Nancy Sarowski is at it again. How is it that one person can be so insulated from the real world that she can, on a weekly basis, display her insensitivity, lack of knowledge, and appalling arrogance? Today’s debacle has something to do with “entitlement” and the Affordable Care Act and emergency room abuse. Each week, it takes a lot of work to follow Sarowski’s arguments and in that regard, her column this week won’t disappoint you. And to top it off, there’s another ridiculous assault on people who choose to avoid gender bias in their choice of words. “When my body needs something I can’t fix, I ask my doctor. He’s helping me. (Note to the politically correct police: my doctor is actually male.)” If you don’t laugh at this one, your sense of humor died along with whatever penchant for logic Sarowski herself may have ever had.
When I started reading her column today, I was afraid she was going to go after federal programs known as “entitlements.” But as with most people, Sarowski doesn’t really know what those are, so she goes on a rant about how people go to the emergency room when sick or injured whether they can afford to or not. Sarowski claims that’s something she would never do and then for some reason equates this with people looking for the government to solve their problems. (I know, I know…none of it follows, but try to stay with me.)
Let’s pause a moment and recognize the audacity that encompasses her claim. Essentially she is saying that if you can’t afford it, you aren’t entitled to health care. (She takes another of her patented shots at immigrants here as well.) Because emergency rooms are required to aid the sick and injured, and because private doctors can refuse to treat those who can’t afford treatment, it’s true that many Americans are forced to use the emergency room when less expensive care is still not affordable. This is one of the national scandals the ACA seeks to solve. Yet curiously Sarowski says “Obamacare, as far as I can tell, doesn’t address this problem.” Well, Nancy, you don’t have to get too far into the ACA to know that it’s EXACTLY this kind of problem the ACA attempts to solve.
If people had health insurance, they would not be forced to seek treatment in emergency rooms. Only those who cannot get treatment by their regular doctors would be forced to misuse the emergency room; and since ALL of us would have a way to pay our doctors, emergency rooms would be reserved for…uh…uh…emergencies! But Nancy has all the money she needs for health care and has zero ways to understand how the poor and middle class without insurance must live from one health crisis to the next.
Sarowski then takes a real curious shot at tort reform which is not supported by reality. Sarowski thinks that doctors are constantly being sued by unscrupulous lawyers for every tiny misdeed. Sounds like fun to rip lawyers, but in Michigan since John Engler restricted our right to receive compensation for corporate misdeeds and negligence, it’s very difficult to seek redress for malpractice.
Still with me? (I barely am!) Sarowski then tells the honest truth for the first time in months. “No matter what your political philosophy is, everyone knows that the current health care program is going to bankrupt our system.” Exactly! That’s why the President proposed, the Congress approved, and the Supreme Court has upheld the Affordable Care Act. Your grievances, Nancy, are being addressed. Right before your clouded eyes!
I don’t have time or space to document all the benefits of the ACA and how insurance companies around the country are actually reducing premiums as parts of the program are implemented. Those stories are easy to find and document. If conservatives would get out of the way of a program they don’t understand, the United States could end the shame it should be feeling about our current health system. But conservatives suspect two things:
1) Something our black president has done might actually cement his legacy as one of our nation’s greatest presidents; and
2) People who aren’t rich might actually get on the road to healthier lives they can afford.
Both of these things will keep Sarowski and her ilk up at night. And insomnia can lead to poor health. And she might end up in the emergency room with “those” people. And that just wouldn’t be right.
Whopper Line of the Week: (a new feature pinpointing the most ridiculous comment in Sarowksi’s column.)
“In all situations, conservatives start with the individual’s responsibility not the government’s. Actually the government is the last resource to be tapped.”
So when conservatives run to the government demanding tax breaks before they’ll build in a community, and tax breaks before they’ll add more jobs, and exemptions from pollution standards, and protection from foreign competition, they’re pulling themselves up by their own bootstraps? And when conservatives seek to control women’s bodies, and prevent people who love each other from sharing that love, and institute rules to restrict voting rights, they’re honoring the individual? Hogwash.
The Grumblings 
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