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McCain’s Health Care Architect: I Was Joking When I Said There Are No Uninsured Americans

In an interview with the Dallas Morning News last month, John Goodman, the “Father of Health Savings Accounts” and architect of Sen. John McCain’s (R-AZ) health care plan, claimed that the term “uninsured” is misleading because Americans have ER access. Goodman then suggested that the Census Bureau should “cease and desist from describing any American” as uninsured.

After Goodman’s comments drew ferocious criticism, he avoided speaking to the press. Yesterday, in an interview with conservative radio host Mike Gallagher, Goodman finally commented, claiming that he was only being “tongue-in-cheek” and that anyone “on the left” who was upset had “no sense of humor.”

But he undermined this claim moments later when he agreed with Gallagher that “it’s not true” that there are “millions without health care”:

GALLAGHER: No sense of humor. And yet, there’s truth though in your tongue-in-cheek assertion because, let’s face it, there are, as you said, there’s a variety of ways that people are covered and yet the media pounds this message over and over, millions without health care, millions without coverage, millions without access to health care. And Dr. Goodman, that simply isn’t true.

GOODMAN: No, it’s not true and we’ve made it increasingly easy in this country for people to get insurance after they get sick, which is one of the reasons why we have so many people who are uninsured.

Listen here:

According to the Census, 45.7 million Americans didn’t have insurance in 2007. As ThinkProgress noted in August, Goodman’s analysis not only reflects a radical view of the state of American health care, but it also reflects McCain’s health care plan.

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After his initial comments were reported, the McCain campaign attempted to distance itself from Goodman, claiming that he had only given advice on “an unpaid, voluntary basis” and that they had “requested that he not identify himself as being associated with the campaign.”

Transcript:

GALLAGHER: Recently, the group’s president, Dr. John Goodman, made some headlines. He’s a health economist and he made what I guess are considered controversial comments about the nation’s uninsured Americans. And it’s not, it wasn’t tough, it’s not tricky. Mr. Goodman challenged statistics where people say millions of people are without health coverage. And, of course this is the kind of common sense that I like from this organization. And it’s why I’m very pleased to welcome Dr. John Goodman, president of the National Center for Policy Analysis to the Mike Gallagher Show. Dr, great having you on the program Dr. Goodman, how are ya?

GOODMAN: I’m just great Mike.

GALLAGHER: Appreciate your time sir. We’ve got a lot to cover in a short period of time, and I certainly want to talk with you a little bit about the bailout, this controversial $700 billion blank check that the Bush administration thinks it will be the way out of the financial mess we’re in. But first let’s go to your comments about the uninsured in America. In a nutshell, and correct me if I’m wrong, but in a nutshell you said, “listen, it’s not really accurate to say we have millions of uninsured people who can’t get health care coverage. Anybody in America who has the ability to walk into the front door of an emergency room and any of our nation’s hospitals has health care coverage.” Isn’t that pretty much the gist of it?

GOODMAN: Well, what I said was that people who need health care typically get it paid for by someone else if they don’t have insurance. And one place people get health care is the hospital emergency room. One out of every four uninsured persons is entitled to enroll in Medicaid or SCHIP, which is the program for children. Many people can enroll in their employers program. And so, tongue-in-cheek I said, “maybe we should just quit counting the uninsured and instead count all the ways they’re going to try to seek money from others if they need care. But a lot of people on the left who have no sense of humor…

GALLAGHER: No, that’s true. Just ask those we’ve been talking about today, people who have been keying other peoples vehicles with car keys because they don’t like them driving around in a Hummer.

GOODMAN: That’s no sense of humor at all.

GALLAGHER: No sense of humor. And yet, there’s truth though in your tongue-in-cheek assertion because, let’s face it, there are, as you said, there’s a variety of ways that people are covered and yet the media pounds this message over and over, millions without health care, millions without coverage, millions without access to health care. And Dr. Goodman, that simply isn’t true.

GOODMAN: No, it’s not true and we’ve made it increasingly easy in this country for people to get insurance after they get sick, which is one of the reasons why we have so many people who are uninsured. Most people don’t realize it, but in the hospital emergency room, right there when they’re receiving care, people who are eligible for Medicaid can join. And if a child is eligible for the SCHIP program they can sign the papers right there in the emergency room. In fact, in Dallas at Parkland Hospital and at Children’s Hospital right next door, they sign people up in the emergency room.

GALLAGHER: Wow wow.