Sen. Kyl Not Sure People Die From Lack of Health Insurance

On Meet the Press Sunday, Sen. Jon Kyl (R-AZ) was asked by host David Gregory if it is "a necessity to tackle the fact that there are more and more Americans who die because they don't have access to health insurance?"

Kyl responded with incredulity:

I'm not sure that it's a fact that more and more people die because they don't have health insurance. But because they don't have health insurance, the care is not delivered in the best and most efficient way.

As TPM points out, a highly publicized Harvard research study made headlines just last month. It estimated that 45,000 Americans die each year because they lack access to health insurance and that uninsured Americans are 40 percent more likely to die than Americans who are insured.

Kyl has been committing healthcare blunders right and left. Last month, he quipped about not needing maternity care while he was arguing that insurance companies should not be mandated to provide certain types of coverage. Kyl also singlehandledly blocked the extension of unemployment benefits through a procedural action. Both members of Arizona's Senate delegation -- Kyl and McCain -- also voted against the Franken amendment, which was written to provide legal protections for women who are sexually assaulted in the workplace.

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Comments

[veganzombie1]

Funny, you can spend billions upon billions of dollars into something "flashy" like a war in the name of the 3000 Americans but when it comes to saving the lives of 45000 people EVERY SINGLE YEAR, it has to not cost a cent.

[itolduso]

Sen. Kyl, let's forget for a moment the question of how many die from lack of health insurance, and focus instead on what it's like to live without access to routine, affordable health care. I have witnessed a restaurant worker, who instead of going to the hospital to have a severe cut on her hand stitched up, instead sealed the edges of the wound with super glue- almost passing out from the pain of the sting, and risking the loss of use of her hand & infection. She did this because the cost of treatment would equal more than a weeks pay, and she had children to feed. I have seen workers racked with fever, doubled over with stomach cramps, with open sores and bleeding wounds. Do you understand, Sen. Kyl, that most restaurant workers do not have health insurance, do not get paid sick days, and are at risk of losing their jobs if they take time off? Do you understand the danger of these policies? Of having the person that prepares the food or washes the dishes or clears the tables come to work no matter what? Do you think your insurance can protect you when so many around you go untreated? Think about that next time you eat out.

[quietfortoolong2]

Why do republicans hate women?

[NORBIT]

CAN ANYONE PRODUCE A DEATH CERTIFICATE WITH THE "CAUSE OF DEATH" LISTED AS "NO HEALTH INSURANCE"?


I DIDN'T THINK SO!

[GalapagosTortoise]

THEN WHAT IN THE WORLD DO WE NEED IT FOR, TO BEGIN WITH?

[Dale Larson]

I don't understand your point. Are you saying it doesn't exist?

[Ron44]

If he is not so sure then lets take his access to any health care away and see what happens!!!!

[GalapagosTortoise]

For sure, the Senator is crying out for exactly that. All they need do is pass him the government form where he didn't check off "refused" next to the tax-payer subsidized deluxe government plan that doesn't keep him alive, and save us all a bundle of money.

[HeresaClue]

Are you reading this Arizona?

[khountrygirl]

Yes, we are reading this in Arizona. Kyle who has benefited from the health care coverage he receives via taxpayer dollars doesn't ....

1. Want health insurance to cover maternity care because he doesn't need it.
2. Doesn't think people die from lack of health insurance.
3. Doesn't think people like the girl from Haliburton should have her day in court after being gang raped by co-workers.
4. Also, he is holding up the much needed extension of unemployment benefits.

Kyle has done all this in one month. I am extremely pissed off and if I could single hand-idly boot him out of office I would.

[TheAntiOkie]

Every legislator should be required to live for 90 days on the income from a minimum wage job, given 29 hours per week & no benefits. Let them try to pay their rent, utilities, buy groceries, gas, insurance, clothes, etc. - they won't be able to do it.

In high school I worked in a campaign for a local gentleman who ran for and won a US Congressional seat. When he came back for his second campaign and I was visiting with him in campaign headquarters, I asked him how it was up there in DC. He told me quite despondently that he had been shocked and dismayed at the level of dishonesty by literally every person he met there. He said he had yet to meet a single person working in gov't in DC who didn't either have their hand out to receive or to give dirty money - not a ONE. When I asked why he wanted to go back to such a despicable situation, he said he really hoped he could do just a little bit of good to try to change things. He was elected a second time but not a third. He was unable to compete with his opponent's special interest money. That's the way it is, the way it's always been.

[rextrek]

Great comment - Let at least 1 BRAVE Legislator (just 1) Try to live on Minimum Wage and NO health Insurance for 1 month like Morgan Sperlock did.....He and his wife tried it for 1 month,and could NOT make it.......is there 1 Brave Senator or Congressman? one...just one? Doubt it!

[From the Raft]

Kyl should get away from his insulated caves in Washington D.C. and on the plush Camelback Corridor in Phoenix and vist some Arizona hospitals, hospices and morgues and review the case histories of a few of his deceased constituents.

Perhaps he would be "less moved" by his special interest spupporters.

[luvangelHussein330]

Why don't we do a case study where we take Kyl's insurance away from him and see if that will help him figure it out.

[bluguy8]

so lets do an experiment. Take away his health care that we pay for and let's see what happens

[helgathewitch]

The heat really gets to these guys in Arizona and the south. It really rattles their brains.

[Purveyor]

Republicans: modern day neanderthals

[plzchuteme]

If Senator Kyl is into splitting hairs, perhaps he should have observed that people die, not because they lack health insurance, but because their heart ceases to beat and their brain ceases to function. It is, after all, nature's ultimate warning to slow down. You might even consider death to be..."organic!" If God had wanted his children to have health insurance, we would be born clutching a policy, and since we are not, obviously, it is God's will and a method to "cull the herd," particularly of poor people.

[Nyla785]

The Republican propensity to 'edit reality' to fit their agenda is truly astounding.
These people should be nowhere near our government.

[mcmutter]

Senator Kyl its high time for you to awaken from your sleepwalk through life. The perfect karma for you would be to return to earth as a poor person. You simply have too much.