CNN Finally Discovers the Red State Health Care Disaster
For months, Crooks and Liars has documented an often overlooked but inescapable truth of the contentious health-care reform debate: Health care is generally worst in those red states where the Republican political leadership is most opposed to reform. (For example, see here, here, here and here.) Only now, after the narrow House vote this weekend, did CNN look at the Republican Senators committed to blocking health care for their residents who need it most.
Monday's "Keeping Them Honest" segment hosted by Anderson Cooper came three days after Texas Governor Rick Perry and Newt Gingrich in a Washington Post op-ed proclaimed the Lone Star State a model for health care policy. But as Cooper finally discovered, Texas "lawmakers voting against health care reform" happen to represent "the state with the worst number of people covered by health insurance."
RANDI KAYE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Anderson, here's what we found out today. There are more uninsured in red states than there are in blue states, which is interesting since all Republican senators are expected to vote against the public health care option.
As for Texas, which leads the nation with a staggering 25% of its population uninsured, the human toll of Republican obstructionism is devastating:
COOPER: And what about Texas? The state with the most uninsured, I mean --- with the most uninsured?
KAYE: And also the children there, too, as well are also uninsured. And if you look at the numbers for Texas, one quarter of Texas' entire population is without health insurance. That's six million Texans, Anderson.
The state's children are in really bad shape, too. The Census Bureau says, about 1.3 million children in Texas are without health insurance which is more, actually, than 18 percent. So if you look at those numbers, 18 percent in Texas compared to the U.S., 10.3 percent of children in the U.S. without health insurance…
COOPER: So if -- in Texas if the rate of uninsured dropped to like the national average, what does that mean for people there?
KAYE: It would be pretty significant, it turns out, Anderson. If Texas could reduce its uninsured rate from 25 percent to 15 percent to match the national average, another 2.4 million people in Texas would be covered. That's a lot of people.
That's a lot of people, indeed.
But the tragedy in Texas hardly ends with its swollen rolls of uninsured. As I recently detailed, Texas ranked 46th in the Commonwealth Fund's 2009 scorecard of state health care performance. Among the poster children for the failure of red state health care, Rick Perry's state brought up the rear across the five areas measured. And when it comes to health care access and equity, Texas is dead last.
Of course, Texans have plenty of company among their red state brethren when it comes to dismal health care. The Commonwealth Fund's analysis tells the tale. While nine of the top 10 performing states voted for Barack Obama in 2008, four of the bottom five (including Arkansas, Mississippi, Oklahoma and Louisiana) and 14 of the last 20 backed John McCain. (That at least is an improvement from the 2007 data, in which all 10 cellar dwellers had voted for George W. Bush three years earlier.)
Meanwhile, back in Washington, the opposition to health care reform legislation from the two Texas Senators appears to be directly proportional to their constituents' misery. As CNN's Randi Kaye concluded:
Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison's people told us that she is in favor of health care reform but against the public option. Hutchinson calls the bill the House just passed over the weekend a quote, "terrible bill that hijacks our health care system."
The senator says she will quote, "Do everything in her power to prevent this bill and anything remotely similar to it from passing the senate." Instead, she says medical malpractice reform and tax credits for people who purchase insurance will lead to more affordable health insurance.
Texas' other senator Republican Senator John Cornyn wants competition and choice. He has said a government-run single payer system, Anderson, would drive insurers out of the market and limit competition.
Sadly for John Cornyn's mythmaking, a "government-run single payer system" is not part of the legislation either passed by the House or now in front of the Senate. But as CNN belatedly discovered, everything – including the lies over its tattered health care system - is bigger in Texas.
Did we go through slavery, a civil war, civil rights and dead Kennedys for this?
Mr. Obama, I am sure of a couple things.
I did not vote for you in order for you to accomplish this.
You ran on being historic, but you are not being historic...
