How's this for another kick to working Americans who are struggling to get by? According to the guy that helped develop McCain's health care plan, no Americans should be considered uninsured.
His logic? Anyone who can get into a hospital emergency room is able to access health care, and therefore shouldn't be considered uninsured. His solution to the health insurance crisis is simply to define the problem away.
The following is from today's Dallas Morning News (bolding is my own):
But the numbers are misleading, said John Goodman, president of the National Center for Policy Analysis, a right-leaning Dallas-based think tank. Mr. Goodman, who helped craft Sen. John McCain's health care policy, said anyone with access to an emergency room effectively has insurance, albeit the government acts as the payer of last resort. (Hospital emergency rooms by law cannot turn away a patient in need of immediate care.)
"So I have a solution. And it will cost not one thin dime," Mr. Goodman said. "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."
Here's the full article: Texas still leads nation in rate of uninsured residents
So the bottom line is this: McCain's "health care reform" proposal was developed by someone who doesn't think there is any problem with people not being able to get health care. In his world, everything is hunky dory and the only thing that reform needs to do is to lower costs.
That certainly explains why McCain is giving us "health care reform" that would dramatically increase the number of uninsured.
[Edit: My first time to ever make the rec list -- thanks, everyone. I'm glad to see this important story getting some attention. And per several suggestions in the comments, I will repost this in a couple weeks, after convention season has passed.]