Outside Counsel

As dispicable as Rick Santorum is, I cannot extend my dislike to his daughter, who suffers from the genetic disorder Trisomy 18. That's a tough road, and I wouldn't wish the heartbreak of an ill child on anyone, even Rick Santorum. Santorum is fully deserving of the opprobrium explicit in being numbered among the worst people in the world, however, because the son of a bitch has a sick child and "medical equipment in [his] Virginia home and and a nurse on call that can tend to Bella. Because of these accommodations, Bella only needs to be taken to the hospital when her condition is very serious, a person familiar with the situation told NBC News." Despite this Santorum believes that universal healthcare is something other than an absolute right. Indeed, the argument that people should just by gosh fend for themselves is the centerpiece of his political existence. What kind of monster says that to parents whose children have problems like:

• Heart defects:
• VSD (Ventricular Septal Defect): a hole between the lower chambers
• ASD (Atrial Septal Defect): a hole between the upper chambers
• Coarctation of the aorta: a narrowing of the exit vessel from the heart
• Kidney problems
• Part of the intestinal tract is outside the stomach (omphalocele)
• The esophagus doesn’t connect to the stomach (esophageal artesia)
• Excess amniotic fluid (polyhydramnios)
• Clenched hands
• Pocket of fluid on the brain (choroid plexus cysts)
• Rocker bottom feet
• Delayed growth
• Small jaw (mycrognathia)
• Small head (microcephaly)
• Low-set ears
• Strawberry-shaped head
• Severe developmental delays
• Umbilical or inguinal hernia

The experience of literally everyone I know who has been visited by this sort of misfortune has been that they become advocates for their children and others similarly situated. Rick Santorum's healthcare platform is the opposite of advocacy for patient rights:

• Repeal ObamaCare
• Strengthen patient-driven health coverage options such as Health Savings Accounts coupled with high deductible insurance plans (and repeal ObamaCare policies that gut such options)
• Reduce costs through competition, increased transparency, electronic records, and health care literacy – empowering patients and their doctors with information and options
• Allow patients to purchase health insurance across state lines to gain access to the best insurance coverage to fit their individual needs – patients shouldn’t be required to pay for (and subsidize for others) coverage for services they don’t want or need
• Allow those who purchase their own health care coverage to do so with pre-tax dollars, including a refundable tax-credit for the purchase of health coverage (so that employees are not tied to jobs solely for health coverage, but have portability of affordable coverage)
• Enact meaningful medical liability reform – to increase access, and reduce added costs and inefficiencies from defensive medicine for federal programs and incentivize state liability reforms
• Block-grant Medicaid so that states aren’t burdened by unfunded, crippling, one-size-fits-all federal mandates, so that states can implement solutions to address their unique health care needs.

That's just hateful, frankly. He has less of a chance at the Republican nomination daily, but all over the country there are people who are voting for this guy, and that is dismaying. People should be crossing the street to avoid him. I feel like spitting between my fingers when I hear his name.

Oh, and don't miss Charley Pierce on the state of health care in the US.