We can all get behind Ron Paul's call to Audit the Fed and Restore the Bill of Rights. We need to elect progressive, but we can't afford to let the corporations divide us into easily conquered factions of left vs. right when we can agree on much stuff and push that forward.

Election Integrity, Investigation of crimes, Auditing the Fed, Bill of Rights, and Prosecuting criminals are things we should all be able to agree on and push forward together.

We, The People!

Texas Baptists should rally to Paul no matter what the cost, and get the man the medical attention he deserves. If it takes a team of psychiatrists to straighten him out, so be it.

Couldn't get insurance because of a pre-existing condition, eh? Yup, that's what the recent health reform covered. It's a shame that his bills were passed along to his nearest surviving family member. There's something wrong about that, too.

In ancient China, a doctor got a premium, sort of like an insurance payment but not, only as long as the patient was healthy. The moment the patient sickened, the money stopped until the doctor made him/her well again.

WTF is up with that? SHE didn't get sick. Why should she get the tab? She should tell all those doctors, hospitals, labs, radiology groups, etc to go fuck themselves. See how that sits with those libertarian assholes.

Or maybe she should send it to all of those "friends, charities, neighbors..." that Paul touts as sources of assistance. Evidently Sen. Paul does not fit into any of those categories. What a fucking sadist.

to Wolf Blitzer yesterday discussing this with an interview with RP

under Ron Paul's plan. Or any plan that does not give everyone free access to healthcare. The actual savings is in not having to hire 'Death Panels.'

With these people, it's 'Zero Tolerance' for poor people.

The karmic wheel has a sense of humor, sort of..

is a first class whack job. This is the loon who say's that there is no need for FEMA and uses as a example the hurricane in Galveston in 1910, by saying the people were just fine with no federal support, failing to mention that 12 to 16 thousand people died. Ron Paul just believes if you're not rich and well off, you should just die if disaster befalls you and your family.

I want someone, ANYONE, hammering Ron Paul on this story. "Hey Ron, you had the money and the means, why did you let your friend die?"

Take this story and hang it around the GOPs neck. THIS is why we need universal healthcare Rethugs! Because like Paul, you selfish bastards would rather let people, even people you KNOW and have helped you personally DIE rather than help, you selfish, greedy bastards!

he might as well be named after Ayn Rand, judging by his actions.

I know for a fact that most of us un-insured really want to be insured. The choice being, do I feed my family or do I pay the premium? I lost my job because of medical problems, and as soon as my employer found out, I was out the door. Yes there are disability payments, but only a fraction of what I made before. This only covers the bare necessities, and yes, I have reduced my opulent life style, but all I have saved by doing without has been surpassed by price increases in food, fuel, etc. Disability has no "raises". So, that said, Is it my fault to have worked all of my life only to be rewarded with a quick death? No retirement for this guy, and then to be rejected by Wall-mart is the final insult.

Blitzer was quite clear that the person in the example simply chose to forgo insurance, as opposed to someone who doesn't have insurance because they cannot afford it and they are unemployed or their job doesn't offer it.

The difference between the two scenarios is dramatic and I for one feel very differently between the two them. The focus of the question shouldn't be on a person who chooses irresponsibility but upon someone who is suffering misfortune beyond their control. It makes me wonder what the reaction of the crowd might have been had Blitzer posed the question about someone who lost their job, lost their insurance and either could only get a job that didn't provide insurance or enough to pay for it, or couldn't get a job at all. Ah, who am I kidding the reaction probably would have been the same.

Ron Paul and all the other members of the House and Congress get Government Health Care paid by the People. We pay for them if THEY get sick, Even after they leave/retire from office they still are covered. They proved to the rest of America that they don't want us to have what they get because they turned down the public option on Obama Health care bill. At least the bill passed with feature that keeps Insurance company's from denying you for a per-existing condition, but that didn't happen till Obama. Maybe this guy would of had a better chance of survival if he didn't support Ron Paul.

if he wasn't worth 7 mill?

A $400,000 bill, eh?

I wonder what proportion of that is for the actual treatment, and what proportion is pure profit.

At least he died in maximum... free.. ness.

The anti-Paul might be in deep shit: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ohKz9OeiI0g&fe...!

