How Insane Are They?
Via WTF is it now?, a report about an encounter of a Congresscritter and the Teabagging Clown Show: Congressman Parker Griffith hosts Impromptu town hall-like meeting at Crestwood Hospital in Huntsville
Griffith said House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, another Democrat from California, was “trying to force” the bill on to the floor, but the conservative-leaning Blue Dog Democrats – of which he is a member – halted it.
His answer to what most people see as a health care system in need of reform is to make private insurance more competitive and expand medical schools so that more doctors can get into the field and take care of people.
“You can’t reform an industry around scarcity,” Griffith said, adding that the crisis is as much an access issue as it is an insurance issue.
He repeatedly said he won’t support a public option for insurance, but several in the crowd repeatedly criticized him for taking the “liberals’ side” in the health care debate.
This guy is to the right of Genghis Khan, as everyone in his district knows, which leads to the conclusion that the people in crowd aren’t from his district, and only know that he has a D after his name.
I would note that he hasn’t figured out that if you don’t have insurance, you don’t get access, and that we have plenty of doctors, but they’re heavily weighted towards specialties, rather than the family physicians that are needed. He should really read the research on doctors which shows that more doctors increases costs, rather than decreasing them, which is what happens in other fields, i.e. the “free market” model doesn’t work in health care.
4 comments
we’re so-so on doctors, nationwide at least, on doctors [i don’t about locally]. we’ve got more doctors per capita than canada and the uk and new zealand and mexico and turkey, but we’re behind most of the rest of the oecd countries.
not to knock internists and general practitioners and family docs, but there’s no real reason that many specialists can’t serves as primary care doctors for a lot of people. i’ve done that, and so have some of my friends, especially those with chronic conditions.
but yeah, free markets, my left foot.
.-= last blog ..Health care town hall meetings, August 2009 =-.
The specialists can act as primary care physicians, if they will, and if your insurance plan allows it. My Mother relies more on her kidney specialist than her internist because he’s ex-military and a liberal Democrat. He will also admit mistakes. Her internist is just too busy and overloaded as she tries to maintain a private practice. The kidney guy gave up and joined a joint practice that he will dump in a heartbeat if single-payer passes.
We are over doctored in this area between Fort Walton and Destin. Three hospitals not counting the base hospital. It’s absurd.
heh. ft walton-destin is over [alottastuff]-ed.
.-= last blog ..Health care town hall meetings, August 2009 =-.
You have to wonder how long it can continue with the current economic conditions and the end of growth in Florida.