ER Doctors call McCain advisor on his "there are no uninsured people" bullsh*t.....

[marmar]

from ThinkProgress:



ER doctors say Goodman’s ‘uninsured’ claims are ‘reckless.’»

On Wednesday, John Goodman, who was an architect of Sen. John McCain’s health care plan, made the audacious claim there are no “uninsured” people in America because Americans have access to emergency rooms. The American College of Emergency Physicians has issued a statement calling Goodman’s statement “reckless“:

“We urge the McCain campaign to rethink the reckless suggestion by Mr. Goodman that the tragedy of uninsured patients can be erased by the magic of emergency departments,” said Dr. Lawrence. “Emergency physicians can and do perform miracles every day, but taking on the full-time, medical care for 46 million uninsured Americans is one miracle even we cannot perform. Access to care in the emergency department is no substitute for the comprehensive health care reform policy that should be at the heart of the platform of any presidential campaign.”

The McCain campaign has claimed that Goodman’s “philosophy on health care” is “clearly out of step with John McCain.” But as The New Republic’s Jonathan Cohn has noted, McCain’s health care plan “is perfectly consistent with Goodman’s statements, which have represented mainstream conservative thinking on health care these days.”


http://thinkprogress.org/2008/08/29/er-goodman-mccain-reckless/

[Kitty Herder]

1. K&R

[w8liftinglady]

2. Kicking...subject of the ltte I just wrote!

[thecrow]

3. So is McSame going to fire this advisor, too?

How many does that make?

[newtothegame]

4. Reccommended

[sofa king]

5. You know....

One of the very most traumatic moments of my life came when I took a bumpy cab ride to the emergency room at the behest of my urologist, who wanted me to "get checked out." In the cloud of my misery, I left my insurance card at the urologist's office.

It was an ambush. Apparently just to be on the safe side in case I was uninsured, in just a few hours I was given a double orchiopexy (and guys, you don't want to know what that is), and within minutes of revival I was rolled out the front door in a wheelchair and dumped into a friend's waiting car, with one sentence of advice: change your bandages often and don't wait to fill your prescription for pain pills.

I still have nightmares about it and my balls hurt every damned day, which is probably why I have such a sunny online disposition. They're hurting right now. But at least the insurance company didn't dispute the claim, as they did later ones.

My point is this: that's the kind of health care one can expect if the hospital suspects that you may be uninsured. It's one step above medieval barbers bleeding people. And I would gladly pay a significant proportion of my insignificant income to make sure that nobody ever has to have an experience similar to mine.