Mike Huckabee Says Folks with Pre-Existing Conditions are Uninsurable, Just Like a Burnt-Out House
September 29, 2010 | posted by Stephen Drake
Readers might have noticed that some other groups and individuals who oppose legalization of assisted suicide and euthanasia spend a fair amount of time and energy warning about “pro-death” ideology on the left. You don’t have to search very far to find warnings about “Obamacare,” impending rationing and “death panels.”
While a lot of the rhetoric about “death panels” and rationing are overblown, it’s obvious that many self-identified “progressives” can be very “pro-death” when it comes to disability. What else explains the eager way in which the liberal Huffington Post, for example, has provided a home for the extreme (and often sloppy) polemics of self-described “bioethicist and medical historian” Jacob Appel, to offer up one example.
Where I – and other disability activists – part with politically Right-leaning opponents of assisted suicide is that we see cause for alarm on the Right as well. A lot of radical conservative rhetoric right now – like from the Tea Party – sounds pretty pro-death if you’re a person with a disability, chronic condition, etc.
If that sounds extreme and alarmist (as opposed to the “death panel” cries), please watch the video embedded below. It’s good old “Compassionate Conservative Christian Mike Huckabee” speaking at the “Values Voter Summit” – the site for the summit says the “values” they want to further are to: protect marriage, champion life, strengthen the military, limit government, control spending and defend our freedoms. Guess which one of those “values” Huckabee throws under the bus?
Check it out – and for those who need captioning, I tried the automatic captioning on this video and it works well. There are a couple of typos, but you get the full content of Huckabee’s remarks:
To summarize – Huckabee blasts the idea of requiring insurance companies to cover those with pre-existing conditions. He compares those individuals – which includes me and just about everyone I know and care about – to both a burnt-down house and a wrecked car. And, of course, it would be ridiculous to expect an insurance company to insure a house that burned down yesterday.
This can be interpreted in no other way but as a blatantly utilitarian appeal to Tea Party folks who combine the scary traits of wanting as little government as possible, want to pay as little tax as possible, and resent “paying” for people on “entitlements.”
I guess they should amend that “Champion Life” to read “Champion the lives of young, healthy, nondisabled people.”
It’s a chilling message, given the context. Huckabee objectifies people like me, my loved ones and friends by comparing us to burnt buildings reduced to ashes.
He says we’ll raise the cost of health care for everyone. I’m guessing that he doesn’t want to expand government programs like Medicaid and Medicare, since the only “program” on the agenda that is targeted for increases in funding is Military Defense. Does he think that emergency room use by uninsured people won’t continue to raise health care costs?
Radical libertarians would eliminate that practice and only grant medical treatment to the insured or those who can pay in some other way. The rest of us can go find a publicly-owned bridge to crawl under and die quietly where we won’t bother anyone.
I’m sure Rev. Huckabee would be glad to pray for our souls, though, since that won’t cost him anything.
Well, speaking for myself, this burnt-out pile of ashes has a message for Huckabee and other “Values Voters” who agree with him.
I’ll take care of my own soul; making sure I can get affordable health coverage is what I’d like help with.
Mike Huckabee and anyone else who doesn’t like that can kiss my ash! –Stephen Drake
Do you think Mike Huckabee is really saying, “better dead than disabled”? It certainly sounds that way to me. I think he had absolutely no sensitivity, comparing human beings to burned down houses. Do you think his desire to run for president in 2012exceeds his sensitivity to the disability community, that he should have as a minister?
You are the only commentator I’m aware of who stands against the attacks on the sick, elderly and disabled that are coming from both the left and the right. The right is usually smarter than Huckabee, refusing to discuss the question of how the sick will survive under a for-profit system at all; the left openly decries money spent on “heroic” care for “futile” cases whose lives aren’t worth much to them. But while one side wants more profits for corporations and the other more resources for “preventive care” (which as far as I can tell involves handing patients pamphlets on diet and exercise and maybe a flu shot), they both want anyone who isn’t like me — temporarily young and able-bodied — to die gracefully. Thank you so much for all the work you do.
In 1991, as a young and idealistic Christian Attorney, I represented Christian Fellowshio with the Disabled in challenging the euthanasia by denial of food and water of an individual with disabilities who had been purposely misdiagnosed into the “death-track” by her family and doctors.
What a revelation it was to discover that the SAME BUS was used used to RUN ME DOWN by the so-called Life Champions of the Christian Right, National Right to Life Committee, and other hypocritical conservatives—-who have no use for anyone not “productive” whom they consider “better off dead”. THE ONLY DEATH THREATS OR ENDANGERMENT OF MY LIFE, HOME or FAMILY CAME DIRECTLY FROM THE “RIGHT TO LIFE” FACTION ——Apparently because they have far more to gain by disseminating HATE and controlling POLITICS than by actual caring or being concerned with the human rights of people with disabilities.
WAKE UP!!! Only after the disability movement —particularly Ed Roberts and other “great ones” —stood up for the lives of their peers did any actual progress begin toward life for all, instead of life for just those we choose………Euthanasia was and is a RIGHT WING (Nazi) idea, not a leftist one —-despite the abysimal quality of special needs orphanages for severely disabled infants throughout Eastern Europe, Africa and Asia, poverty stricken societies continue to try to feed and care for the less fortunate (even against overwhelming odds) and condemn genocide —only in supposedly “civilized” countries have these approaches ever been approved as the most direct way to population control and economic prosperity.
Informative, disturbing points. The GOP has its swivel-doors to the next world too apparently.
First, my apologies to everyone for the delay in getting comments posted.
Lake County RTL, I am not sure what Huckabee is saying exactly or why. In the past, he’s stuck to a more compassionate line over issues over things like undocumented immigrants. This wouldn’t be the first time he’s shown himself capable of taking the low road, if that’s what he thinks the political base wants – and there are some *really* ugly undercurrents in the Tea Party. –Stephen
the15th,
Thank you for your words of support. NDY tries to be nonpartisan – and personally, I find things to fear from both ends of the political spectrum. And, frankly, the Tea Party has added to the Right’s baggage in the scary department. I’ve never voted for anyone yet with the feeling that I would be doing less work if my candidate won – or lost. –Stephen
Anonymous,
Please contact me if you read this. I’d like to know more about your experience. Contact info is at the top right hand side of the blog page. –Stephen
Stephen,
Thanks for checking this out. There has always been a tension in the “Reagan coalition” between Christian conservatives and secular fiscal conservatives. While Christian Conservatives tend to embrace fiscal restraint, their own sense of morality sets limits around trimming economic support for the old, ill and disabled. (there have been notable slips, though – in the year after Terri Schiavo died, the Missouri legislature cut funds for Medicaid *feeding tube supplies*. Many of the legislators who voted for this described themselves as both Christian and Conservative.) –Stephen
Dear 15th, The Right to Life movement better get active before assisted suicide becomes legal in every state under the guise of compassion. It’s amazing to me that the death penalty issue has reared it’s ugly head again, and those who may embrace it are considered bad & not compassionate. The Right to Life movement encompasses all aspects of the life issue. Disabled people deserve a much higher protection in our society than those who are able bodied and it’s about time we thought of the victims rather than the murderous criminal.
Dear Lake County Right to Life,
I lived in the Chicago area for over ten years. As a result of that experience, I cannot understand how anyone in that state can make statements that it’s only “murderous villains” who get the death penalty – at least in Illinois. There were a crapload of innocent people on death row in that state. Many were set free due to outside investigative efforts on the part of a University professor and his students. Without them, the system – and it’s vaunted “safeguards” would have resulted in their deaths (which would also mean that the guilty party would have gone totally free and unknown).