McCain Campaign Emergency Room

John Goodman has a proposal to end the problem of uninsured people in the USA

Mr. Goodman, who helped craft Sen. John McCain’s health care policy, said anyone with access to an emergency room effectively has insurance, albeit the government acts as the payer of last resort. (Hospital emergency rooms by law cannot turn away a patient in need of immediate care.)

“So I have a solution. And it will cost not one thin dime,” Mr. Goodman said. “The next president of the United States should sign an executive order requiring the Census Bureau to cease and desist from describing any American – even illegal aliens – as uninsured. Instead, the bureau should categorize people according to the likely source of payment should they need care. “So, there you have it. Voila! Problem solved.”

The McCain campaign denied that Goodman was a McCain adviser unpaid or otherwise. When asked by TNR's Jonathan Cohn why he was identified as a McCain adviser in the byline to a Wall Street Journal op ed (an official source on whose who among Republicans and conservatives) the campaign argued, in substance that

Earlier this summer the campaign informed Mr. Goodman that his advice was not required and requested that he not identify himself as being associated with the campaign in any way, including as a volunteer.

This makes me wonder exactly how much ealier. Five minutes before the McCain campaign e-mailed Cohn would indeed be "earlier this summer" as well as "earlier today" and "earlier this millenium". Did they dumb him before or after he stepped in it ? Enquiring minds want to know.

From Comments OK from comment as there is only one which I quote here in full

Bruce Webb has left a new comment on your post "McCain Campaign Emergency Room John Goodman has a...":

Plus what is this about 'insurer of last resort'? The government does mandate that hospital emergency rooms treat all who show up, but it certainly doesn't pick up the tab. Instead the patient will be dunned for all costs until they are driven into bankruptcy or at a minimum lose all credit.

The price of taking your kid to the emergency room if you have no way to pay may well end up with you not being able to pass a credit check to rent an apartment in the future, or buy a car, or given the insurance industry's new found reliance on pricing insurance depending on credit rating, being able to minimally insure the beater you are now driving.

This guy is either divorced from ordinarily reality or so uncaring as to be practically sociopathic. Why not just wave away hunger on the basis that most towns have food banks and/or unlocked dumpsters behind the supermarket?

I might add that emergency rooms are required to treat patients only until they are "stabilized." A physician who happens to be my mother told me (without naming the patient or violating confidientiality) that in one case this consisted of using an ACE bandage to treat a broken foot. The ER doc had said surgery was needed before finding out that the patient was uninsured. My mom works for the county and takes care of uninsured patients with HIV.

update II: Minds think alike

Paul Krugman writes "But now that there’s a stink, the campaign says that he hasn’t been advising them since “earlier this summer.” (How much earlier?) "