Top McCain Advisor: There are no uninsured Americans
Would someone wake me when it's over?
You can't make this stuff up.
John Goodman, the architect of McMoron's healthcare "plan" had this to say today regarding the news that Texas leads the nation in the number of uninsured.
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."
I (that's me, nyceve) have nothing to add except. . .
God help us.
- nyceve's blog
- Login or register to post comments
Activist Diaries
Emergency Room
RECOVERY ROOM
THERE IS A CURE FOR AMERICA
American Health Securities Act of 2011
Blog With Us!
Help make noise for Single Payer Guaranteed Healthcare for everyone in America...not just those who can afford it!
Waiting Room
- To the Editor of the New York Times
- EMPLOYER-SPONSORED HEALTH INSURANGE: TIME TO PRONOUNCE IT DEAD
- LIVE OR DIE: DO WE CARE ANYMORE?
- HEALTH CARE: A CASUALTY OF CLASS WARFARE
- ‘MORAL HAZARD’ IN HEALTH CARE: DUPLICITY ON STEROIDS
- REBUILDING PRIMARY CARE: A MULTIFACETED CHALLENGE
- UPSIDE DOWN HEALTH CARE: WHY IT MATTERS
- Rebutting Right-Wing Market Propaganda
- The Decline Of Primary Care: The Silent Crisis Undermining U.S. Health Care
- Petition Launched in Advance of Nurses’ Rally and Lobby Day
Contact CNA/NNOC
California Nurses Association
National Nurses Organizing Committee
California Office:
2000 Franklin St.
Oakland, CA 94612
Tel: 510-273-2200
National Office:
8630 Fenton Street, Suite 1100
Silver Spring, MD 20910
T. 240-235-2000
F. 240-235-2019
First we'd better vote
I'm all for prayer, Sister Eve, when it somes to this group of wannabe leaders, but first we'd better get folks out to vote and in large numbers.
There are only a few weeks left to make this change from the people who are without concern for our nation and its citizens over our health insurance corporations.
I heard a DNC attendee say he has single prayer healthcare right now when he needs single payer. Amen.
talk about out of touch
And this is a healthcare policy expert?
It's true that if you show up at a hospital emergency room in extremis you will get the essential treatment you need to save your life.
But once you are stabalized enough to discharge, the hospital will come after any and all assets you might have. ANd ER rates are so high that even a relatively minor ailment could bankrupt many people.
And the emergency treatment will not include the follow-up care you need to stay healthy or the meds you need to control your condition and keep you from coming back. Not to mention that in many cases the reason one went to the ER could have been prevented with a small investment in primary care, and the fact that ERs are the most expensive way to deliver care.
Another slip-o--the-tongue . . .
Another Phil Gramm moment.
Like I said, God help us.
Goodman is not a McCain healthcare advisor TNR reporting
The New Republic is reporting that Goodman isn't a McCain health care advisor.
But the smear worked. Who cares if it isn't the truth.
Is John Goodman a McCain Advisor?
He sure seems to be associated with the campaign, and he certainly is responsible for the recent Wall Street Journal opinion piece defending McCain's plan.
If that's not his area of expertise, perhaps the NcCain camp should tell him that he does not represent them as that is the appearance he's giving. As for the notion that it's some kind of "smear," his comments on eliminating the problem of the uninsured by declaring them insured because they can still access emergency room care was an amazing mix of the ignorant and the odious. If that's not what he said, I'm open to an explanation of what was intended but it sure seemed clear to me.
http://www.john-goodman-blog.com/specifics-on-mccain-health-care-reform-...
My name is not John, but it is Goodman.
I read this quote about John Goodman, and thought, "Are they quoting me?" I have thought and said the same thing. Health insurance for everyone does exist through ERs throughout the country. If we go to the single payer system many suggest on this site then we will have much longer waits at ERs than we do now because we will have far fewer physicians than we do now. Take the incentives out of our private practice and medicine by taxing everyone that makes more than $250,000 per year like Obama would like and then make doctors work for a single payer and we will have much fewer doctors. There already is a major trend toward cutting hours of work for doctors, and you take out the upside of pay and all the good intent of wanting to help others will not be enough.
funny thing about your ideas
Let's start with the fact that the ER can't provide any of the things that are the best investments in medicine - prevention and early detection. You aren't going to get a pap smear in an ER, or get your blood pressure controlled. Or your cholesterol. Or get your diabetes managed. Or your prostate checked. Or get breast cancer screening. What you get in the ER is essential care to stabalize your immediate condition. If you think that's healthcare, you need to learn to think a little better.
