Oh boy. On Meet the Press a few minutes ago, Sen. Jon Kyl (R-AZ) took issue with the contention — which is strongly supported by scientific research — that lack of health insurance is linked to higher risk of death.
David Gregory asked Kyl about the issue of a “moral imperative,” and said that while he’s heard Kyl and other Republicans take issue with proposed health care reform legislation for fear that it might add to the budget deficit (although President Obama has insisted that it won’t) — he never hears such arguments from the GOP about a costly war in Afghanistan.
“No country can afford to scrimp and save, or try to win a war on the cheap,” Kyl responded. “The president himself has said the war in Afghanistan, against these terrorists who killed over 3,000 Americans on Sept. 11 2001, is a war of necessity. You have to win it.”
Gregory then asked, “And is it 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’s response:
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.
I imagine Rep. Alan Grayson (D-FL) — of “Republicans want you to die quickly” fame — might have a field day with this one.
And for the record, a highly-publicized Harvard study released last month said that 45,000 deaths are linked to lack of health insurance coverage each year — and that uninsured, working-age Americans have a 40 percent higher death risk than their privately-insured counterparts.
Late Update: Here’s the video.
Editor’s Note: This post has been revised since it was first published.
