As soon as the Media was done covering the GOP infantilizing Sonia Sotomayor during the confirmation hearings, the Media has now turned to the health care debate. We have heard it all, and most is pure BS. Most of the idiotic arguments are coming from the Republican party, and boy, are they bad. Let’s take a look at the Republican Health Care Wall of Shame.

The Daily Show had a short piece about two conservatives giving arguments about Obama’s health care plan:

July 9, 2009

Republican Representative Louie Gohmert said the following — “I know enough about Canadian care and I know the bureaucratic socialized piece of crap they have up there. It gives them a generalized standard of care. … 1 in 5 people have to die because they went to socialized medicine.”

First off, I cannot even find a shred of evidence for his claim, but let’s break down his statement. 1 in 5? Are we discussing 1 in 5 Canadians, 1 in 5 cancer patients, 1 in 5 eighty year olds? Without knowing the context, you are left to assume 1 in 5 Canadians. Okay, now what is the time frame? 1 in 5 a year? That would mean 80% of their population would have died by now, so that isn’t true. I know it can’t be 1 in 5 die in a lifetime, because 5 in 5 die in a lifetime. Should we assume a 1 in 5 have died since the adoption of the system? Maybe, sounds believable, but to be sure, let’s look at Canada’s raw numbers.

To make things simple, let’s approximate Canada’s yearly death rate to 0.7% or 7 in 1000 people. Canada’s birth rate averages out to 1% or 10 in 1000 people a year, so if you take birth rate over death rate, you get an increase of around 0.3% population growth a year, which is pretty spot on. [1]

Now, if one adds up all the yearly numbers since 1966, the year that Canada passed their universal health care, you get roughly 30% of their population has died since the inception of their socialized health care. If only 1 in 5 people died since 1966, like Rep. Gohmert said, then only 20% of their population should have died by 2009, which would be an improvement from the actual 30%. (FYI, United States death rate is roughly 0.8%, which is worse than Canada’s)

So what in the world is Gohmert talking about? Who knows, but whatever you do, don’t listen to anything he says!

July 1, 2009

Now you have Mitch McConnell, on Meet the Press, he mentions how a friend of a friend died (yea, great reference for a debate) because “he was too old for a certain kind of procedure.” Sounds horrible right? Actually, that happens in America too. This is a judgement call that is done by medical professionals all over the world. There are those that are too fragile to survive invasive procedures or surgeries. This friend of a friend was probably more likely to die of the procedure than from the condition he currently had.

Of course McConnell did not mention how insurance companies deny care all the time for people that are not too old or too fragile for procedures. See this article that discusses how insurance companies will look for paperwork errors to deny your coverage.

July 21, 2009

Last but not least, you have the show Morning Joe brought to you by Starbucks. Joe had on two senate doctors, Republicans of course, that are experts in their own fields. The one that talked first, mentioned how Americans don’t want a bureaucrat between them and their doctor. God I love this argument. If we properly analyze this statement, you should realize that right now in America, we have, if you are insured, an insurance company between you and your doctor. If you are not insured, then money comes between you and your doctor, and more than likely, you won’t be able to afford her anyway.

So, would you rather have a bureaucrat, an administrator concerned with procedure and rules, or an insurer, a corporation that is concerned with making a profit? I would rather have the bureaucrat to be honest, but that is ultimately up to you.

This same talking head goes on to say, “Don’t change or take away the best health care system in the world … ” Oh, I didn’t realize Americans had the best health care system in the world. Let’s look at the numbers:

The WHO rates us #18 [2] for quality of health care, that doesn’t sound like the best to me. Our death rate places us in the middle some where; our infant mortality rate puts us at #35 [1] … I can’t find where we are the best at anything related to medicine, can you? Oh, actually I can. We spend the most per capita on health care than any other country. More than twice the average. And, we are still #18th? Wow, impressive!

Well, that is all for now, but I will add to this wall of shame as I hear more idiocy from our friends on the Right. Remember one thing, don’t take numbers and statistics for face value, they are almost always manipulated to fit the speaker agenda. Demand absolute numbers and raw measures.

[1] http://www.nationmaster.com/country/us-united-states

[2] http://www.kff.org/insurance/snapshot/chcm010307oth.cfm