Romney: No One in America Dies Because He is Uninsured (sic!)

Every time I think about the GOP position on healthcare I go immediately to the bottom line — the gutter.  Is that what you do for those who run out  their voucher allocation?  Now it turns out the Romney has the same socialized approach as W Bush — go to the emergency care!

I’ve been in public hospital emergency care and whatever the law is, or the good doctors’ intent to provide adequate care, It Cannot Happen!  In my case I arrived at 2 a.m. to SF General after an altercation with a thief in the back seat of my cab.  My right hand seemed broken.  Basically, “take a number.”  I think someone brought ice.  At 7 am I went home.  I slept.  I came back at 1 pm.  Surprise!  My number was called in 20 minutes.  The hand was broken.  I got a cast.  Went off, and drove my shift that night.

This is a far far cry from the treatment I  received from the socialized Kaiser Permanente system for a recent total hip replacement: computerized records; each specialist can see what the others have seen, and judged; months of blood draws recorded; appointments made for me, and followed up.  Emergency?  [I had one!] That staff is there for actua,. unpredictable emergencies, not those which are the predictable end of no appointments, no care and ultimately a sense that no one does care.

For Romney, however, apparently Emergency Rooms — which he must oppose on principle, as catering to the “takers” not the “makers,” are a synonym for Health Care:

Last week, speaking to The Columbus Dispatch, Mr. Romney declared that nobody in America dies because he or she is uninsured: “We don’t have people that become ill, who die in their apartment because they don’t have insurance.” This followed on an earlier remark by Mr. Romney — echoing an infamous statement by none other than George W. Bush — in which he insisted that emergency rooms provide essential health care to the uninsured.

These are remarkable statements. They clearly demonstrate that Mr. Romney has no idea what life (and death) are like for those less fortunate than himself.

Even the idea that everyone gets urgent care when needed from emergency rooms is false. Yes, hospitals are required by law to treat people in dire need, whether or not they can pay. But that care isn’t free — on the contrary, if you go to an emergency room you will be billed,

Krugman goes on: there’s no real question that lack of insurance is responsible for thousands, and probably tens of thousands, of excess deaths of Americans each year. But that’s not a fact Mr. Romney wants to admit, because he and his running mate want to repeal Obamacare and slash funding for Medicaid — actions that would take insurance away from some 45 million nonelderly Americans, causing thousands of people to suffer premature death. And their longer-term plans to convert Medicare into Vouchercare would deprive many seniors of adequate coverage, too, leading to still more unnecessary mortality.

Krugman

Or perhaps, to be perfectly cynical, cutting the non-wealthy from healthcare, and letting them die in the gutters is in fact the plan.  47% of takers and moochers must be a tremendous drag on the wealth that could be generated without them

Related: Nick Kristoff: A Possibly Fatal Mistake

Update:  From a physician about how Romney’s emergency room back up is far far from healtcare…