Huh? Can't even compose a response to this post because it is apropos of nothing in this article. Can you maybe connect the dots between Obama, dead Kennedy's and Rick Perry's lousy health stats? And how is Obama responsible for the crappy health care situation in red states? Or Congress's inability to pass reform for that matter?
to be responsible for any of this?
WTF are some of you smoking?
Are you saying Mr. Obama does NOT have superpowers?
He's saved the world!
;)
You take what you want for us and we'll take SINGLE PAYER.
You had your time. Your President was a failure. Elections have consequences. The country is going in a new direction. Sorry you do not like that direction, but you will have 2012 to change that. Good luck. Another 36 million insured I am sure will put another couple of million votes in the Democratic column, which is a big deal when elections are typically won by only a few million votes.
It is funny the Democrats have 5 out of 5 congressional elections since Obama took office. How can that be if he is doing such a bad job? They are adding to their majorities.
Really? Do you read the news?
The wars, continued giveaways to Wall Street pirates, a corporate-friendly dog of a health care 'reform' bill, faith-based initiatives - with a board of clerics as advisers, something even George Bush didn't try...
This 'new direction' is all in the minds of people speechified by the empty suit called Obama.
"the state with the worst number of people covered by health insurance."
This is exactly what they want on a national scale.
In this case I think they were telling the truth . . .
"I know that there are people who do not love their fellow
man, and I hate people like that! " ~ Tom Lehrer (1928 - )
Next, maybe they will dare to acknowledge (politely paraphrased) the fact that the South is our very own Christian Taliban-ruled Dumbhickistan, violently opposed to reality's well known-liberal bias.
Alan Grayson for President, Elizabeth Warren for Vice President, and Paul Krugman for Secretary of the Treasury!
If it wasn't for the VA system I'd probably be dead long before now.
Then where else would you find:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JN5Mqr6tRlw
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dc3ei1tseeM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WLDfWjDxpn4&fe...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6RwYXaTN_CY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=La2wjN0Fps8&fe...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vl9kr45zKFY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mV1LWhNpTJU
Diabolus est Deus Inversus
once.....where one was proud to be a Texan. Sadly, that was a long time ago. At least it seems that way. On the plus side, we're ggoing to have an African-American male or a white lesbian for mayor here in Houston, for what it's worth.
I'd thought I'd get this in before all the regional bigotry starts...in 5...4...3...
Lots and lots of good progressive and thoughtful folks in Texas too.
There are idiots all over - Texas gets a bad rap - some from Bush who really isn't a Texan anyway.
A bunch of good authors and writers from there too.
"I know that there are people who do not love their fellow
man, and I hate people like that! " ~ Tom Lehrer (1928 - )
because over and over there have been threads where someone in Texas does/says/enacts something asinine, and the WHOLE population gets blamed. Texas bashing left and right, no pun intended. Chimpy is what really hurt this place. It's far from prefect here, and worse since the reich-wing took over, but we have good points here and there.
(Secession comments in 5..4..3..)
chimpy's from connecticut, like liebermann.
Diabolus est Deus Inversus
Chimpy and family will be forever associated with this place.
He was voted governor.
Multiple times.
hateful twits, the two of them.
... some idiots show their regional bigotry. And also, some Texas folks equate saying enything remotely negative about their state's actions as a personal afront.
I have seen threads in which the posts from people living in red states claiming how mean those blue elitist folk are going to be to their precious states, somehow ended up outnumbering the posts that could be remotely construed as being bigoted.
...
I'm referring to. Like the one a little below (at least on my screen) this one.
I'll gladly bash Bush or Perry or Hutchinson, or Cornyn...but not at the expense of saying everyone that lives here is a retarded troll.
I think it is just better tos concentrate on the problems your homegrown retards create in your state, rather than losing sleep over what some retard from another state may think.
Is it true that Austin is to Texas what Atlanta is to Georgia, an island of sanity in a sea of ignorance?
San Antonio isn't really too bad, IMO.
"Parachutes are allowed in checked or carry-on baggage, but may not be worn in flight."
