Thursday, January 8, 2015

Rep. Reid Ribble's GOP solution to Health Care: "...help people not have access to insurance, but have access to health care itself." Huh?

Uh oh, I think our own Republican Rep. Reid Ribble is bringing back the "chicken for health care" barter system.

Remember this amazing suggestion from the "party of ideas?" The Guardian:
Republican politician Sue Lowden, a wealthy casino owner who challenged Sen. Harry Reid, started propounding her chicken-based healthcare plan. "You know, before we all started having health care, in the olden days, our grandparents, they would bring a chicken to the doctor. They would say I'll paint your house.... In the old days that's what people would do to get health care with their doctors. Doctors are very sympathetic people. I'm not backing down from that system." 
In not so many words, Reid Ribble is seemingly on board. While other Republicans waffle, supporting a vague "patient centered" system of care, Ribble may have let the chicken out-of-the-bag:
Replace the Affordable Care Act with...what we believe will help people not have access to insurance, but have access to health care itself, we think there's a better way to go about it."
I know, it blew my mind too. It was nonsensical, and WPR's host amazingly didn't think to ask him what the hell he was talking about. But wait, there's more...
"If you don't address the issue of access to health care, but force a person to purchase a product they may not in some parts of the country be able to use because there's not adequate service providers, we think that's not the right approach to fix it." 
I'm going to try to unpack what sounds like big government conservatism, point by point:
1. Big government would bypass through regulation, insurers, in a not so free market way? Sounds a lot like the beginning stages of single payer.

2. Big government would require adequate service providers everywhere for direct patient access? This issue is not something I've ever heard Republicans complain about.

3. That leaves the payment system up for grabs (chickens?). And cost containment? Eh. 
Ribble's website doesn't address this bizarre new angle. Here's the audio clip of Ribble's verbal trip down the rabbit hole:



4 comments:

  1. It sounds like you are against people having access to healthcare.

    orlin sellers

    ReplyDelete
  2. Maybe you should reword it then because that is exactly what it says to me.
    btw, do you have that doctor's name who will take chickens for payment.

    orlin sellers

    ReplyDelete
  3. I didn't give an opinion, and I wanted to highlight the lack of a GOP plan that made sense.

    If all it takes is a chicken or two, I'd like to get that doctors name too.

    ReplyDelete