Earlier today, Sen. John Ensign (R-NV) claimed that the U.S. health care system is just fine — if you don’t count injuries from gunshots and car accidents.
“Are you aware that if you take out gun accidents and auto accidents, that the United States actually is better than those other countries?” Ensign said during Senate Finance Committee debate over the public option. (“Those other countries” included France, Germany, Japan and Canada.)
Where did he come up with such an argument? TPMDC’s Brian Beutler tracks down the source: Betsy McCaughey said as much when she appeared on the Daily Show last month. McCaughey is the former lieutenant governor of New York and the first person to push the idea that, under health care reform, the government would decide who gets care, who lives and who dies — a precursor to the “death panel” articulated by Sarah Palin.
On the show, McCaughey said that, without violence and auto accidents, the U.S. would have the highest life expectancy in the world. It was an attempt to undermine an argument for reform, that the U.S. spends more money than any other country but still lags in life expectancy.
The Wall Street Journal explains that McCaughey the idea from a 2006 report published by conservative think tank American Enterprise Institute.