---Southwest Airlines
El Paso is a blue county as are a lot of south Texas counties.
Educate and inform the whole mass of the people... They are the only sure reliance for the preservation of our liberty.
Thomas Jefferson
prevails if you travel far enough south in Texas to find green grass year round.
Alan Grayson for President, Elizabeth Warren for Vice President, and Paul Krugman for Secretary of the Treasury!
Didn't Crooks and Liars just cover this issue a couple of days ago? Why wasn't A.C. pounding on the senate office doors of these two dip shits from Texas, demanding an explaination on why Texas TORT reform has done NOTHING for Texans... except to limit the rewards they can get for medical mal-practice. It hasn't improved our insurance... or the cost of it... or the availability. Republican SMOKE SCREENS! Kay Bailey and John C. are MAJOR LEAGUE HYPOCRITES. They don't give a damn about Texans who are un-insured.
Tort reform actually made things worse, but Anderson Cooper's "Keeping Them Honest" segment just let Cornyn and Hutchison blow that smoke.
This information has been published in the Dallas Morning News several weeks ago. No big deal to most Texans. The DMN published a few letters to the editor in response, most of them taking offense at the "liberal" bent of the DMN reporters. There are a few good reasons to live in this state, but I have to think real hard to come up with more than just a couple.
Those wingnuts really don't have any working neurons left do they?
That's why I no longer take the Dallas Morning News.
They hold me to a more exacting standard in letters to the editors than they do the conservatives.
The editors actually wrote me back after I sent one about a headline concerning the Jonas Brothers. I pointed out that Disney who owns the Jonas Brothers and the Dallas Morning News were connected by Belo Corporation.
They wrote me their part of Belo Corporation was sold a year ago, so they wouldn't print the letter as it wasn't factual.
Of course the Jonas Brothers have been around for at least four years, three of which when there was a connection between the three corporations. But I didn't respond. Indubitably they probably still have a financial interest in the twirps.
I thought it odd, because if they hadn't printed my letter at all and not contact me, that would've been the normal way of handling the matter, since they don't like to publish letters from any one reader too often.
And besides, when did "facts" matter in an opinion section?
Especially one where letters to the editorial complain about their "liberal" paper.
For any major election for like head goober, senate, house, or president they always endorse the conservative.
Diabolus est Deus Inversus
why you're writing about the Jonas Brothers...
;)
I was just adding that when you responded.
It was their lead story for the day on the top of the front page.
I think it was during the tea-bagger nonsense of August.
Diabolus est Deus Inversus
I have a friend in Kerrville that writes letters to the editor there and they publish him a lot...and he's not right-winger, either. Kerrville as a whole though, is very red.
I've lost count, but I think I've had about 20 printed.
Usually it's about movies and entertainment, at least once about evolution, and one with three our four questions I had about the projected Iraq surge.
Diabolus est Deus Inversus
On the editorial page they endorsed him against Ann Richards and the reason they gave in that article was simply that he was 'someone different'. That's it. There was nothing said about Ann Richards' campaign platform or anything that Clayton supported (I can't remember anything he promoted either). What a public service that 'major newspaper' provided, meanwhile the Fort Worth Star Telegram did an editorial supporting Ann,...but that newspaper gave 'reasons' .
Clayton Williams did win the "best rape joke told during a press conference" award. That had to count for something.
In terms of the "Texas bashing", as a former resident, I feel that Texans would get a lot less crap if they stopped re-electing morons. At some point, it is a fair point that at least a majority of the voters there voted for lunatics like Perry.
Probably one of the least educated states in the country too. The two go hand in hand, manipulate the ignorant sheeple. That is why the Blue states have higher rates of people insured. Smarter.
Didn't take long did it?
The problem is that they are factually correct. 49th place out of 50 is not something to brag about:
http://www.census.gov/compendia/statab/tables...
