GOP Says Ill People Who Are Poor Should Just Die Already

Jimmy Kimmel tearfully explained his newborn son's
health crisis the other night on his show and pleaded
with lawmakers not to literally kill poorer children
in the same situation through their Obamacare
repeal efforts

I was among the many this week who was struck by the contrast between late night television host Jimmy Kimmel's heartfelt on-air description of his newborn son's health crisis and some members of the GOP, who apparently would like ill children like Kimmel's to just get out of the way and die already.

Kimmel's son Billy was born last week and it quickly became apparent he had a heart defect and needed immediate surgery.

Terrifying for any parent, for sure.

A tearful Kimmel said Billy pulled through, but waiting out the surgery was the longest three hours of his life

Kimmel's rich and has got resources and insurance to cover things like this. But, like most people, he thought about others who aren't so monied and what they'd do without health insurance.

"We were brought up to believe that we live in the greatest country in the world, but until a few years ago millions and millions of us had no access to health insurance at all, Kimmel said. 

"You know, before 2014, if you were born with congenital heart disease like my son was, there was a good chance you'd never be able to get health insurance because you had a pre-existing condition. You were born with a pre-existing condition and if your parents didn't have medical insurance you might not live long enough to even get denied because of a pre-existing condition. 

If your baby is going to die and doesn't have to, it shouldn't matter who much money you make."

Kimmel added: "Whatever your party, whatever you believe, whoever you support, we need to make sure that the people who are supposed to represent us, people who are meeting about this right now in Washington, understand that very clearly."

Of course, those GOP members that what to repeal Obamacare don't really represent their constituents. There's no money in that. They represent the insurance companies and such that keep the money flowing to these Congress creatures.

Just contrast what Kimmel said with what Rep. Mo Brooks of Alabama said about health care, as just about every media outlet did on Tuesday.

Basically, many GOP Congress creatures want to let insurance companies charge anything they want to people with pre-existing conditions. In other words, people with such conditions who are not zillionaires will not be able to afford insurance.

You'll never catch any of these GOP members saying this out loud, but what they're telling us is people with pre-existing conditions just aren't profitable, so they need to die and get out of the way

Brooks came close to saying this when he told CNN's Jake Tapper:

"My understanding is that it will allow companies to require people who have higher health care costs to contribute more to the insurance pool.....thereby reducing the cost to these people who lead good lives. "

Brooks said people with pre-existing conditions just aren't being fair to people who are healthy: "They're healthy, they have done the things to keep their bodies healthy and right now those are the people who have done things the right way and are seeing costs skyrocket."

I guess Kimmel's son Billy didn't do things the right way. However, my guess is little Billy Kimmel didn't acquire his heart condition by chain smoking and constantly munching on Cheetos during the nine months or so he spent in his mother's womb.

Brooks did concede that some people have health conditions through no fault of their own, but didn't explain what we should do to help these people afford health insurance. Even if it's not their fault, ill people should just go away, apparently.

I get it that government programs can't and shouldn't do everything for everybody. However, health care, as most industrialized nations already know, should not be fully a matter of free markets.

If you're poor, it's OK to not be able to afford a unnecessary item like, say, an Alfa Romero. But literally causing the deaths of people who can't afford health care, like what some in the GOP want to do, is just pathological.

But I guess the zillionaires have to watch out for one another. Or something.

Conservative pundits piled on, too. Media Matters cited several, including Charles Hunt in the Washington Times, who said Kimmel gave a "slobbering wet kiss to federal bureacracy."  and called him a "dirty self-absorbed narcissistic exhibitionist."

The real problem here, being, that Kimmel called attention to the issue and we are supposed to shut up about it so as not to raise public anger at the GOP's efforts to kill poor people.

Media Matters also noted that Cheryl Chumley said Kimmel continued the left's "uncomfortable habit of slinging around tears to get what it wants."

She missed the point entirely when she said hospitals don't kick people out who need treatment. True, but without health insurance, people do not get the help they need, don't see doctors when they must, don't get life saving medication, and thus die, or at least go bankrupt

And the GOP is forging ahead. House Republicans say they have enough votes to do their Obamacare repeal and will take a vote today. These are terrible people.