I will also point out that most of the single payer countries have more docs per capita than we do. (Example: France has about 3.3 physicians per 1000 population, while the US has about 2.8 And France is much more heavily weighted to family/general practice, so you can see a doctor much more easily) The limiting factor on the number of doctors is not the number of qualified people who want to do it, it's the number of places available in medical schools and the number of people who can afford it or are willing to take on the massive debt to borrow for it. Most of the single payer countries provide free or much cheeper medical education for those who qualify. Part of that idea of investing in the care of your citizens rather than trying to dominate the world.
I don't think that calling
I don't think that calling John McCain "McMoron" contributes anything to the discussion. Let's keep the dialogue on the issues and avoid personal attacks. It doesn't reflect well on the nursing profession.
He claimed to be one.
The Dallas Morning News describes him as such and the Wall Street journal Op Ed he recently published describes him as such. It seems like the McCain camp is now embarassed by him and trying to dissociate themeselves from him - much like they did after Phil Gramm, McCain's number one econ advisor, called the US "a nation of whiners" and said we were only in a "psychological recession".
McCain surrounds himself with these whack jobs and then gets embarassed when they say what they really think.
Hear no evil, see no evil?
When it comes to health care, we can't afford a deaf, blind president. I see hurting bodies and broken lives every day; victims of our lack of a sound public health care policy. McCain's insulation and isolation from the real world is beyond ludicrous. With speak-evils like Gramm and Goodman at his side, McCain would zip up the shroud around what's left of MediCare.
We need to expand MediCare, and provide healthcare security for all, by passing HR 676. Obama is on record as saying he will sign this vitally important legislation if "we the people" can get it to his desk. I say, YES WE CAN!
"We commit ourselves to any wrong or degradation or injury when we do not protest against it." Lillian Wald,(1867-1940), American Social Reformer/Founder Public Health Nursing
ER's are not places for best practices
I always get a little tired in the health care debate when my profession gets ignored by so called experts on this list who think that ER's exist for the un-insured and seem overly concerned that doctors don't make enough money and will leave their practices under single-payer. No ER's , a third of which in California are gone now thanks to the competitive world of for profit medicine, are an overly expensive way for patients to get primary care when they are sick. Use of the ER is not cost effective. In addition, I get so disgusted at the obsession of the same said experts who don't understand that the most cost effective way of delivering high quality care especially primary care are nurse practitioners who time and time again have more than proven our worth, our dedication, our expertise and our demand by patients who view their care as good if not better. That is not to say I don't honor the service of my physician colleagues who I have had a profound respect for over the last 14 years of practice especially those I work with in public health. But by not acknowledging the diversity of the nursing profession including the seminal contributions of NP's, public health nurses, clinical nurse specialists, school nurses and lastly, nurse educators in addition to the training and expertise of bedside RN's, I doubt the expertise of those who disdain a single-payer system.
The ER at SFGH (San Francisco General)is flooded with patients who truly need ER services when they have auto accidents, are hurt in dangerous jobs like police and fire or need immediate attention because we are the closest and not on divert. But it is also overly crowded with urgent not emergency care patients , who because they don't have a primary care clinician because they don't qualify for insurance or are under-insured wind up with us because their is simply no place to go. What did our public health system do about back-ups in the ER??
To the experts on this list some education. The city of San Francisco opened "fast track" urgent care with NP's , nurses and PA's who diagnose, treat and schedule follow-up with our clinics in the community. That's innovation and would only be improved it we moved to a fast track on SB 840 and HR 676 so the the burden of public health would be shared by all. Under A SINGLE-PAYER SYSTEM NO ONE WOULD HAVE to wait to go through eligibility in public health. That would be real fast-track. I would also add with have reduced our wait time in half and patients still get good care. Weekends are busier but we are now seeing a lot more un-insured adults who have lost their insurance because they can't pay their bills.
It is best practices to be innovative not continue to think ER's are the best place for the un-insured. They simply are not. We need primary, preventative health care in which every human being is covered by one system Ted Kennedy had it right. Health should be a right, not a privalege that only some can afford. Yes we can indeed.
Nancy Lewis, FNP
AMEN
to that Nancy!