If you are going to complain about "being picked on" when the truth is being pointed out, then it comes off like you are trying to be offended.
I'm a product of the Dallas Independent School District, and the Dallas County Community College District.
Diabolus est Deus Inversus
Kidding.....
You know I love ya like the mother I had committed against her will.
Whose mother?
http://www.eatmedaily.com/wordpress/wp-conten...
Diabolus est Deus Inversus
The link is to the Marge Simpson on Playboy's cover, but I click it, it says "Forbidden". Marge must be doin' the nasty. (Probably the only way to have sex with Homer)
http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http:/...
Diabolus est Deus Inversus
A few years ago, after US occupation of Iraq had shown that Saddam was telling the truth about not having WMDs, one clown...I mean, columnist, at the Washington ComPost wrote a piece saying "Everybody was wrong about WMDs!" His bu**sh** piece of nonsense inferred that there was no opposition, that there was no one saying there weren't WMDs, that Scott Ritter, Hans Blix, independent media and others were figments of our imagination.
The rightwing media lies and toes the republican line so they can maintain access and show loyalty. Their "editorial stance" doesn't change when the facts change, their stance changes when the facts are no longer avoidable, like now after the health care bill is passed.
Thanks!
.. think I'll start calling it that myself !
When will government of the people, by the politicians, for the corporations perish from this Earth?
Not soon enough!
If you cannot afford coverage, you get no coverage.
It says a lot about the red state voters that this is the state of their health care and they actually think having the government try to fix it is going to kill them all.
That word would be - stupid. I'm sorry - ignorant doesn't cover it when you let other people tell you what to think.
*
Highest illiteracy, teen pregnancy, poverty,
HS dropouts, and worst health care.
Yea... I guess I'm an elitist. They just keep votin'
in bumb ol' boys like themselves. Someone they could have a beer with...and wear cowboy hats.
That's what really get's me. Friggin' cowboy hats.
Like children dressed up in a fireman suit.
Guess what...there ain't no more cowboys. They lasted about 30yrs and the majority of them were !OMG! black.
I have friends and neighboors that make their living on the sea. A 200+ year old, life threating tradition
but no one goes around in foul weather gear or a sou'wester on their head. If they did they'd be laughed
at. Especially if they didn't even own a boat. If one of our politicians appeared in a sou'wester he'd be laughed off the stage.
When will the red states grow up and realize their
concept of their herritage is made up out of whole cloth by a bunch of old bald Jews from Hollywood?
Cowboy hats... posers. ('cept the ones that have a horse, or a cow or somethin'!)
LOL
Alan Grayson for President, Elizabeth Warren for Vice President, and Paul Krugman for Secretary of the Treasury!
a dunce hat?
As for Texas, which leads the nation with a staggering 25% of its population uninsured, the human toll of Republican obstructionism is devastating:
devastating \devastating\ adjective
1. highly critical; making light of; as, a devastating portrait of human folly.
Syn: annihilating, withering. [WordNet 1.5]
2. causing or capable of causing complete destruction; as, a devastating hurricane.
Syn: annihilative. [WordNet 1.5]
Gosh...this is big news to pooper anderson? Give me a break. Does he live in a vacuum someplace??
You have to wonder where these idiots have been getting their reading material for the last few years?
What an ass. Geee....shocker!
We would be so far ahead if we had given the South their independence. Slavery would still be well and alive, and the poor would be competing with the third world countries in earnest.
The senator says she will quote, "Do everything in her power to prevent this bill and anything remotely similar to it from passing the senate." Instead, she says medical malpractice reform and tax credits for people who purchase insurance will lead to more affordable health insurance
What the senator didn't address was why after 7 years of "tort reform", Texas still has most uninsured population of any state in the nation.
Cooper has the brain of a worm. His analysis: "Republicans and Democrats see things differently". It's like when he used to cover a hurricane and noted how windy it was.
with nice hair.
What more do you want from an anchor?
