McCain health care advisor claims that no one is uninsured.

Texas still leads nation in rate of uninsured residents

Link

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."

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I certainly hope the man was joking. How can you possibly say something so completely absurd? Amazing.

[edit on 28-8-2008 by round_eyed_dog]

Its not absurd. What he said is fact. Everyone in the United States has access to emergency medical care, regardless of their ability to pay. This was established by EMTALA in 1986.

Yes, so the poorest people have access to the most expensive and crude medical treatment. Sounds like problem solved to me...

reply to post by somedood


I never said that it was an ideal solution, but merely that what Goodman has stated is factually correct. Technically, participating hospitals (which is almost all of them) cannot turn away a seriously ill or injured patient, no matter of their ability to pay.

Originally posted by vor78
Its not absurd. What he said is fact. Everyone in the United States has access to emergency medical care, regardless of their ability to pay. This was established by EMTALA in 1986.

that does not constitute help paying for it

"Help paying for it" is what insurance is

Then why was my husband turned away when he need an operation to prevent kidney failure?

Why did we sit for a day in an emergency room with my husband concussed and bleeding and get turned away (oh and get a bill for $750 for the 2 seconds the doctor took to say go away without any treatment)?

Just because they have access to emergency room care doesn't mean they are insured, which is what Goodman said. What he said is NOT at all factually correct.

Being insured means you have insurance.

Originally posted by vor78
reply to post by somedood

 

I never said that it was an ideal solution, but merely that what Goodman has stated is factually correct. Technically, participating hospitals (which is almost all of them) cannot turn away a seriously ill or injured patient, no matter of their ability to pay.

That's quite a different thing than saying they have health insurance. I'm fairly certain that you can't go to a pharmacy and demand free medicine.

Not being turned away from the ER due to a serious illness or life threatening injury is NOT the same as being insured. There is no truth in the statement made by Goodman. Can I go to the ER and get new glasses? Can I goto the ER to have a wisdom tooth pulled? Being able to go to the damn ER is NOT being insured. Not even close...

While the facts in his statements are true, the problem is not solved. The facts are actually responsible for an even larger problem. As these emergency rooms are used for non emergency visits, they fill up quickly leading to extremely long waits. In a personal experience I waited six and a half hours to have my son's arm x-rayed after a pretty serious fall.

This also leads to large numbers of contagious people sitting in a crowded room with others that are not. The waiting room becomes a petri dish for everything from the common cold to heptitis, exposing not only other patients, but those family members there with them.

If the hospitals use their power to deny medical service to non-emergency patients, as they should, then where do these people go to find out why their fever won't go away or why their children feel so bad? They will go nowhere, because without insurance or an insane amount of money put aside, there is no way to afford the minimal medical care needed for a family. Instead they will go without seeing a doctor, leading to even more unnoticed waves of illnesses left unchecked.

reply to post by somedood


It appears to me that he is only tying his statement to emergency services. In that particular case, even if you can't pay, you still cannot legally be denied access. IMO, it is a form of insurance if you are still supposed to have access to emergency treatment even if you can't pay.

If he intended to apply it to ALL medical needs, he'd be wrong, but I don't think that was the intent. I think people may be reading more into it than is there.

reply to post by vor78



Goodman isn't a McCain health care advisor. It was bad reporting. Even TNR a liberal website is reporting Goodman isn't a health care advisor for McCain. McCain hurt again by false reporting.

reply to post by vor78


ER care is NOT health insurance. ER visits are billed with outrageously high rates, and the debt is 100% the responsibility of the patient. With insurance you can visit a less outrageously priced general practitioner and insurance pays part of the cost and part of the cost of pharmaceuticals. There is no fuzzy grey line here. ER is not insurance.

Originally posted by Anonymous ATS
reply to post by vor78

 

Goodman isn't a McCain health care advisor. It was bad reporting. Even TNR a liberal website is reporting Goodman isn't a health care advisor for McCain. McCain hurt again by false reporting.

No one (should be) is saying that Goodman is a McCain health care advisor. The story says he helped draft McCain's health care policy.

...who helped craft Sen. John McCain's health care policy

If you feel that's incorrect, do you have a source to back it up?