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Correcting Only Some, Because Time and Space Do Not Permit Correcting All
In the Republican debate on Thursday one candidate, Herman Cain talked about health care and about how his successful recovery from cancer would not have been possible under the new health care reform act. Aaron Carroll of The Incidental Economist nicely takes this argument apart.
Herman Cain is trying to say that under the ACA, he would not have been able to survive his colon cancer. Under the ACA, bureaucrats have sat around and debated whether he’d get his care, and that would have resulted in delays that might have killed him.
First of all, Carroll notes that there is no such “death panel” that would decide on Mr. Cain’s treatment, he would get treatment the same he did before. Then there is this.
Mr. Cain attributes his excellent outcome to the fact that once his cancer was detected, there were no delays in getting subsequent CT scans, tests, second opinions, and therapy. . . .. If you’re uninsured, you will experience enormous delays in getting tests, second opinions, and therapy, as you figure out how to get them paid for. In many cases, you may not get them at all. In other words, if you’re uninsured, you are more likely to die.
Say what you will, but the ACA gets more people insurance. In fact, if gets more people private insurance. So the idea that this somehow will lead to less care for people diagnosed with colon cancer is exactly backwards.
Does health care reform make it better or easier to detect and cure colon cancer? Well there is this
Moreover, if you’re uninsured and can’t afford to pay for it out of pocket, your wait time for your screening colonoscopy is effectively forever. To fix this, the ACA specifically makes it easier for people to get screened. It literally says that there can no longer be any co-payments, co-insurance, or out-of-pocket payments for getting a screening colonoscopy.
So Mr. Cain and all the other Republicans who oppose health care reform and who have absolutely no plans of their own, if your arguments are so good why do you have to make stuff up?
why do you debate smoke screens ?
ReplyDeleteit is clear that the facts of obamacare are not relevant; therefore the rights opposistion is to something else; the question is, what.
I don't reallyknow; the sight of people at the florida debate cheering when M Bachmann et al said they were going to kill the epa suggests that at least the base is just crazy
my personal view is that many gop supporters bought into the right wing free market view of life, and it hasn't worked out for them, and rather then admit that they were wrong, they become more fanatical - pretty std stuff to a psychologists.
I also think that they view, correctly, the professoriat as part of the rich class; to a professor, tenure doesn't look like a job at goldman sachs, but from the floor of wal mart, they both look the same.
for instance, the obama payroll tax holiday is death to social security, but their has been a shocking, truly shameful silence from the liberal professoriat.