The Florida rate of uninsured is much more significant than the 23-or-thereabouts percent would indicate because Florida, at 17%, has the highest percentage of residents over 65 in the country--virtually all of whom are covered by Medicare.
You know, I despair that this country is ever going to reform until we realy do have a replay of the Great Depression. We came about as close as could be w/o actually having one and the poisonous dominance of corporate interest still doesn't seem to have sunk in enough to translate into political action. Rats.
It truly boggles the mind that people are actually against healthcare reform. And Kay Bailey Hutchinson's suggestion that tort reform and tax credits is the answer is totally ludicrous, but that's what Republicans are peddling. Malpractice is a tiny percentage of the total cost. In addition, many states have already implemented tort reform and put caps on settlements. We still have a huge battle ahead. Now we have some doctor in the AMA trying to get them to rescind their support for the Bill.
because some of us think that Perry too thinks he will be president. Perry is a tool for the monied trogs that own Texas. A few years ago Perry and the lege outsourced social services and changed the CHIP rules so that tens of thousands of children lost health coverage. Some died. My Rep, John Davis, was on the committee that hatched the plot, but that didn't stop him for taking credit two years later when they moved to undo some of the damage. Hell, people are still suffering from this fiasco; understaffed HHS is taking months to process some foodstamp applications.
http://www.liquiddaddy.blogspot.com/
I live in the suburbs of Atlanta and to be honest the whole area is dysfunctional. The bubbas run the suburbs and are not interested in co-operating with the city, while the city is the economic hub of the area, something the suburb clods try to deny, but is falling apart in many regards and short of funds. The statehouse is a center of complete Republican none sense. An example. The local commuter rail system, MARTA, runs in only two counties that are the heart of the city - the other counties refuse to let the system into their counties, and most of the resistance is racist. Meantime the whole region is choking to death on traffic. It takes me over 1.5 hours to drive 24 miles to and from work - on a good day. Basically once my kids get to college I am probably going to leave GA and the deep south as I've had enough of the morons that make up most of the south.
of Detroit.
Good luck in the ATL.
Get sick, get shot.
"If yer can't stay ahealthy ay-und be a pur-ducin mem-bur of so-sigh-et-tay, we-yun don't need yur draggin on da see-stum!"
A fast track to what Grayson says the repugs health care plan is if you get sick die quickly.
with Kansas?
Excellent book demonstraing how people are just twisted enough in the head in some places to continually vote against their interests.
Kind of like this:
Senator: "We can stop gays from getting married if you good folks in the state would stop eating."
Folks in the State: "You bet. Thank you for caring about what really matters."
First, why is Cornyn talking about "single payer"?? The Public Option is not Single Payer. My understanding is that Single Payer is where everyone is in a government insurance program.
Second, the clip doesn't emphasize how being insured actually saves the government (i.e., all taxpayers) money. Uninsured people go to emergency rooms. The fact that Texas has such a high percentage of uninsured means that Texas is siphoning off more money than every other state for healthcare. Either that or the pressure on the bottom line for its hospitals must be tremendous.
Conservatives talk about how wonderful our health care system is, but there are emergency rooms closing across the nation because of lack of reimbursement for the high costs from the government and insurance companies.
46,000,000± Americans uninsured. 6,000,000 of 46,000,000 = 13% Texas has 13% of the uninsured. Texas has 8% of the U.S. population. Doesn't seem fair does it? Texas also takes more from the U.S. government that in give in taxes. Bush is from Texas (kind of). Is there any way that Texas can secede from the union?
Of course, of the 4 states they covered, 3 were blue states according to their own map. Also, of the 4, only LA doesn't have a serious problem with illegal immigration (illegal immigrants are counted as UNINSURED!)
It IS true that statistically, red states have more uninsured, but they are concentrated in districts that are heavily BLUE districts.
Hey - even better - Indians insured by IHS are counted as UNINSURED! That's right, even the census bureau agrees that government run healthcare means you have no health insurance....
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