08.29.08
Not healthcare, but healthcareless
Read this Ezra Klein post, which begins:
The recession is a mental disorder, according to John McCain’s economic adviser Phil Gramm, and the ranks of the uninsured are a category error:
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.”
Yep, problem solved. If you can’t afford a doctor, but the census bureau stops describing you as uninsured, voila! Your problem is solved! And if you’re getting your wages garnished because you fell ill and had to be rushed to the emergency room but the census bureau puts you in a different category, voila! You problem is solved! And if you have cancer, and you go to the ER, and they refer you to a hospital for scheduled treatment, and the hospital turns you away because you don’t have insurance, I bet they can call John Goodman and, voila! Problem will be solved.
This is what we call a Kinsleyan gaffe: A mistake that reveals the truth. John McCain’s health care plan is, by the admission of his own advisers, not particularly interested in the problem of the uninsured. It doesn’t try and cover them or address their plight, and for a very simple reason: Conservatives in general are not interested in the problem of the uninsured. And why should they be? …
