McCain adviser: Everyone in U.S. has some health coverage
[cnn-photo-caption image= http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2008/images/08/12/art.mccain0812.ap.jpg caption="A McCain adviser speaks out on the uninsured."]
(CNN) - A health care policy adviser for the McCain campaign told a newspaper reporter that nobody in the United States is technically uninsured, because everyone has access to hospital emergency rooms.
"So I have a solution [to the health care crisis]. And it will cost not one thin dime," John Goodman, president of the National Center for Policy Analysis, told the Dallas Morning News in an interview published Thursday.
"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."
Hospital emergency rooms cannot technically turn away anyone for financial reasons.
"So instead of producing worthless statistics that people fling around in vacuous editorials and pointless debates, the Census Bureau should produce meaningful numbers, identifying all of the sources of funds people will draw on if they need medical care," said Goodman, who helped write McCain’s health care plan.
That plan would use a combination of tax incentives and market competition to make health care more affordable. It is not a universal health care plan – it does not guarantee insurance coverage for every American.
Read more: Goodman talks to the Dallas Morning News
Take a look: Candidates' health care plans
UPDATE: McCain's campaign says they do not consider Goodman to be an official campaign adviser.
this idiot HELPED SCULPT MCCAINS HEALTH PLAN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
PLEASE THINK BEFORE YOU VOTE
i don't care HOW inexperienced you think obama may be – its about IDEAS AND POLICIES. Please compare where EACH candidate stands on the issues, and what plans they will impliment before you vote. PLEASE
So who's picking up the tab after the emergency room visit?
So changing the Census is the cure for being poor and uninsured.
Why didn't I think of that? Are you kidding me!!! Instead of spending $ on Obama gas gages, please employ someone with a clue.
On second thought don't these bozo ideas are good for a laugh.
Can't wait to see what your gang of Aces call foreclosures, or the low value dollar we now enjoy. This goes beyond out of touch, its crazy.
Surely this is a joke...he's only kidding, right?....
At first I thought Goodman was joking. But he's serious. That is the McCain answer to the health care crisis adversely impacting millions of Americans...just go to the Emergency Room and consider yourself covered. What?! It's not yet an emergency...?1.
Hold on.....did he actually say that. Seriously. That's pretty much his health care plan, huh. You've got to be joking me.
That's our health plan and we stand by it!
Signed, Mccain/Lieberman 08
RIGHT!!! I Don't know where you get your information, but my husband and I haven't had any insurance in the last seven since I lost my job. I thank GOD daily that neither of us have been no more sicker than a cold. We doing all we can to stay well until we are 65 or older for S.S. to kick in. MaCain dosen't know anythng about the average American and their problems.
Really? That is the best they can do?
I'm not saying Obama is perfect, but if the McCain campaign is actually saying ridiculous nonsense like that, this election is going to be easier than I thought.
Between this and the idea that somebody who makes 4.9 million dollars a year isn't rich, McCain is showing that he is the one who is the out-of-touch elitist, not Obama.
Ummmmmmmmm Vickie, as a Canadian I can only say WHAT!!!??? We spend far less per capita on health care and are almost always above the US in ratings on health care. So no universal health care is not bankrupting us. Our economy is doing better than yours thanks, our national debt is waaaaaaaaaaay less, and heck we're running a surplus.
What a scandal. How insulting it is for a politician to say this. Very out of touch.
LOL! THis is the greatest truth espoused by the Republicans!
UNIVERSAL HEALTH CARE = EMERGENCY ROOM ACCESS. ergo there is NO health care crisis in AMerica. So, basically, what are you people whining about?! This is McCain/Gramm attitude towards the economy, health-care etc!!! I hope the Dems pounce on this!!!
THAT'S OUR HEALTH PLAN, AND WE STAND BY IT!
Signed, McCain/Lieberman08
WELL THERE YOU HAVE IT . MCCAIN DOES NOT CARE ABOUT. WHAT HEALTH CARE PLAN BY MCCAIN.
VOTE OBAMA...........08
THIS is an example of why the GOP should not be in power!!!!!
Good... lord... what an idiot! Hopefully McCain picks up on this so Obama can thrash him.
I feel like trying to go to the ER for some preventative care like a physical and bring a printout of this article along.
vote obiden
Wow. This goes to show you how out-of-touch the McCain campaign really is.
I'm an undecided voter. Stories like this, though, sure do sway me away from the Republican Party!
Lately I've been noticing the state of our emeergency rooms. many are closing. Some patients wait ridiculous hours waiting to be seen. Some have died right in the emergency rooms waiting to be seen. is this guy a crock or what. I've never seen anyone so out of touch with the country's medical care condition. I recently read where we have even fallen to 18th in the world on quality of care. How on earth can this guy be in charge of McCain's health Policy! Duh?
What a true disgrace McCain and his campaign are. This is NO JOKING MATTER. The American people are being hit hard right now when it comes to medical insurance and McCain and his campaigns answer is the 'Emergency Room'.
We can spend $10 Billion a month on a war, but our nations health– is no big deal. At least that what McCain thinks.
No Way. No How. No McCain. (Thanks Hillary!)
Bush = McCain
McCain is more of the same.
Please, please, Barack, please, use this latest bit of stupidity in one of your Ads! McCain WILL NOT BE ABLE TO DENY THAT SOMEONE ON HIS CAMPAIGN UTTERED THIS RIDICULOUS STATEMENT!
FOLKS THE REPUBLICANS ARE DOING EVERYTHING THEY CAN TO STEAL BARACK'S THUNDER, WHAT THEY FAIL TO REALIZE IS THIS....
............PAYBACK IS SOOOOOOOOOOOO SWEET.....................
As a Canadian, now living in America, I am absolutely disgusted with the ignorance that McCain and the Republican party are arguing as policy. I'm not a Democrat and quite franky disagree with some of their policy, but this is unreal. Living in Canada, when I had something as simple as a cough, or nagging sore throat, would I go to the E.R.?? No, I'd simply stop into the drop-in clinic, be seen by a doctor 30min later, and then go pick up my prescription.
This proposed solution will only make the problem bigger. I seem to recall hospitals dropping helpless old women off on the street curb because they couldn't pay...wow, that's patriotism?
Just called my ins. company and cancelled my policies and demanded my payments back for the last 47 years. THIS IS WONDERFUL
CNN Censorship is against my rights as an AMERICAN
Stop cutting my posts –
I'm ashamed to have the same name as the idiot that said :
I am sorry but if you think that Obama's idea of throwing more tax payers money at things to solve all of the problems you must not be a tax payer. Universal medicine does nothing but bankrupt countries. I think we need to do a welfare to work program get people out there working for there medical insurance rather than it being handed to them by people who are out there working. I think we need to help employers to meet the cost of medical insurance therefore keeping the cost to the employee down. More tax payer money is not the answer to all of the angst in this country.
Vickie, what about those that are so ill they can't work! My mother is disabled and can't work, what would you have her do?
he lie