Okay, it's official: Ron Paul kind of DID let someone die because they didn't have health insurance

Now I know you were shocked by my little attempt at emulating Jonathan Swift, "Here's to more dead Republicans (a modest proposal)," which I published a few days ago - but consider this latest, my hyper-sensitive hublings! Gawker has reported that Ron Paul's former campaign manager, Kent Snyder, died of complications from pneumonia in 2008. He had actually brought in $19.5 million to the Paul campaign, according to the Wall Street Journal - but he didn't have health insurance. A sister has explained that a pre-existing condition made insurance "too expensive" for him - but as a result, by the time of his death, he had run up $400,000 in hospital bills (no, the emergency room didn't turn him away), a bill which his family was then saddled with.

The ironies here are just too devastating, frankly.  You really can't make this stuff up.  I suppose no one will know whether Snyder put off treatment because he lacked insurance - but it seems probable, doesn't it?  I mean - not many 49-year-olds die of pneumonia without some sort of complicating factor.  And honestly - he was running a $35 million campaign, but the people working for it didn't have health insurance?

And more importantly, Ron Paul could watch the man who put him on the political map die without insurance, and still the obvious message couldn't get through his thick skull?  I mean, sometimes life's ironies and sad coincidences almost make you think that God is, indeed, some sort of sick satirist . . .

Here's to more dead Republicans (a modest proposal)

The clip above from the recent Republican debate has been getting a lot of play on the Intertubes - and it is, indeed, pretty creepy; the Republican Party is now, you could credibly argue, the party of death. (A round of applause also greeted the announcement that Governor Rick Perry had executed 234 people - one or two of whom most people are convinced were innocent.)

But I ask you - is that such a bad thing?  I mean, as long as it's the Republicans who end up dead?

Because I admit I found the above exchange refreshing; I just didn't think it went far enough.

For a key hypocrisy in the Republican/Tea Party opposition to Obama's healthcare reform is buried in that exchange between Wolf Blitzer and Ron Paul.

What's the hypocrisy? In short: if you feel that a requirement to join a healthcare plan is an infringement of your constitutional rights, then you should also be prepared to forswear your right to emergency room care.

Right?  Of course right.  In fact, far right.

Because let's talk a minute about the form of "socialized medicine" that the Tea Partiers are all unconsciously depending on: the emergency room. They seem to think that it's un-American to require folks to buy health insurance - but that somehow it's not un-American to show up at the ER with a broken bone, and get it fixed, whether or not you can pay the bill.

They seem to think it's fine that the rest of us - the ones with insurance - should pay for that treatment!

And that's socialism, my friends. Texas socialism, I should say.


Because just as a reminder: there's no guarantee of emergency room care in the U.S. Constitution. (Not even in the Second Amendment!)

So let's call a spade a spade, shall we? Ron Paul, Michele Bachmann, Rick Perry - when it comes to the emergency room, they're all big fat commies. They never tell their supporters that if they really do oppose "Obamacare," then they simply have no right to show up at the ER without cash in hand.

Okay, at least Ron Paul is willing to face this contradiction, in a way - although later in the exchange, he backpedalled.  But he and Blitzer never took the next step into public policy. For Republican opposition to "Obamacare" should, on libertarian and Tea Party principle, simply melt away if one small change were made to its implementation.

What's that change?  It's the following: if, on our IRS forms, we were able to check off a box saying that we were refusing the government insurance mandate, but as a result we were also perforce waiving the right to emergency room care - and if this database were made available to American hospitals - who could disagree with the new law?

Anyone?  Anyone?

So that's my modest proposal. Give people the option on Obamacare - either sign up for it, or don't hit the ER. After all, it's a matter of personal responsibility, isn't it.  Tell that to your cracked femur.

And as an added benefit, I think such an innovation could lead to more dead Republicans. Not more dead rich Republicans - the Koch brothers can afford health insurance, I'm pretty sure - but perhaps more dead members of the lunatic white-trash fringe stirring up all this ridiculous trouble. I really don't think any poverty-stricken Democrats are dumb enough to pledge to never use the emergency room - they'll just pay the tax surcharge and show up as needed. No, I think only the Tea Partiers are really that stupid.

So think about it. Healthcare reform at last.

And more dead Republicans.

I can dream, can't I?

(Next up: can we force Texas to secede?)

(P.S. - Andrew Sullivan seconds my point here.)