Mission accomplished!

A health policy advisor to John McCain has a novel solution to the problem of 46 million uninsured in the country – just don’t call them uninsured, and don’t count them.

John Goodman, known as “the father of health savings accounts,” told the Dallas Morning News that the uninsured aren’t really uninsured, because hospitals are required to treat them in an emergency.  Of course, Goodman doesn’t explain how the uninsured are supposed to get follow-up treatment, preventive care, check-ups, labs, prescriptions, outpatient treatment or management of chronic conditions.  But, hey, if they show up bleeding, any hospital will patch them up.

"So I have a solution. And it will cost not one thin dime,” Goodman told the newspaper. “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."

Not surprisingly, several commentators have linked this to earlier remarks by a McCain economic adviser that we are “a nation of whiners” that is not suffering from a real economic downturn but from a “mental recession.”

For an analysis of Goodman’s remarks – and of what it really means to be uninsured – see this blog post in the Daily Kos by DrSteveB, a New York pediatrician and epidemiologist.