There Might Be Firings But I Bet VA Hospital Staffers Won't Be Charged With What Seems Like Murder

CNN and other media outlets have been investigating delays in Veterans Administration appointments and hospitalizations for veterans that have led to needless deaths.

Did the VA hospital in Phoenix delay or deny
care to veterans?  

Their report this week on a Phoenix, Arizona really takes the cake. Lots of politicians say veterans deserve all the help they can get, they served our country and they deserve the utmost respect.

But when it comes to shelling out money to offer that respect and service to veterans, it all goes out the window.

In Phoenix, according to CNN reporters Scott Bronstein and Drew Griffin, along with Anderson Cooper, the VA hospital had two lists: An official one that falsely reported to Washington DC headquarters that veterans were being treated, and a second secret list that was the truth.

The truth being they were making veterans wait weeks and months to get an appointments to see doctors. Sometimes for really scary medical problems. It's estimated 40 veterans died because the Phoenix VA hospital basically blew them off.

It's kind of murky why, but I suspect lack of resources and money going to the hospital from the federal government played a part.

They're doing this to veterans, people!

According to CNN, Sam Foote, a doctor who recently retired from the hospital described the scheme:

"The VA requires its hospitals to provide care to patients i a timely manner, typically with 14 to 30 days, Foote said

According to Foote, the elaborate scheme in Phoenix involved shredding evidence to hide the long list of veterans waiting for appointments and care. Officials at the VA, Foote says, instructed their staff to not actually make doctor's appointments for veterans within the computer system. 

Instead, Foote says, when a veteran comes in seeking an appointment, 'they enter information into the computer and do a screen capture hard copy printout. They then do not save what was put into the computer so there's no record that you were ever here,' he said.

Now that this situation has been made public, there are the usual calls for investigations and hearings. The inspector general is involved, officials at the Phoenix VA hospital are frantically giving out non-information in Corporate Speak and lawmakers are calling for heads to roll.

That's all very good, these investigations.

But it makes you wonder how the people who are supposed to be taking care of veterans everywhere else are actually doing so.  There have already been many, many reports of severe delays in getting health care to veterans. 

Of all the people we owe top notch care, to, it's veterans.  But since a lot of veterans don't have millions of dollars available to lobby politicians, I guess they're not that important.

If that's true, I'm sad.  Get rich and you get what you want. Make big sacrifices for your country and get thrown away?  That's not the country I want to see.

Health Care Costs: Bill For Clipping One Toenail: $1,206

Ezra Klein had an illuminating, scary piece on the Washington Post's Wonkblog recently.

There's been much discussion about how health care costs are so high because basically insurers, health providers and others can charge what they want.

A reader noted the clipping of one toenail in a hospital setting cost $1,206, according to Klein.

The reader who sent Klein the information on the toenail clipping said it was just the kind of thing you'd do in your bathroom for free. True, in this case, they had to do tests to make sure the toenail wasn't infected. There was no infection.

The price tag for this simple procedure included $248 for the office visit, $182 for a biopsy and $328 for the treatment room.

The person involved called various billing offices, where workers said the prices were outrageous, but "nothing could be done."

End of story.  Left unexplained by the billing people, apparently, is why "nothing could be done."

I smell a rat.

In an earlier column, Klein wrote:

"Providers largely charge what they can get away with, often offering different prices to different insurers, and an even higher price to the uninsured.

Health care is an unusual product in that it is difficult, and sometimes impossible, for the customer to say 'no.' In certain cases, the customer is passed out, or otherwise incapable of making decisions about her care, and the decisions are made by providers whose mandate is, correctly, to save lives rather than money."

In other countries, health care is less expensive than in the United States because other countries negotiate aggressively with providers and thus, prices are lower. Klein said in the U.S., it's a free for all

If all this is true, why do we let providers get away with it? I understand the unwillingness to futz around with the marketplace. But what if the marketplace is all messed up?

And the deeper questions are: If someone is screwing the hell out of us and playing with our health care, who is it and what can we do about it? I hope the journalists keep digging.