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While on vacation in Hawaii, Rush Limbaugh experienced chest pains and had to spend some time in a hospital there to receive an angiogram. Health-wise, it turned out that Limbaugh was fine, and he drew on his experiences to suggest that health-care reform is unnecessary:
Based on what happened to me here, I don't think there is one thing wrong with the American health care system. It is working just fine, just dandy.Well, being able to afford health care does automatically put you ahead of the 47 million Americans who currently don't have insurance and would have had to pay thousands of dollars out of pocket for the procedure and hospitalization. Further, any one person's experiences don't reflect the broader national cost problems of health care, which are systemic and not always related to quality of care. The SEIU's Jessica Kutch noticed Limbaugh's comments as well, and wrote this post about all the benefits that Limbaugh received -- including unionized hospitals and efficiencies, like Hawaii's advanced electronic medical records system, that come from the state's mandate that employers provide health insurance to workers -- that are part and parcel to the progressive reform effort. Kutch's conclusion? "Whether he realized it or not, Limbaugh was praising the care he received from union nurses in one of the country's most progressive health care systems."
-- Tim Fernholz
