E.R. Docs: Ex-McCain Adviser Statements Are "Reckless"

[jefferson_dem]

E.R. Docs: Ex-McCain Adviser Statements Are "Reckless"

Is the emergency room an adequate substitute for health insurance, as an expert who has advised the McCain campaign recently suggested? Not according to the American College of Emergency Physicians. Here's the statement they just issued:

Washington, D.C. — The American College of Emergency Physicians (ACEP) today lambasted McCain health policy advisor John Goodman’s assertion that anyone with access to an emergency department effectively has health insurance, and called his logic flawed and his statement irresponsible toward all patients, insured and uninsured alike.

“The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s latest report showed visits to emergency departments climbed 32 percent over a ten-year period, and there is no sign that this trend is slowing,” said Dr. Linda Lawrence, president of ACEP. “Emergency departments are the nation’s health care safety net, but that net is breaking under the load, in part because so much of the care goes uncompensated. To suggest that there are no uninsured patients is to cast a blind eye toward the needs of all emergency patients, insured or not, who are waiting longer and longer for care, sometimes with deadly consequences.”

“We urge the McCain campaign to rethink the reckless suggestion by Mr. Goodman that the tragedy of uninsured patients can be erased by the magic of emergency departments,” said Dr. Lawrence. “Emergency physicians can and do perform miracles every day, but taking on the full-time, medical care for 46 million uninsured Americans is one miracle even we cannot perform. Access to care in the emergency department is no substitute for the comprehensive health care reform policy that should be at the heart of the platform of any presidential campaign.”

<SNIP>

http://blogs.tnr.com/tnr/blogs/the_plank/archive/2008/08/28/e-r-docs-mccain-campaign-is-quot-reckless-quot-and-quot-irresponsible-quot.aspx

[TwilightGardener]

1. That was just pure craziness, right there. If this isn't an ad, COMPLETE

with ER docs and nurses, the Obama campaign is guilty of criminal political ineptitude.

[blondeatlast]

4. Exactly. this is an ad, an incredible talking point for the surrogates, and I hope can be

a last-minute addition to tonight's speech (but if not, I' can understand).

and I SOOO want to hear Biden bring it up in the Veep debate; slam dunk.

[Barack_America]

2. As I said in the other thread, this idea is insane.

And I know I call a lot of things around here "insane", but this is truly INSANE.

[blondeatlast]

7. It's a shining example of how the white, privileged, detached, old boy network that is the RNC

thinks.

To you and me, it's insane. to them, it's SOP.

[blondeatlast]

3. That statement was DAMNING. How many Americans don't know someone with some chronic

need for some kind of medical care?

Everyone who knows me here at DU does--I've had insulin-dependent diabetes since age 7.

That's EXACTLY how the RW thinks; they have no idea what it means to struggle with anything. :mad:

[Danger Mouse]

5. It's not IGNORANCE, it's CALLOUSNESS.

They may have an idea, but they honestly don't give a shit.
This is EVIL we are seeing laid bare.

[Stern21]

6. K&R

Glad to see this answer.

[w8liftinglady]

8. K and R..my ER's volume has increased 4-fold.

with patients waiting days for beds.we are unable to transfer these patients because they are unfunded.Because we are the county's trauma center,we can not go on divert.These patients are coming in sicker and sicker,with multiple chronic illnesses that could have been addressed with less complications had there been universal health care.

[SuperTrouper]

9. or young people with acute illnesses like bronchitis, gastroenteritis

that have no insurance and cannot afford to miss their job and after hours they use the ER as their Primary care clinic or patients on Medicaid that cannot find a Primary care provider because nobody in private practice accepts Medicaid due to low reimbursement. The health delivery system in our country is in crisis and this moron McSame has no plans to fix it. So f-him!

[SoxFan]

10. Kick

Next time a family member has leukemia, go to the emergency room for chemo and radiation.

[PATRICK]

11. His surrogates

and advisers are so terrible that McCain has very thin ice for his stage. The rest is trash and lies from the Rove lipstick on a pick cosmetic factory.