This Is Just Mind-Boggling
The latest from Rep. Virginia Foxx (R-NC) — she of “Matthew Shepard was not killed for being gay” fame (emphasis in original):
Explore posts in the same categories: Health Care, Politics, Republican PartyEarlier today, several female Republican House members held a press conference today to attack President Obama’s push for health insurance reform. “The Democrat way is not reforming healthcare, it’s destroying it,” announced Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN).Perhaps the most attention-grabbing moment occurred when Rep. Virginia Foxx (R-NC) announced that “there are no Americans who don’t have healthcare“:
Rep. Virginia Foxx (R-N.C.) disputes President Obama’s claim that 47 million Americans lack healthcare. “There are no Americans who don’t have healthcare. Everybody in this country has access to healthcare,” she says. “We do have about 7.5 million Americans who want to purchase health insurance who can not afford it,” she says, urging Congress to adopt a new plan for healthcare reform that wouldn’t “destroy what is good about healthcare in this country” and “give the government control of our lives.”
July 25, 2009 at 11:26 pm
Just to clarify, she is drawing a distinction between people without healthcare versus people without healthcare insurance. She is making the point, technically valid, that anyone can get emergency care from a hospital, even without insurance.
I think that hideously distorts the debate, but like many distortions, there is at least a relevant fact underneath it.
http://thecentersquare.wordpress.com/
July 26, 2009 at 2:58 pm
She is making the point, technically valid, that anyone can get emergency care from a hospital, even without insurance.
I understood that — it’s the same thing former Pres. Bush said in one of his press conferences. It was callous and stupid then, and it still is now.
Aside from the larger reason why her remark is so stupid (that relying on emergency rooms for medical care jacks up health care costs and risks people’s health and even their lives), she ignores the fact that emergency room care is not free to the person who uses it. Federal law prevents hospitals from turning anyone away or refusing the medical care, but you still get hit with the bill — and it’s usually huge. The same medical care that costs a few hundred dollars in a doctor’s office costs thousands of dollars when you get it in an emergency room.
July 26, 2009 at 9:55 pm
I am with you 100% on the substance. I just don’t find it mind boggling that a politician would you razor thin rhetoric to pander to her or his base.
http://thecentersquare.wordpress.com/
July 26, 2009 at 9:55 pm
use^