Rick Santorum Disputes That People Die Because Of A Lack Of Health Insurance

Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum challenged students during a question and answer session Monday night at Drodt College, a small conservative Christian school in Northwest Iowa.

A freshman student pressed Santorum on healthcare. "With all due respect Sen. Santorum, I don't think God appreciates the fact that we have 50-100 thousand uninsured Americans dying due to a lack of healthcare every year," said Ryan Walters, according to CNN.

After questioning the student on his numbers, Santorum rejected them. "I reject that number completely, that people die in America because of lack of health insurance. People die in America because people die in America. And people make poor decisions with respect to their health and their healthcare," he said. "And they don't go to the emergency room or they don't go to the doctor when they need to. And it's not the fault of the government for not providing some sort of universal benefit."

A 2009 Harvard Medical School study published in the American Journal of Public Health showed that 45,000 deaths per year are associated with a lack of health insurance, and uninsured, working-age Americans have a 40 percent higher risk of death than their privately insured counterparts.

Santorum defended health insurers Friday in New Hampshire on the issue of pre-existing conditions. "We have a child who has a pre-existing condition and we went out and we said, we like this plan," he said. "We have to pay more because she has a pre-existing condition. Well, we should pay more. She's going to be very expensive to the insurance company and, you know, that cost is passed along to us... I'm okay with that." He then went onto compare health insurance rates to auto insurance rates. Santorum favors repealing the health care law President Barack Obama signed and replacing it with "consumer driven" reforms.

In the same appearance, Santorum took a question from a student who compared gay marriage to interracial marriage and pressed him why it would be "a hit to faith and family in America." He responded by saying that if gay marriage was legalized then "their sexual activity" would be seen as "equal" to heterosexual relationships and it would be "taught in our schools."

Santorum has made more campaign stops in Iowa than any other Republican presidential candidate, yet he netted just six percent support among likely Republican Caucus-goers according to a Des Moines Register poll released Saturday.

 

 

Comments

[HipsterCorgi]

11:52 AM on 12/17/2011

Santorum apparently knows more about lack of health care-related deaths than Harvard does.

[ritamary]

05:38 PM on 12/07/2011

Rick Santorum continues to promote the Republicons' heath care plan. Part 1) Don't get sick. Part 2) If you do get sick, die quickly.

[HipsterCorgi]

11:53 AM on 12/17/2011

And then he blames those people for making bad choices. What a jerk.

[coffeeamust]

05:28 PM on 12/07/2011

There are a lot of things I want to say but am too angry. Santorum is self-rightous, ignorant, stupid...that's all because the rest aren't printable.

[HipsterCorgi]

11:54 AM on 12/17/2011

Ditto!

[Robert Lee Harrington]

04:15 PM on 12/07/2011

This is news? Republicans always deny reality.

[ge944]

03:17 PM on 12/07/2011

Typical repulsican attitude 'My mind's made uo don't confuse me with facts'

[sickupandfed]

02:58 PM on 12/07/2011

To be president, don't you have to be smarter than a fifth-grader? Santorum makes W look like a Rhodes scholar.

[slickbottom]

02:13 PM on 12/07/2011

Santorum is a stain on the under-britches of humanity.

[RichardinJax]

01:57 PM on 12/07/2011

His method is to "excuse away" a problem. Wouldn't that make a great President?

[mariusvinchi]

01:56 PM on 12/07/2011

As an ER physician I can attest to the reality that people die every minute from lack of insurance and every 30 minutes WITH insurance.
What Santorum fails to realize is that the uninsured die from lack of "preventative care." As a rule, the only time they see a doctor, is when they are seriously ill in an emergency setting. Often too late.

[ritamary]

05:41 PM on 12/07/2011

Please do not confuse Republicons with facts.

[HipsterCorgi]

11:56 AM on 12/17/2011

Yes, they speak purely from the heart (lack of).

[iconico62]

01:51 PM on 12/07/2011

And people still flock to hear this idiot talk? I used to have a neighbor who thought the movie "Texas Chainsaw Massacre" was a documentary and, come to think of it, he made more sense than Sanatorium.

[StopMakingSense2]

01:10 PM on 12/07/2011

Just another example of a rubepublican not letting reality get in the way of dogma. What color is the sky in their world?

[HipsterCorgi]

11:56 AM on 12/17/2011

Green.

[navalvet]

12:38 PM on 12/07/2011

Santorum's comments make as much sense as Ron Paul's assertion that Medicare has not saved any lives, among the elderly.

[pphhrogg]

12:26 PM on 12/07/2011

THREE articles on a DISHONEST ignoramus who will NEVER be POTUS? You've sunk to a new low, HP.

[arid]

02:12 PM on 12/07/2011

Hey, HP is just trying to help another GOP candidate beat Romney in the polls only to watch the numbers do an inglorious fall. It's a hoot to watch the rise and crash. After Santorum, we still have Huntsman, Johnson and Roemer. All that should bring us to around July 2012.

[ritamary]

05:44 PM on 12/07/2011

If you are not interested in Rick Santorum nobody forces you to read about him. I think sunlight is the best disinfectant.

[mr e vader]

12:15 PM on 12/07/2011

Apparently running for president has switched from being a "career path" to a career.

[HipsterCorgi]

11:59 AM on 12/17/2011

Spewing hate is what he was born to do.

[David LS]

12:06 PM on 12/07/2011

There is an intense competition amongst republican candidates for president that seems to defy the standard of simple logical thought processes.
The rhetoric is so dramatically stupid, that you would be led to believe you are watching a very poorly written soap opera.