..it's all downhill for you from here on out.

He had Congestive Heart Failure. He was a year short of having medicare kick in.
He had his working hours shortened to three days a week because of the recession.
He lived with and supported his sister.
He could not afford health insurance.
When his sister wanted to call an ambulance he said no, because he couldn't afford it
He died in his bed at home, temporarily saving his sister from being thrown out in the street by creditors that he knew he would have if he had gone to the hospital.
Yes, people die at home without insurance.
People are making life and death choices because of poverty and no insurance.

They don't treat for free...they bill poor people at the inflated non-insurance rate until they are bankrupt. Then, after hounding them for years they may give up.

Romney needs a doctor...he is terminally stupid.

And typically if the patient can't pay right away, they make them pay on a plan at hiked interest rates.

I suggest Dr. Gumby

http://m.

Thanks for reminding me of this.

with my head. I can almost always relate any statement back to Monte Python.

Not to mention.... the EMERGENCY room is for EMERGENCIES.

And dialysis and chemo patients can just run down to the emergency room for treatment?

Who believes this crap? Not Rmoney that's for sure. Lying bastard!

Hey,
Thanks for the afternoon laugh during a rough day at work. Terminally stupid, I love it.

Peace

For any lurking alerters: Do I need to whip this out?

(from the 9/24 Mike Malloy Show)

By an educated person between the way he thinks things are and reality. It's just mind boggling. What is wrong with him?

O can use the best one or two for his next debate and maybe that will fire him up a bit.

This is stupid. A fact that can easily be proven wrong.

one for every occasion, and bulk rates for debate performances.

What do they know?

From a lack of insurance during the 90 minutes they spent debating. He could use it in his closing argument and I think it would be very powerful.

fucking MORAN!

Here in the real world, his own damn WIFE would have died of breast cancer had she lacked insurance.

He has enough money to cover his healthcare, his children's and his grandchildren's without ever needing insurance. I would think someone of his means would just pay for his healthcare as it goes. Maybe I'm wrong. I would imagine, he could afford the best doctors, the best hospitals and wouldn't bother with paying for insurance. If you pay cash for your services, I would imagine most doctors would take that over filing the insurance and waiting months and months to get paid back what little the insurance would allow. IMHO

Why? Because, when paying the premiums is no problem, you SAVE money on health care. Think Mittens would have missed a chance to "take advantage of savings"??

As of March, he is eligible for Medicare. Wonder if he's taking advantage of that too??

In any case, we agree that his VAST wealth makes it impossible for him to understand the financial struggles mere mortals face when it comes to health care.

I now understand his stances. He has dementia and they are hiding it, because they only need a titular head. Also explains the deer in the headlights look he is constantly giving. WOW, we really need another mentally ill President.

used every where but his temples. Those are left natural because it looks 'distinguished' His hair would look like Bill Clinton's if it wasn't colored. Which would be a better look.

He should have aged well. He has never done any physical labor in his life. I would guess he gets a weekly massage, has a manicure and a hairdresser to keep his hair perfectly trimmed. I suspet his ego demands it.

I doubt there has ever been any dirt under those fingernails. Hell, at least dimson got sweaty and dirty 'cuttiin' brush'

and I can bet that if he has paid into Medicare, he'll take the money back. He wouldn't miss out on 'free' coverage now wouldn't he?

And they have NO IDEA what's it like to worry about getting sick. Never ever (ever!) would they understand how medical bankruptcy goes in this country. It's downright barbaric that it is allowed.

In a prior job I occasionally worked with people in that wealth category. They typically self-insured unless covered by an employer or govt plan. Given his history of privilege, I think one reason he is clueless about this is that he may be like them. We know he is empathy challenged, so that if he doesn't personally experience a problem first hand, he doesn't get it.

a high-deductible insurance policy because they can afford to pay out of pocket. But, and here's a very important and very little understood aspect of carrying health insurance of any kind, they have the policy so that they are billed the lower insurance company costs for care, NOT the high rates those who truly have no insurance are charged.

And since almost all of his income has come from investments and fees, not earned income, it's possible he never paid into Medicare long enough to qualify for it. Think about it. If I'm right, that's just another reason why people like him simply do not get why SS and Medicare are so important for such a large portion of the population.

A couple of years ago, I had some medical issues that required immediate treatment. I thought I had good Medical Insurance coverage, but my Doctor told me that the Specialists who she would have preferred to have me see, would not see me, because they did not accept patients with my insurer (Aetna). If I had been able to pay Cash, there would have been no problem. The Specialist who did see me, told me there was nothing he could do for me. Unless I die suddenly, and unexpectedly, It is what will probably do me in. What was once treatable, is now un-treatable.

This probably would not have occurred under a single-payer system.

