Bullypulpit
Senior Member
Last week Chimpy McPresident threatened to veto an expansion of of the Children's Health Insurance Program. The funds for the increased coverage to come from an additional 61 cent per pack tax on cigarettes. He instead chose to make this bizarre assertion..."People have access to healthcare in America...After all, you just go to an emergency room." This from a man who has never had to worry about where his next meal is coming from, let alone how he's going to pay his medical expenses. He's even more disconnected from the real world than Poppy was in displaying his ignorance of grocery price scanners.
Let me educate you a little on this patently ridiculous notion. The ER of ANY hospital is the provider of last resort for those who have no medical insurance. Those for whom this is the only health-care option are, all too often, coming to the ER because the disease process they are suffering from can no longer be tolerated. They are so sick they have to go. The alternative is further pain and suffering and frequently death.
The costs of an emergency room visit are far greater than those associated with routine office visits and preventive care. Since the hospitals can seldom recoup the expenses involved in providing this last resort care, the costs are passed on to consumers who can...i.e. those of us fortunate enough to still have health coverage. As a result, our insurance carriers raise their premiums to us forcing more of us to choose between food and medicine...or even out of health insurance coverage altogether.
So you see, we're paying the costs of the uninsured through higher premiums to our health insurance providers anyways. Why not pay the lesser costs of routine office visits and preventive health through a single payer system than the current, crumbling system we now have?
Let me educate you a little on this patently ridiculous notion. The ER of ANY hospital is the provider of last resort for those who have no medical insurance. Those for whom this is the only health-care option are, all too often, coming to the ER because the disease process they are suffering from can no longer be tolerated. They are so sick they have to go. The alternative is further pain and suffering and frequently death.
The costs of an emergency room visit are far greater than those associated with routine office visits and preventive care. Since the hospitals can seldom recoup the expenses involved in providing this last resort care, the costs are passed on to consumers who can...i.e. those of us fortunate enough to still have health coverage. As a result, our insurance carriers raise their premiums to us forcing more of us to choose between food and medicine...or even out of health insurance coverage altogether.
So you see, we're paying the costs of the uninsured through higher premiums to our health insurance providers anyways. Why not pay the lesser costs of routine office visits and preventive health through a single payer system than the current, crumbling system we now have?
