Let Them Eat Hamburgers: John McCain's Health Care Plan

Incredible as it may seem, one of John McCain’s economic advisors, Tom Miller, said at a health forum yesterday, that the Democratic candidates were wrong for not making, in their health care plans, Americans with pre-existing health conditions pay more for their premiums. Americans, he said, who should have known better than to “pull up to the McDonald’s two times a day” (http://www.cqpolitics.com/wmspage.cfm?docID=hbnews-000002878702).

I’m not sure what Hillary Clinton’s and Barack Obama’s surrogates, who were also at the forum, said in response to this outrage but whatever it was it couldn’t possibly have been strong enough.

It’s simply astounding that some flak with gold-plated health insurance who likely as not, given McCain’s track record, is a lobbyist for the very private insurance companies that would stand to gain from McCain’s largesse at the expense of sick Americans, would treat sick Americans so dismissively. This is a fine example of the Republicans in action, though, and clear indication that McCain’s health plan, like George Bush’s, consists of doing everything to privatize health care in this country, get money into the pockets of insurers, and cede any responsibility on the part of the government by cynically putting the onus on personal responsibility, Republican code for “you’re on your own, Bub, we got a war in Iraq to fight and it’s costing us trillions.”

And so what if some of these people are clinging to their hamburgers, along with their guns and religion? After eight years of Bush and the prospects of possibly another eight years of someone just like him, the idea of drowning one’s sorrows in a swimming pool of fat and a mountain of donuts is at least as comforting as these other things.

Neither McCain nor his flunky, Miller, know anything about health care as evidenced by the elements of McCain’s so-called plan or Miller’s asinine comments. If they did, and they genuinely wanted to both bring down health care costs and increase Americans’ access to health care they would create, as both Democratic candidates are suggesting, a significantly larger pool of insured Americans that includes even the sickest ones, and prohibit profit-driven companies from charging them higher premiums. This would spread the overall risk, lower premiums by ensuring that sicker Americans don’t get even sicker, and that a smaller percentage of insured does not end up paying all costs for those with pre-existing conditions because such folks can’t afford to pay the premiums.

McCain admits he knows nothing about economics and his ignorance about healthcare is just as expansive. Unfortunately, in the United States, economics and health care cross paths in a big way, with federal spending on health care making up nearly about 21 percent of all federal spending and totaling a whopping $676 billion (2006, OMB figures). That McCain could be so ignorant both issues should disqualify him from serving in the Senate, let alone from competing for the highest office in the land.

If anyone read this blog, now is the time I would call for all red-blooded Americans to send their hamburgers and unpaid health to Messieurs McCain and Miller. And as much as I would like to see this, it is probably more reasonable to send McCain a letter, fax, or phone him at the address/phone listed at the end of this entry expressing your outrage that someone representing him could flippantly reduce this nation’s healthcare problems to a couple of hamburgers. If you do write McCain, tell him that you demand Miller be fired and, most important, that McCain come up with a health care plan that will do more for sick Americans than the companies that would insure them.

As the hamburger episode illustrates, if McCain is elected we can look forward to his administration working to line the pockets of insurers and other private companies, continuing Bush’s sad legacy of dismantling fee-for-service Medicare, and doing everything he can to siphon funding from crucial domestic programs such as health care so that he can squander it in Iraq.

Is there anyone who really believes that this would be best for the country?

Unfortunately, the answer is probably yes. So it will be up to Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton both, no matter who wins the Democratic nomination, to do something Democrats haven’t had a lot of success with in recent elections, and make crystal clear to voters that McCain, Miller, and Republican Party, in general, don’t give a damn about them and whether they can pay the mortgage, have to work two jobs to just get by or, indeed, whether they have a home or not, and that when Americans are in need of health care Republicans are likely to say “let them eat hamburgers.”

Here’s McCain’s address:

The Honorable John McCain
241 Russell Senate Office Building
Washington, DC 20510
Main: 202-224-2235Fax: 202-228-2862