There are too many people who know the stories of people dying for lack of health insurance.

old Mitt sure made a destintion, by saying the person that is sick, etc. is INSIDE the ER or hospital, and even tried to throw in a federal law....but the problem is, it was an asinine statement. Then he should have shut up, but nooooo, he is such a politician that he had to ram that foot just a little bit deeper into his mouth when he stated, " we don't have people that become ill, who die in their apartment because they don't have insurance." ASININE, ASININE....

I still don't see how that adds up to "statement true" for you. It's not true, people DO die for lack of insurance in this country.

Included in these are the people who do not see a doctor at the first warning signs because they don't have health care. They get worse, a lot worse. By the time they are in crisis and make it to Romney's emergency room, it is too late and cannot be reversed. I get so upset with mittens saying stuff he knows NOTHING about. It is infuriating!

The Harvard study examining this issue found that 45,000 Americans die every year because they do not have access to health care BECAUSE they do not have insurance. Quit spreading lies.

He just has no idea, does he? Not only is he wrong about people who die because they don't have insurance--there are people who can't afford treatment AND there are people who don't get early warning signs checked out because they can't afford the doctor--but he is completely oblivious to the fact that lives can be shattered by medical bills. He just doesn't have a clue of what life is like for most people.

Welcome to DU! What a cute user name!

call. since he didn't die from not having insurance so didn't get the health care he needed to stay alive. At 21 yrs old.

i was livid when i heard that. I don't personally know anyone who was in that situation. The closest i ever got to it was during Andy Stephenson's cancer treatment. DU'ers raised money for his surgery. It was the only way he could get it.

Your cousin deserved better.

People die for a lack of health insurance every day in the USA.

To someone who has cancer or any other long term medical problem. No emergency room in the world would help. I guess Mitt keeps bringing up heart attacks because that's what happens to 1%-ers when they spend all their time worrying about hoarding their riches.

It has hit home to me personally many times in the last 10 years. I am fortunate that I do have (good) health insurance. Without this my son would be in a far worse state than he is now, possibly even dead due to kidney failure. I may have died through suicide as my mental health deteriorated over the past few years.

Again I am fortunate as I am British and my sons are entitled to British Citizenship through me. Worst case scenario is we are on the next plane to London. That sadly is not the case for millions of Americans and in a "First World" country where mass temporary free clinics in poor areas happen to even exist... it shows that a lot of the powers that be (not all of them) just don't care. They lack a heart. In America I don't believe compassionate conservatives even exist. Can America claim to be a first world country anymore?

America: please prove me wrong. Show me America does care. Show me America looks out for each other. In the hymn I sung at many a school assembly - "when I needed a neighbour were you there... and the creed and the colour and the name won't matter, were you there?" ... is America there? I just don't know anymore.

Please tell people in England what you witnessed here...

The loss of even a semblance of Democracy.

The outrageous lying and lack of integrity of many (if not most) public officials and politicians.

The corrupt and lying media (thanx Rupert).

The callousness of a health system that doesn't work.

The looting of the middle class.

The rise of the churches and their invasion into every aspect of individual rights.

The completely dysfunctional (s)election "system" where elections are stolen and innocent citizens are disenfranchised every day.

-------------------------

Etc etc--well, you know the rest.

TELL people --anyone who can't imagine what is going on here. It's really true. And it is at every level of sciety.

After all, the emergency room is required by federal law to treat you -- and tell them Romney said so.

That's what we should do. Round up some homeless people who don't have healthcare and take them to the emergency room and make a video of what happens.

If they are treated -- if -- for a chronic condition, they will be told to make a follow-up appointment with their doctor -- which they cannot do because no doctor will treat them if they have no insurance. They will at most be given a small supply of meds and sent to a free clinic of some sort.

For those with serious chronic conditions, it's either good luck or sayonara.

How clueless does someone have to be to run as the GOP candidate for president?

Pretty fucking clueless.

care to check this fact?

"Memo to GOP: Refusing to help solve problems isn't leadership, obstructionism isn't governance, and wanting your President to fail isn't patriotism."

Glad you like it.

He just doesn't know about the other millions of Americans who get sick every year and have no insurance. So they are 'treated' in the emergency room. Some make it. Some don't. Jacka$$

Don't have no ......don't die

Surely you jest.

Actually, I'm sure you jest.

Yeah that bugs me too!

that people living in apartments have heart attacks. People living in houses have health insurance and therefore don't have heart attacks? This to me is just the epitome of rethug class warfare - If you live in an apartment, you don't have or can't afford health insurance so you have to go to the emergency room!

Once stable no other care is required by law. Pain management? nope, not required.

What about the kid who died recently from a tooth abscess? Tragic case, no dental care and the infection traveled to his brain.

Don't tell me they get care in the ER, Mitt. Come take a ride with me and I'll introduce you to my sister who is an ER RN.

