publishing any information not already public.

[NewJeffCT]

4. I would love to see stats on the amount of Americans UNDERinsured

We know 47 million Americans have no health insurance.

How many more have limited insurance? Meaning, they are underinsured - don't have enough coverage for more than the basics? Or, maybe don't have coverage for the basics, but only coverage for "catastrophic" injuries?

I'm guessing that number is at least another 47 million.

[K Gardner]

7. NNOC opposes plans of Clinton, Obama & Edwards

(as a member of the organization that sponsored this ad, I want it to be clear WHAT they are advocating is HR 676, universal single payer)

The group is calling on the presidential candidates to support a single-payer government-run health-care bill introduced in Congress by Rep. John Conyers (D., Mich.) that has 88 co-sponsors, including long-shot Democratic candidate Rep. Dennis Kucinich of Ohio.

The three Democratic front-runners have all proposed sweeping plans to cover all or nearly all uninsured. Republicans have offered more modest plans and none advocate a single-payer system. The nurses group opposes the plans of Sens. Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama and former Sen. John Edwards because they argue that each plan will “continue to rely upon the wasteful inclusion of private insurance companies.” The single-payer plan would take insurance companies out of the equation altogether.

Rose Ann DeMoro, executive director of CNA, refutes suggestions that the shock-value of the $55,000 ad could prompt more discussions on it rather than the underlying health care proposal. “The ad is about the substance of the debate. The ad says Democrats are bad, and Republicans are worse,” she said. “Dick Cheney is just the exemplar of what it means to have a double standard.”

[Nay]

8. That's not really true--he's worth millions, and could buy premium

health insurance if he didn't have a govt job. It does hack me off that he even USES his govt health care, since he thinks the rest of us shouldn't have it. Asshole.