As part of a Hannity show discussion about Obamacare, Fox News’ Dr. Marc Siegel offered his rather mean-spirited complaint: that it will allow too much access to health coverage for too many. Rather than look for ways to make sure there are enough resources for everyone, Siegel would, apparently, prefer that millions go without insurance at all so that the haves won’t be inconvenienced.
Siegel told the Hannity viewers on Friday (9/20/13):
…Studies show that people use the emergency room unnecessarily when they have that kind of insurance. So we’re clogging the ER’s with people who don’t need to be there. The hospital is making less. ER’s are shrinking. …So the people who have heart attacks, really need to get taken care of, can’t get in to be seen because the ER’s are clogged with people with insurance.
This is not the first time Siegel has suggested that Obamacare means that people will get too much health care. On August 8, Siegel said on Your World (second video below):
If Obamacare pays for you to go in with a common cold, it doesn’t have enough money to pay for the cancer treatments or the private treatments that some people need and others don’t. So when you get really sick, you might find IPAB restricting the very life-saving treatments you need.
So there you have it. Instead of expressing concern about how to make sure everyone gets adequate coverage, Siegel’s big worry is that treating the have nots will mean less for the haves.
OK, let’s recap:
- The late judge Robert H. Bork believed ordinary citizens should not have direct access to the federal judiciary system (which was one of the stated goals of his desire to become a Supreme Court Associate Justice)
- Rush Limpballs is already on record as opposing school lunch programs (suggesting that children should “dumpster-dive”)
- and now Dr. Siegel thinks not everyone is deserving of basic health care
Who’s waging “class warfare”, again?
.
First of all, it is utter bullsh!t that people with heart attacks can’t be seen because ERs are clogged with people who shouldn’t be there. Heart or even just suspected heart conditions coming onto the ER are priority. I know this from personal experience having twice taken a family member with a suspected heart condition (erratic heart beat/chest tightness/trouble breathing) into crowded ERs. The heart patient is taken to the head of the line – they don’t mess around with conditions like that. The ER docs are not making heart patients wait so they can first deal with others in the ER (with or without insurance) who are there for colds, etc. as Siegel is claiming.
And, if more people have health insurance, they don’t have to go to ERs for treatment – they can go to a regular doc office or a walk-in clinic with their stomach flu, colds, strep throats, etc. There will be no need for them to go to ERs for anything other than actual emergencies.
Siegel and FOX “news” know that this kind of fear-mongering rhetoric about ACA will rile up their largely older, conservative viewer base. If the FOX viewers are being told that recipients of insurance via the ACA are going to keep them from getting treatment for life-threatening conditions, then the more likely they will be to demand that GOPers block the ACA and the more likely they will be to vote GOP the next election. Looks like Dr. Siegel is more interested in telling fibs, playing partisan politics and scaring the folks than he is in the actual health of his fellow Americans.
This coming week we’ll be seeing an onslaught of attacks from Fox and right wing radio against the Affordable Care Act in preparation of a possible government shut down to gain support against the President. Over the weekend I’m already hearing the official spin from the right that if the government does shut down it’ll be President Obama’s fault for failing to compromise or refusing to surrender the ACA.
The greed that the insurance companies (and that’s who the right are fighting for) are displaying is where the real sickness resides.
Dr. Seigal has clearly never spent any time in an ER waiting room while stretcher after stretcher of serious cases are (justifiably) fast tracked to the operating theatre.