I was scrolling through all the responses before I was going to post that exact thing.

It's an important aspect of the law that too many people, including the uninsured who use ERs as their source of primary health care. All the ER needs to do is stabilize the patient. They'll then send them home, possibly with a prescription (which the patient probably can't afford to fill) and usually with a referral to a follow-up physician, which the uninsured ER patient probably won't go to.

early enough.

by the time you do go to the emergency room, it may be too late. Have you considered that scenario, Bishop?

Mitt is a tool.

that's gotta make these boneheaded heartless comments even harder to take.

i just don't get how any thinking feeling person could consider this man the better choice for president. it's so frustrating

We still don't have a coroner's report.
At least we know what we are working toward--social justice.

Is that what Romoroni is implying?

Or was he saying this? "We DO have people who die because they DO have insurance."

You get a bill. People on Medicaid don't get a bill, but the working poor, those too "rich" to get help and too poor to afford private insurance are the ones who die or go bankrupt. The hospital pays only if you don't pay it and seek protection via bankruptcy.

He sure is stupid or uniformed... or is it both?

That man, is such a complete and total ass... ugh. Jesus, he really is making GW look like an intellectual.

And people die from heart attacks. Yes if you are having a heart attack you will get treated in the ER -if you make it there in time. But you might have avoided that heart attack if you had health insurance which paid for diagnostics and medications which could have managed your heart disease better.

If those darn lazy poor people would just buckle down and work harder, they could all be rich enough to buy their own doctors, just like he is!

in lieu of receiving decent preventive care. But Mitt has said he can live with that. And hey, having hospitals doing business that way day in and day out also drives up everyone else's health care costs, but thank God, at least it's not a "tax".

This creature that walks among us needs to be rushed to
an inner city hospital with 50 people waiting for critical care.
Tie him to a chair as he is made to see what happens to Americans each day!!!

Mitt would not care. Didn't he talk about those 47%ers who saw themselves as victims, moochers who thought they were entitled to things like food, housing, and health care--and took no responsibility for themselves, so why should he be concerned about them? I suspect he'd look around that ER and say, ah-ha! Here are prime examples of what I was talkin' about. And then affirm his notion that he did not give a rip about them. We are nothing in his cold dead eyes, despite what he might say to the contrary.

Creature describes him to a tee. The man has no compassion, no ability to connect with anyone not in his "peer group" and as far as I'm concerned, he has no shame and certainly no soul. I am heartsick to think he might be our next president. Sadly, there is no cure for the pain Rmoney is causing, and I'm appalled that anyone would vote for him. Heaven help us all if he's elected!

OBAMA/BIDEN 2012

albeit a crappy and untenable one.

I hope he has insurance

Say "Good-bye" Mittens!

But will you be able to get your bypass surgery there?

Funny how he seems to think it's ok for the government to pay for this.

Or any other preventive measures. Early detection is key to people surviving so, yes, Mr. Romney people do die because they don't have insurance. And late stage treatment is much more expensive than early stage treatment. It is a win-win for people to have coverage as it saves lives.

...our country is full of hardhearted jerks.

from he who would be president, quite possibly even a worse president than gw. shockingly

Here in the real world I personally have known people who died because they couldn't face the medical bills of going to the doctor when they might have been saved. My Mother in law was one. She died of endometriosis that turned cancerous after years of problems because she was afraid of the med. bills, they were retired but to young for medicare. As soon as she got medicare she went to the doctor, but it was too late.

involved. How much money could be saved by early detection of life-threatening conditions?

a charity hospital. Try getting an organ transplant w/o insurance! Get a clue, or better yet, research what empathy and caring mean!

A man in Texas who had cancer died while waiting for Medicaid approval.

Of course it came in a month after he died.

trying to pay the bills?

Medical bills in the US are involved in over 50% of bankruptcies. Untreated medical problems are involved in a large percentage of joblessness. Both are involved in a large percentage of homelessness...and so forth.

Its pathetic how Romney imagines he actually knows what he's talking about.

He has no idea of the world outside of his bank vaults.

so add that to the "bank vaults"

We have people who die in this country because they have insurance. That is what caused a large part of the outrage calling for single payer. Even with insurance your still going to wind up on some corporations actuarial roulette wheel of suffering. All so some shareholder can happily make a few extra bucks towards their own retirement.

They are called "Insurance Companies".

I do not understand why that point is not mentioned.

Why is it better for the person making the decision on whether the "cure" is warranted or not have their PAYCHECK tied to how much $$ the insurance "saves" by NOT covering the treatment - but it is EEeeevil socialized medicine, if an unelected government panel of 15 (who are going to be paid the same ANYWAY) make some framework decisions?

Color me confused

They do die prematurely because they lack health insurance....