While this story is sad, the guy did propel RP onto the presidential stage and obviously supported this 'libertarian' scenario. Should I feel sorry for him? This is his vision of America. He got exactly what he believed in.

PS surely, now, he resides in libertarian heaven.

"First, do no harm."

He, as a physician, should realize that as a public health issue EVERYONE needs to have coverage. And it cannot be FORCED "corporate" coverage because there will always be those (like me) who refuse to pay for-profit insurance companies a dime.

It would be more cost effective, safer for our country from a public health standpoint, better from a standards of care standpoint and simply would be better in multitudes of other reasons if the federal government simply opened up Medicare for all Americans from cradle to grave and improved it. Paid for with our tax dollars. I'm quite certain that if all the unnecessary military bases we now have internationally were shut down and our wars of aggression were stopped we could use that "Peace Dividend" for our healthcare. Every other industrialized nation (now China too!) has managed to have Universal Coverage. So can we.

For-profit insurance companies would only need to remain for the uber-rich who want to make sure they get what they want when they want it. (Private rooms etc.)

Dr. Paul should consider two different scenarios. One where only those who can afford it have access to medical care and the other possibility of ALL Americans having access to medical care, even if it means having satellite clinics set up all over the country for preventive care (vaccines, routine physicals, diet/exercise management, smoking/drug/alcohol cessation groups etc.) and acute medical problems.

Prevention is where it's at folks! Heart disease alone is an economic back breaker and DIET ALONE in most cases will reverse heart disease and prevent heart attack! (Check out Dr. Esselstyn's latest book).

God forbid we should have a deadly outbreak of some type of "new" and deadly virus. Imagine the death rate if a vast majority of Americans cannot "afford" healthcare compared to those who can.

He may be right about auditing the federal reserve, right about closing most of our bases all over the world, right about stopping the wars we're in, right about not trying to be the policeman of the world for U.S. corporate interests (Smedley Butler had that one right!), right about the war on drugs, right about preserving, protecting and defending the Constitution etc.

But he is DEAD wrong regarding his bone-headed thinking on healthcare. It's scary to think he is a physician.

And to make matters worse for his campaign he has gotten in knee-deep with the "adviser" Bruce Fein!

Neocon extraordinaire! A neocon who is thicker than thieves with the very neocons Paul denounces!

Abbybwood, R.N.

Pauls campaign manager was not denied medical care for lack of insurance. He died of complications from a pre-existing condition that was aggravated by Pneumonia.

the individual died a "free" man. as the unfortunate mr.snyder did. i'm certain sen. paul was there at the end, to praise his freedom.

He wants churches to pay for people's catastophic illnesses? Aside from the fact that most churches I know of would go bankrupt trying to pay for something like this, where does Paul think churches get their money? Does the individual taxpayer pay a few cents to the Government toward the common good... or does that SAME TAXPAYER have to pay his local church, temple or synagogue several dollars -- voluntarily -- to effect the same good? Paul's definition of Liberty here means "some other suckers will do it for me, at a greater burden to themselves". I don't buy it.

Over and above the Randian world-view's contempt for religion and its institutions, churches (and other types of houses of worship) don't operate by the principles of the market. They make their money from things like tithes (which are becoming rarer these days, I think), voluntary donations and your odd bake sale, jumble and benefit event. Of course, the bake sale et al. don't play by the rules of the Free Market either, since they depend on the parishioners donating their time and materials. So for the Free Market guy to say the public welfare should be served by churches seems a little disingenuous to me. Both churches AND Government are not-for-profit institutions, and the "tyranny" of my having to pay the Gov't for my neighbor's well-being is more than made up for by the good ol' fashioned Capitalist $avings I get by not having to pay more to the church. If I actually belonged to a church, which is a different matter...

Of course, Randians view charity as a vice. "Churches will do it" is just a polite public way of saying, "Go ahead and die."

The right-wingers' comments on here are disgusting, as if everything is naturally the deceased's fault and no one should care. What makes it fucking worse is that Paul was a doctor who could have helped the guy but didn't.

I've had Republicans and Libertarians deny to me in recent years that they are opposed to helping people, but they are. They snarl at the very idea.

And notice how Paul in his response to the hypothetical question about an uninsured thirty-year-old getting seriously ill spat out the words, "He expects the government to take care of him!" Well, that's what happens in most other countries and they have much better health indicators all-round than the US.

