Dispatches from Planet Republican

Taking a page from the Mitt Romney playbook, Republican Governor of Mississippi Phil Bryant said in an interview yesterday that healthcare reform is unnecessary because every USian already has access to healthcare:

There is no one who doesn't have health care in America. No one. Now, they may end up going to the emergency room. There are better ways to deal with people that need health care than this massive new program.

I will reiterate what I said when Professor Mitt Romney of Dunnoshitboutshit University said the same stupid thing: There are, in fact, lots of people in the US who do not have access to insured healthcare, and do not go to the emergency room even when they need it, for fear of crushing medical bills.

In fact, lots of people with shitty insurance—hell, lots of people with GOOD insurance!—make the same decision, because insurance doesn't cover everything. There are deductibles and "patients' portions," that can be 20% (or more) of extraordinarily expensive medical treatment.

I suppose that's something that doesn't matter to a dude like Bryant, insured by the government on the taxpayer dime, who probably hasn't looked at his own medical bills in years (if ever) and has no idea that his personal assistant pays whatever his patient portion is along with the rest of his bills.

But to average USians, taking on the cost of medical care, even with insurance, is something to consider, even in emergencies.

This guy doesn't understand—and evidently doesn't care to understand—a most basic reality of average people's experiences in this country.

For the record: "Emergency rooms serve as a place of last resort, but 45,000 Americans still die every year because they lack health insurance, or one every 12 minutes."

Fuck off, you cloistered plutocrat. And take the rest of your garbage party with you.