BG Soapbox

As reported at Politico:

Rep. Alan Grayson (D-Fla.) recently read off the number of people that he calculates will die as a result of lacking health insurance — in each district represented by a GOP member of Congress who opposes health care reform.

His approach: Name the district, then name of the Republican, then enumerate the number of people who will die without health insurance based on a Harvard analysis — suggesting that the members were responsible for the body count.

In this video segment he rattles off the numbers of estimated dead in Kentucky districts:

To summarize:

KY-01 Ed Whitfield: 113 will die each year
KY-02 Brett Guthrie: 102 will die each year
KY-04 Geoff Davis: 83 will die each year
KY-05 Hal Rodgers 130 will die each year

The methodology that Grayson has used to come up with these numbers is nicely documented in this Daily Kos diary and a transcript of his intro follows:

Grayson: Mr. Speaker, during the civil war Abraham Lincoln our President often pardoned people who have been convicted of treason. You may wonder why he did that. The answer is because he saw death all around him in the civil war and he wanted to make sure he did nothing to add to it. So he pardoned people who have been found guilty of the most grievous crime one can commit in this country. Simply because he loved life. In the same way I’d like to think whether I leave here after 2 years or 20 years that there will be no blood on my hands. That’s why I am against the war in Iraq. That’s why I’m against the war in in Afghanistan. And that’s why I’m so much in favor of health care reform that saves lives in America. We had a different kind of President for 8 years recently. And we had a different kind of administration. An administration that was willing to bear any degree of suffering and pain as long as it was somebody else. If you were homeless it was your fault, if you jobless it was your fault. And if you died because you had no health insurance. That was your fault. Now that administration is out of power. We the American people have removed them because they abused it. But they have left behind in the House and Senate people that feel much the way they do. Recently a Harvard study published in a peer-reviewed journal, the American Journal of Public Health, announced that 44,789 American die every single year because they have no health insruanc.e In American today if you find two people who are physically identical. Same race, same age, same gender, same smoking habits, same weight. If you find two people who are physically identical and one of them has insurance and the other one does not. Then the one without insurance, that American that has the misfortune simply not to have health coverage. That American is 40% more likely to die. This bill that we are considering now to reform health care in America would end that. It covers 96% of all Americans. It ends this grievous national tragedy where day after day, week after week, month after month, 122 of us die every single day because they have no health insurance. Now I’m sure that if we learned that al quida was going to launch an attack on the United States and kill 44,789 Americans at any time next year. I’m sure that we would do anything in our power to prevent that. I submit to you that we should do the same about this. We should do exactly the same here because we face the same threat. It’s a less visible threat. It’s gone on for generations. But it’s a threat nevertheless. If you don’t let people see the doctor then a certain number of them are going to do. And to bring to this point home in face of united opposition by that side of the aisle, what we have done is something very simple. The Urban Institute has published the number of uninsured people in each congressional district in this country. The American Journal of Public Health have told us what percentageof those uninsured people will die next year simply people they don’t have health insurance. So what we’ve don’t is very simple. We’ve taken one number and the other number and through the magic of multiplication we know how many of those people will die. And I think it’s time we called attention to that. So what we’ve done for each with Republican member since they are united in opposition to this bill and apparently proud of it. For each Republican member we have identified in each district the number of dead. They are as follows.

Will this have any impact whatsoever on Brett Guthrie? Would it matter to him if one of the estimated 102 people who die this year due in small part to his actions was his neighbor? If I were in his shoes, I’d think twice about voting against a bill that could save this many lives in his district each year. Besides, what’s more important than human life?

Contact Congressman Guthrie and ask him to support the Democratic Health Care Reform Bill

Phone: 202-225-3501
Web: http://guthrie.house.gov