Republicans Tell 30 Million Without Health Insurance: We Don’t Care
Here is more reason to believe that health care will never be reformed under a Republican administration. Never.
Mitch McConnell, when asked how his party would deal with the 30 million Americans without health insurance that the Affordable Care Act addresses, had this to say:
That is not the issue. The question is how to go step by step to improve the American health care system. It is already the finest health care system in the world.
Short answer: we don’t give a damn. Almost 50 million Americans have no health insurance. Of that number, 25 million Americans have pre-existing conditions which gives them little or no chance of ever getting coverage. The Affordable Care Act, even in its imperfect state, gives 30 million additional Americans access to affordable health insurance and makes it illegal for insurers to ever deny anyone coverage on the basis of pre-existing conditions. McConnell’s response to all of that? “That is not the issue.”
What more does anyone need to know to realize that the Republican Party is a decrepit, power hungry political entity that does not give a damn for the average American? If 30 million people without health insurance is not an issue, then what the hell is? If issues which affect the very life or death of Americans are not a priority for a political party who claims to represent them, then I cannot understand how anything else they say should carry any meaning. They honestly and truly do not give a damn for you.
As for the “finest health care system in the world” line…bullshit. It’s not even close unless one happens to be part of the affluent minority of Americans who have the privilege and means to bypass the money-grabbing whims of health insurers. America’s doctors and hospitals are without a doubt first rate but access to those fine doctors and hospitals is at best third rate. Just ask the tens of million of Americans with pre-existing conditions who have been denied health insurance or the million of others with inadequate insurance…
…or just ask one of our readers who learned first hand how wonderful the “finest health care system in the world” really is.
In 1997, I started having episodes during which I was ambulatory but unaware of my surroundings. On at least one occasion, I managed to drive home without even being aware that I was on the road. On another, I left my apartment to get some soda and snacks. I returned four hours later with the stuff and a receipt to show that I’d paid for it, but I had no memory of being in the store or where I was for the rest of the time I was gone.
A couple of years later, a friend whose husband has been under treatment for seizures since he was a boy suggested that what was happening might be some form of epilepsy. I mentioned this to my doctor, and he put in a request to have me tested with an EEG. The HMO turned down the request, saying that there was not sufficient evidence to justify the cost of the procedure.
In December of 1999, a few months after the test had been denied, I had another episode while driving to work. I hit and killed a pedestrian, but had no memory of the event. I was arrested, spent four days in jail, and eventually was charged with vehicular homicide. I also lost my job and my apartment. Eventually, I did have a tonic-clonic (formerly known as grand mal) seizure in a public place. An ambulance was called and I was provisionally diagnosed as epileptic. Now the HMO honored my doctor’s requests for EEG and MRI test and I was, three months after the accident, finally positively diagnosed as epileptic.
I can’t help but wonder whether a government bureaucrat, one of those guys who, according to the wingnuts, is supposed to come between me and my doctor, would have approved the original request. Such a person would not have had the bottom line as a first priority. Instead, some corporate bean counter, whose number one concern was boosting his CEO’s bonus and getting the shareholder another ¼¢ per share on the quarterly dividend did come between me and my doctor. How I would have loved to drag that idiot to one of my court hearings and have him explain how, in the name of saving some red ink, he denied a test that would have saved another life and prevented mine from ending up in the toilet.
…
I am a living example of private sector bureaucrats interfering with a patient’s medical care to disastrous effect.
The American health care system is a disgrace and an embarrassment and the Republican Party will keep it so for as long as they believe that 50 million Americans with no health insurance is not an issue…and as long as the health industry keeps on raking in the money regardless of who dies in the process.
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