Willard Lies (Or Is He Just That Stupid?)

(The image above is from the blog called Cutting Through The Crap.)

One would think a presidential candidate would have more sense than this. But Willard Mitt Romney (aka Wall Street Willie) has told us so many things that are not true, that I don't know anymore whether he is so stupid that he actually believes this stuff, or if he thinks we are so stupid that we'll believe any lie he tells. I suspect the latter.

Willard has repeatedly said he thinks Obamacare should be repealed (in spite of the fact that his own program in Massachusetts is almost a mirror image). He has said that Obamacare is not needed. Obviously, he doesn't agree with the vast majority of Americans who know our health care system is badly broken. But then he has enough money to buy whatever health care he and his family need, and seems to be unaware that millions of people in the U.S. are not so economically-advantaged (and cannot afford needed medical treatment without some help).

Willard actually told the Columbus Dispatch a few days ago that, "We don't have people that become ill, die in their apartment because they don't have insurance." He thinks that is true because hospital emergency rooms are required to give medical treatment to anyone. Mitt is partially right -- emergency rooms are required to give treatment, and they give treatment for many things that are not emergencies.

But they are designed to treat emergencies, and many of the poor Americans flooding these emergency rooms need treatment of a different nature to save their lives -- preventive treatment. It is just a sad fact that for many who finally get sick enough to go to the emergency room, they find they have a disease that has progressed too far for effective treatment (treatment the emergency room could not give anyway), and they do die. But they could have been saved, if they had only had some health insurance that would let them get preventative care from a family physician.

Do those people not count? Estimates vary from 25,000 to 45,000, but people do die in this country every year from a lack of decent health insurance. And personally, I believe even one unnecessary death is too many. Health care is something that every person will need at some time in their life, and regular preventative care by a doctor can extend a person's life by many years. Why are we the only developed country that does not consider decent medical care to be a right (like food, clothing, and shelter)?

Willard and his GOP buddies would have us believe health care is a luxury product that should be available only to those who can afford to buy it. That's why they don't want to extend health insurance to the poor, and why they would like to dismantle Medicare and Medicaid. For them, medical care is just a product (which they can afford) on which a profit should be made. They are the real death panel, because the only option they offer to buying health care is death (an option that many of the poor and disadvantaged are forced to accept).

Frankly, I am one of those who was unhappy with Obamacare -- because I didn't think it went far enough. I believe the only sensible solution to fixing our broken health care system would be a single-payer government run system that covers all citizens (like Medicare for all). It would not only provide everyone with decent medical care, but would save money (since the nations with a similar system spend only half per patient that we spend and get better results).

But Obamacare is an improvement over what we had (and what Willard and his cohorts want to go back to). That is just a fact. Repealing it would condemn thousands of Americans to an early death -- a death that could have been prevented. Willard can deny that, but it is still true.