Death By Ideology

New Krugman:

The overwhelming evidence, however, is that insurance is indeed a lifesaver, and lack of insurance a killer. For example, states that expand their Medicaid coverage, and hence provide health insurance to more people, consistently show a significant drop in mortality compared with neighboring states that don’t expand coverage. 

And surely the fact that the United States is the only major advanced nation without some form of universal health care is at least part of the reason life expectancy is much lower in America than in Canada or Western Europe. 

So there’s no real question that lack of insurance is responsible for thousands, and probably tens of thousands, of excess deaths of Americans each year. But that’s not a fact Mr. Romney wants to admit, because he and his running mate want to repeal Obamacare and slash funding for Medicaid — actions that would take insurance away from some 45 million nonelderly Americans, causing thousands of people to suffer premature death. And their longer-term plans to convert Medicare into Vouchercare would deprive many seniors of adequate coverage, too, leading to still more unnecessary mortality.

And

So let’s be brutally honest here. The Romney-Ryan position on health care is that many millions of Americans must be denied health insurance, and millions more deprived of the security Medicare now provides, in order to save money. At the same time, of course, Mr. Romney and Mr. Ryan are proposing trillions of dollars in tax cuts for the wealthy. So a literal description of their plan is that they want to expose many Americans to financial insecurity, and let some of them die, so that a handful of already wealthy people can have a higher after-tax income.

More here.

I've gone on at length here about the massive problems with Obamacare.  But it's something.  And it's an acknowledgement that the government simply must be involved with the issue.  The Republicans, however, in stark contrast, see health care as nothing but a consumer commodity.   That is, if you can't afford it, and many, many Americans cannot, then fuck you.

Seriously, fuck you.  Die in the street.  Or lose your house and everything in it.  Then die in the street.  And, oh yeah, fuck you.

That's the GOP position on health care when you strip away all the bullshit libertarian and god-loves-business rhetoric.  A great big fuck off and die.  Literally, fuck off and die.  This is the country Republicans want us to have.  They tell us that there is no alternative, that it has to be this way, but, of course, they're wrong.  Even lowly Mexico has recently achieved universal coverage.  We can provide health care to each and every American.  And I think Republicans know this; the "has to be this way" assertion is just cover.  They really do want Americans to fuck off and die.

Increasingly, I'm starting to wonder if conservatism has become straight-up immoral.  I just don't understand how condemning to financial ruin and death large segments of the population, as a political position, can in any way be understood as good and moral.  Really, these are some sick and twisted motherfuckers.  

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