They die because they don't have check-ups and screenings. The law only requires a hospital to stabilize the patient. By the time they arrive at the hospital with rectal bleeding because they have Stage IV colon cancer it is too late. The hospital will do what they have to do to stop the bleeding, give them a transfusion, etc. and give them a diagnosis.

But from there the person without health insurance will not have access to ongoing treatment.

They may not be dying of colon cancer because had they seen a doctor regularly and had a colonoscopy the cancer would have been caught early. It would have been treated and, at a minimum, the patient's longevity extended.

He just doesn't get it.

He used similar phrasing in his '60 Minutes' interview (http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/09/24/1135711/-Mitt-Romney-Need-healthcare-Go-to-the-emergency-room). His disdain for ordinary Americans comes through every time he speaks.

Can't treat cancer in the ER. Maybe you can treat a heart attack in the ER but you can't treat congestive heart failure or multiple sclerosis or diabetes. ERs are for urgent care, things that need to be cared for instantly. But anything chronic or long term treatment won't.

Keep talking mittwit. Now he's off his practiced, memorized, scripted performance and back to his stupid, clueless self. And please for the love of God, will the media report on this stuff

I had family members who have died for lack of insurance

Romney is extremely out of touch with the most of us

on a big wad of cash seems like a fitting end for such ignorant, heartless fool.

"But Mitt said this couldn't happen!"

He can't not be himself for an entire month.

He had no health insurance. He had a sore throat that wouldn't go away. He finally went to a free clinic. They misdiagnosed it as an infection ad and gave him an antibiotic. It got worse. He went back. They gave him another antibiotic. It got worse. After 5 visits, they did a biopsy. He had cancer. He qualified for some kind of emergency medicaid - I don't know how it works--but he was able to have emergency surgery to remove his lower jaw and most of his tongue. He died a few months later.

I wonder if his story would have been different if he had a personal physician.

I wonder what the cost to taxpayers was to remove the bottom of his face and care for him until he dies vs. what the cost would have been to catch the cancer early and cure him if we had a system similar to what they have in Canada.

My daughter was born in Canada (her father is Canadian). We did not see one bill for prenatal care, a 3-day hospital stay or well baby care. We paid a quarterly premium based on our income, which was reasonable, and we paid every day through sales tax on everything we bought except for food at the grocery store. Since our income was pretty low, we also qualified for a subsidy for child care when I went back to work.

Fast forward: daughter is grown and flown to live in Canada. When I was visiting her last, I complained about the high sales tax, everything from the car rental to gas to a bottle of wine. She just smiled and said, "Well I have "free" health care for that high tax, so I don't mind." She also had a subsidy for attending a Canadian university as a Canadian citizen.

US politicians should get their acts together and get a system like Canada's going here. And we don't have to reinvent the wheel, either.

Whenever MItt says stuff like this, he shows how the 1% really see the world.

Welcome to DU!

He had an aortic aneurysm and was afraid to go to the hospital because he didn't have insurance. Eventually, he began to throw up blood and by then it was too late. My husband went blind in one eye because of our lack of health insurance and him being denied coverage because of a pre-existing condition. I could go on and on but his lack of understanding about what people without insurance face is very telling and sad.

...do people die because they don't have health insurance, but people die because they have crappy health insurance.

One of these people could be me. I used to have supremely crappy health insurance that cost me 13% of my gross annual income. (1/3 the total premium - my company pays the other 2/3 which is why they can't pay better salaries or hire more people.) The co-pays were so high that I couldn't afford to use it. I have a chronic illness that needs to be monitored. I'm supposed to go for tests every 3 months. I was going about once a year.

Last benefits cycle, the premium for this piece of crap plan went up so much that I had to switch to an even crappier HMO. The premiums still cost 13% of my gross annual salary. The co-pays are lower, which is nice. Except, none of my doctors will take it. My son's pediatrician won't take it. We can't find a doctor in our area who will take it. So no one in my family has been to the doctor since we went on this plan.

What we need in this country is health care.

And I'm sorry, I know the affordable health care act made some improvements to the health care situation for some people in this country, but in general I think it really fails. IMO, Obama spent his political capital saving the economy from a total free-fall on the onset of his term and didn't have enough left to pass truly meaningful reform. He should have waited.

I live in nevada, a few years back we had a scandal because the hospital refused to treat the man because he couldn't pay and he died in front of their building. also a woman who waited in the ER in such great pain, that others in the ER told the nurse to take her before them, she refused. when her husband drove her to another hospital, she bled to death from a tubal pregnancy.

also, I think it was sixty minutes, had a report how a hospital would just call a cab or drive a patient to a location away from the hospital and let them out. many were elderly, and that's how they treated the patients when there medicare ran out in the hospital.

he is either totally clueless, or really doesn't give a fek!

Thanks Mitt!

but it doesn't fit into is vulture-capitalist mentality