On Sunday night, Presidential Candidate Mitt Romney again revealed his nebulous stance on health care when he sat down for an interview on “60 Minutes.”
During the interview, Romney, the former Governor of Massachusetts who was the first to require state residents to purchase health insurance, was asked what he would do to help the 50 million Americans who are uninsured. Romney, always quick with an answer regardless of its long-term sagacity, responded that there are always emergency rooms.
“Well, we do provide care for people who don’t have insurance … if someone has a heart attack, they don’t sit in their apartment and die. We pick them up in an ambulance, and take them to the hospital and give them care. And different states have different ways of providing for that care.”
Yet Romney seems to forget, or simply not understand that the overuse of emergency rooms, often for ills that could be treated by a doctor’s office, are one of the factors that have lead to the rising costs of health care across the country. In fact, in a national survey conducted by the CDC, “Uninsured adults were more likely than those with private health insurance or a public health plan to visit the emergency room due to having no other place to go.” And given the fact that people of color, women of color, and poor people are less likely to have health insurance, Romney’s statement smacks of a complete disregard for this country’s marginalized communities.
Hmmm. Maybe this is the 47% that he is unconcerned about.
This recourse to emergency room care as meeting the needs of the uninsured, coupled with Romney’s confusing track record on overturning the Affordable Care Act, (weeks previous, Romney stated he liked “parts of the Act,” but then his campaign advisor refuted that statement), spells trouble for homeless people, people living with HIV/AIDS, and other marginalized communities struggling with chronic conditions.
Hopefully, with the Presidential debates right around the corner, the country and those invested in the future of health care will get a better idea of where both candidates stand on health care for poor people and marginalized communities.
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