Republican congressmen Steve King is just the latest in a long line of stupid republicans to argue that "everyone has healthcare" because everyone can get treated at an emergency room.
Who can forget George Bush's prescription for our healthcare woes: "Just go to an emergency room."
I recently heard one republican--whose name I cannot recall--say that if you got into a bicycle accident, nobody would just leave you on the street to die.
First, one must ask the question--why can the uninsured and the poor go to the emergency room for emergency medical care? Because the federal and state governments reimburse hospitals using taxpayer money to make up for a substantial portion of those losses. In other words, emergency room care for the poor and underinsured is GOVERNMENT FUNDED HEALTHCARE--a "public option" (though highly undesirable), if you will.
So really, what are we all worried about? Everyone without healthcare can just seek treatment at the emergency room.
To all you diabetics, don't worry about not being able to afford your insulin shots or your test strips. Don't worry about getting antibiotics for that little blister on your foot. You don't need to treat your diabetes. When your kidney inevitably fails or your foot has to be amputated, you will be able to get that taken care of in the emergency room.
To everyone worried about that little discolored mole on their arm, don't worry about it. When it grows and turns into stage IV melanoma, you can go to the emergency room and spend your last few days in the ICU, drugged up for your pain. Of course, at least 80% of you might have been completely cured had you just had that little mole removed as soon as you noticed it...but they don't do that in the emergency room.
To all those worried about having a heart attack, don't worry! You may not be able to afford your statins each month, but when you do have that heart attack, the ambulance will take you to the emergency room to die (and send the massive bill to your family, but you'll be dead, so what do you care?)
To parents of kids with asthma, if you drive really fast and run red lights when your kid has that middle of the night asthma attack, you just might get to the emergency room in time. It's going to be a pain to have to do that several times a week because you can't afford inhalers, but don't deny that your kid will get treated at the emergency room.
Got someone in your family who is clearly depressed? Won't get out of bed, loss of appetite, no interest in anything, cries a lot? Don't worry about it one bit. When they attempt suicide, you can take them to the emergency room.
Are you worried that your teenager might be developing schizophrenia? Does he seem paranoid? Is he on the verge of dropping out of college? Rest assured, after he runs away and winds up homeless on the streets with untreated schizophrenia, if he hurts himself or someone takes advantage of his vulnerability and hurts him, he can get treated at the emergency room.
Do you have hereditary hemachromatosis--excess iron in the blood? Well, it's okay if you can't afford to have it monitored and treated. When your liver fails, you can go to the emergency room.
As for those of you with Crohn's disease, well, not to worry. When you suffer a life-threatening intestinal blockage from untreated Crohn's the hospital will remove the necrotic intestine for you and give you antiobitics to try to help with the sepsis.
Republicans claim to be the party of economic common sense. Where is the economic common sense in suggesting that we don't need to make sure people have healthcare coverage to treat chronic conditions before they become emergencies?
Where is the economic common sense in suggesting that people use expensive emergency room services for easily treatable problems?
If the government is going to provide healthcare by covering the costs of the uninsured at the emergency room, why not instead use that money to fund a public healthcare option, where the costs of treating chronic conditions will be signficantly less than the costs to treat the emergency consequences that evolve from untreated chronic conditions?
The argument that "Healthcare in this country is good enough so we don't need to do anything," is ludicrous. And stupid. It is nothing but a front for their real objections to a public healthcare option:
1. People might like it and vote for democrats.
Response: If I had this concern as a republican, then I would take a leadership role on this bill and help push it forward so that my party could take some of the credit for an accomplishment that everyone will like. If there is truly a bipartisan effort on healthcare reform, then those with more conservative social positions will be MORE likely to vote for republicans--not less likely.
2. It costs too much.
Response: Answered above. Not doing it costs more in the long run; and that doesn't even include lost productivity and the costs to businesses when valued employees die or cannot work to capacity because of untreated chronic conditions in their families.
3. The Healthcare companies give us money and they don't like this bill.
Response: It is time for healthcare insurance to go the way of the DoDo bird. For-profit insurance will never do anything other than drive up medical costs--not only for individuals but for businesses. Every year, businesses must pay more for healthcare. Every year, businesses lose valuable employees to untimely deaths. Every year, businesses are forced to raise salaries to compete for the best employees. Every year, businesses expend significant resources and lose hours of work on trying to find more cost-effective insurance plans, handling employee applications, etc. Do businesses really want to be in this position? I wonder.
4. It's socialist!
Actually, it would boost capitalism. How much more affordable would our goods and services be if businesses did not have to factor in healthcare costs? Yes, our taxes would have to increase to afford a single-payer system--and possibly to afford a public option--but profits would result when people who are getting their conditions treated and paying less for a product that doesn't include a markup for the employer's healthcare costs--can then buy MORE goods and services.
People have finite incomes. When the employer raises your insurance $70/month (or more) and your copayments go up by $10, that's money that can't be used to support our capitalist economy--except for the healthcare companies.
Wake up employers! Healthcare companies are your enemy as much as they are ours!
Comments like Steve King's tell us one of two things--they are either so stupid they know nothing about illness or they are so heartless they don't care.