Paul and his foul kind think everything should be run like a business, by businesses, and that includes corporate businesses. And at the same time these fuckers claim to be against bureaucracy. Well, any American unfortunate enough to have had to deal with the uber-businesses that are the health insurance companies can attest to the fact that they are some of the most inefficient, clumsy bureaucracies around. That's not nearly as important as the fact that they are opposed to human health, since money is more important than people to these inhuman nutcases.

It is bizarre that so many Americans remain fooled by Ron Paul, thinking he's some kind of super-independent savior. He's the opposite.

the C & L crowd brings the best of hypocrites and highlights their blatant attempt to categorize everything as "right wing bad!!!!" "left wing, oh soooooo goooood". The jingoistic mentality of the C & L crowd is nothing more than parroting back talking points from the mainstream media. It's actually SICKENING reading comments from individuals who seem to think there are actually two parties battling it out for America, when; reality, history, logic and facts all tend to dismantle this notion of a two party system.

I love how Ron Paul speaks his mind and is actually honest about a subject and what does C & L do? Write up a little article about how his closest political ally died from pneumonia. WTF is that? Seriously? I don't know what it is that ignites the idiotic tribal fight of left/right, but it should really start with critiquing the administration in power, NO MATTER WHAT.

So where are the videos of Obama LYING like a CROOK.

Wallstreet + Wars + Corruption + Torture + CIA=Military + Backroom Deals + Fraud + Abuse + Waste + Exemptions.

Go ahead, try to make Ron Paul look bad for all of you tribalist freaks, but in the end, Obama is failing and the only person speaking truth to power is Dr. Paul (at least on the republican debate stage).

It's one thing to say "the system is broken" it's another to say that someone's honest opinion is "evil" or "immoral", when ultimately the reality is NOT EVERYONE is going to get the CARE THEY NEED, WHEN THEY NEED IT.

Hey where is all that AID money for Haiti?

Is it in Bill's pocket or Georgey boy's?

Being honest is better than lying about nearly EVERY subject you spoke about while running for office.

The real story that isn't told by the mainstream media: Kent Snyder was uninsurable due to a terminal illness, yet he still received the best possible care, which unfortunately could not save him. While uninsured patients are charged 2.5 times what insured patients are charged, in practice they are only expected to pay a quarter of what the insured pay. In other words, Kent's arbitrarily inflated $400,000 hospital bill could be taken care of for about $40,000, and as far as I know that's exactly what happened: about $50,000 was voluntarily raised by Ron Paul's supporters and paid to the hospital; the hospital was satisfied and did not try to collect the balance from Kent's estate. It was a voluntary and charitable solution in a broken system. Snyder knew he was not going to last much longer in this world. That's why he quit his job and went to work for Dr. Paul. He wanted to make a difference in the short time he had left. He gave it his all and SHAME on the mainstream media for making a mockery of this man's life and his passion for liberty! Kent Snyder is an inspiration to us all... and his spirit will not be forgotten.

The true reality is that government intervention in healthcare has counter-intuitively driven up the costs of medical attention and the cost of medical insurance. Compare the costs of medical treatments not covered by health insurance, such as laser eye surgery, and you will see that the costs have consistently gone down over time. The free market dictates that companies cannot charge the maximum amount for care. Contrast these prices to the dramatically increasing prices of treatments covered by insurance and government mandate. Though the intention is good in involving the government in healthcare, the results are disastrous. All too often, people do not distinguish intention vs results. The government, via subsidization and regulation, has created growing medical industries of uncharitable bureaucracy. These corporate special interests have disturbingly embedded themselves in with the government bureaucrats in an incestuous marriage, in which we have the wolves tending to the sheep. The corporate special interests lobby for regulations that allow for government-enabled and even government-mandated monopolies. The first director of the American Cancer Society, Clarence Cook Little, resigned in 1954 to become the Scientific Director of the Tobacco Industry Research Council. That move was chillingly convenient for the tobacco industry. “Cut, Poison, Burn” is the video that details just how corrupt one of the most government-trusted agencies in America, the American Cancer Society, has become. They have facilitated monopolization of cancer treatment and stifled innovation. Google it. Let’s remember how Reagan so inspiringly stated, "Government is not a solution to our problem, government is the problem."