An article on how Texas is leading in the rate of uninsured, 24.8% of the population. I will skip to the brain-destroyingly stupid solution proposed by a McCain strategist.
But the numbers are misleading, said John Goodman, president of the National Center for Policy Analysis, a right-leaning Dallas-based think tank. 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."
Okay? If everyone just agrees that there's no crisis, it's not there. So simple!
The McCain camp is expected to roll out new plans to eliminate poverty, combat wounds sustained in Iraq, and a number of other top issues soon.(Preceding sentence was a joke, just not necessarily good. I blame the painkillers.)
Manic Progressive: A liberal who violently swings from anger at politicos to despondency over them.
Out Of Context theatre: Ron Paul has repeatedly said he's not a racist. - Destructinator XIII on why Ron Paul isn't racist.
Tharkun used to make a similar argument, although not so clumsily. He used to argue that the term "Americans with no health care" was unfair for precisely that reason.
"It's not evil for God to do it. Or for someone to do it at God's command."- Jonathan Boyd on baby-killing
"you guys are fascinated with the use of those "rules of logic" to the extent that you don't really want to discussus anything."- GC
"I do not believe Russian Roulette is a stupid act" - Embracer of Darkness
"Viagra commercials appear to save lives" - tharkûn on US health care.
So... the way to solve the healthcare crisis in such a way that we don't have to resort to godless commie state run healthcare is by assuming that everyone has healthcare because if they don't have insurance they can just go to the emergency room where the government will foot the bill?
Am I understanding him correctly?
Fucking douchebag.
The Gentleman from Texas abstains. Discourteously.
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Darth Wong wrote:Tharkun used to make a similar argument, although not so clumsily. He used to argue that the term "Americans with no health care" was unfair for precisely that reason.
So start calling them "Americans with healthcare only when on death's door" and see how they like it.
Except that after the ER patches you up the hospital won't go to the government first - they will come after the patient, even going so far as to ask a judge to garnish his/her wages....
... then, when the turnip is bled dry, THEN they go for the government payments.
I've been to an ER while uninsured. They government didn't pay my bill. I paid my bill at $25 a month, until the bill was gone, which, if I recall correctly, took the better part of a year. And that was 25 years ago, when costs were not so high.
A life is like a garden. Perfect moments can be had, but not preserved, except in memory.Leonard Nimoy.
Now I did a job. I got nothing but trouble since I did it, not to mention more than a few unkind words as regard to my character so let me make this abundantly clear. I do the job. And then I get paid.- Malcolm Reynolds, Captain of Serenity, which sums up my feelings regarding the lawsuit discussed here.
If a free society cannot help the many who are poor, it cannot save the few who are rich. - John F. Kennedy
My parents didn't have insurance. My Parents both immigrant workers and my father was the one at the time that was regularly working not making much higher than minimum wage (still doesn't, actually he's making about the same, less if you take into account inflation). My mother gave birth (actually c-section) to me and he was stuck with the bill. I believe he paid 15,000 out of hand but had no idea how to come up with the rest of it until he heard about how poor families can apply to something that will take care of the bill. unfortunately it wouldn't reimburse him for the part of the bill that he already had already paid on his own.
Brotherhood of the Monkey @( !.! )@ To give anything less than your best is to sacrifice the gift. ~Steve Prefontaine Aoccdrnig to rscheearch at an Elingsh uinervtisy, it deosn't mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoetnt tihng is taht frist and lsat ltteer are in the rghit pclae. The rset can be a toatl mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit a porbelm. Tihs is bcuseae we do not raed ervey lteter by it slef but the wrod as a wlohe.
Broomstick wrote:Except that after the ER patches you up the hospital won't go to the government first - they will come after the patient, even going so far as to ask a judge to garnish his/her wages....
... then, when the turnip is bled dry, THEN they go for the government payments.
I've been to an ER while uninsured. They government didn't pay my bill. I paid my bill at $25 a month, until the bill was gone, which, if I recall correctly, took the better part of a year. And that was 25 years ago, when costs were not so high.
If a person was uninsured, would it be effective to (if possible) go to the ER without any identification?
"There is no "taboo" on using nuclear weapons." -Julhelm
What is Project Zohar? "On a serious note (well not really) I did sometimes jump in and rate nBSG episodes a '5' before the episode even aired or I saw it."- RogueIce explaining that episode ratings on SDN tv show threads are bunk
Oh, sure, they'll treat you with or without ID - but if you don't have any ID on you they'll probably get social services or the police involved. It wouldn't be impossible to conceal who you were/where you live, just more difficult than people expect, and if you were found to be deliberately concealing such information to avoid a bill, well, that's illegal and you could find yourself in legal trouble. If you give false information that is definitely fraud and definitely illegal.
A life is like a garden. Perfect moments can be had, but not preserved, except in memory.Leonard Nimoy.
Now I did a job. I got nothing but trouble since I did it, not to mention more than a few unkind words as regard to my character so let me make this abundantly clear. I do the job. And then I get paid.- Malcolm Reynolds, Captain of Serenity, which sums up my feelings regarding the lawsuit discussed here.
If a free society cannot help the many who are poor, it cannot save the few who are rich. - John F. Kennedy
Broomstick wrote:Except that after the ER patches you up the hospital won't go to the government first - they will come after the patient, even going so far as to ask a judge to garnish his/her wages....
... then, when the turnip is bled dry, THEN they go for the government payments.
I've been to an ER while uninsured. They government didn't pay my bill. I paid my bill at $25 a month, until the bill was gone, which, if I recall correctly, took the better part of a year. And that was 25 years ago, when costs were not so high.
Same here. Don't get me wrong, I was glad to find out what the hell was wrong with me, but if this moron thinks that this is a viable plan, then the NeoCon movement is even more out of touch with reality than I thought.
An image of an elephant with its head in the sand might be the best way to describe John McCain's campaign at the moment...
"Impossible! Lasers can't even harm out deflector dish! Clearly these foes are masters of illusion!' 'But sir, my console says we-' 'MASTERS OF ILLUSION! - General Schatten
McCain's campaign is now loudly crowing that this peice means NOTHING! Because they claim the writer is not an advisor.
Although the Morning News article reported Goodman as a McCain advisor, the McCain campaign says he is NOT an advisor. That's obviously a big distinction so I've corrected the item, which described Goodman as part of the campaign, as well as the update below. I apologize for the error.
Only... Well...
McCain Is the Radical on Health Reform
By JOHN C. GOODMAN
...
Mr. Goodman is president of the National Center for Policy Analysis. He is an unpaid adviser to the McCain campaign.
Funnily enough, no one demanded loudly he change that credit in the WSJ, where he openly pandered McCain.
Manic Progressive: A liberal who violently swings from anger at politicos to despondency over them.
Out Of Context theatre: Ron Paul has repeatedly said he's not a racist. - Destructinator XIII on why Ron Paul isn't racist.
