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McCain Adviser Who Attacked Dems' Health Reform Now Facing Insurance Nightmare

Posted by Igor Volsky, Think Progress at 8:35 AM on November 2, 2009.


It's a sad irony.

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Douglas Holtz-Eakin, a senior policy adviser to Sen. John McCain’s (R-AZ) presidential campaign, “remains unemployed — and his COBRA health coverage is running out,” the Washington Post reports. “Irony of ironies, it gets worse. Holtz-Eakin, who is about to start shopping for insurance on the individual market, is 51. And he has one of those pesky ‘preexisting conditions’ that insurance companies often cite in denying coverage”:

Holtz-Eakin said he’s been paying about $1,000 a month to extend the private health insurance he received on McCain’s campaign through the government’s COBRA program, but that will expire in a few months. This is the first time in his life he has not had employer-provided health coverage. “I worry about where I go next in the way many Americans do,” he said.

During the campaign, Holtiz-Eakin fervently defended McCain’s proposal to shift more Americans out of their employer-sponsored coverage and into the individual health insurance market. “The key to real reform is to restore control over our health-care system to the patients themselves,” Holtz-Eakin said in August. “Instead of only getting it in the employer market, you would get it regardless of your source of insurance. And you get the same amount whether you’re rich or poor, $5,000 for every working family.”

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Tagged as: mccain, health reform, holtz-eakin


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payback.
Posted by: feltjesus on Nov 2, 2009 9:15 AM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
it's a bitch.

[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]

So, is schadenfreude a pre-existing condition?
Posted by: kroenung58 on Nov 2, 2009 10:01 AM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Just asking... :)

[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]

A beauty to behold!
Posted by: g on Nov 2, 2009 12:37 PM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
“I worry about where I go next in the way many Americans do"
It's amazing how many of these free market freaks expect somehow to be exempted from the consequences of the free market that they worship. And when they are hit they whine like there's no tomorrow. Welcome to reality. Yes, it sucks, and it's your fault. Enjoy the ride. I just wish that all the people on public health plan who oppose public health plans for others were kicked out of their sweet ride for a couple of years. Yeah, you, old geezers on Medicare who oppose govt plans for other people. You, Republicans on govt funded health plan. Paid by the rest of us.

[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]

» RE: A beauty to behold! Posted by: Ian MacLeod
» RE: A beauty to behold! Posted by: koolwoman
Gimme a "K", gimme an "A"
Posted by: wrinklemomma on Nov 2, 2009 3:57 PM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
gimme an "R", "M", "A". Here comes KARMA, rolling YOUR way! Why does it always take a tragedy for those on the right to figure out that "the public welfare" means that the government makes sure EVERYBODY gets cared for.

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So, it costs the American taxpayer $1,000 a month to insure these politicians
Posted by: kettleblack on Nov 2, 2009 6:36 PM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
It's a far cry from the $200 a month that one of the professional liars (politicians) claimed he paid for his gold-standard health insurance packages at one of those town hall meetings this past summer.
Their health care is funded through 6-digit salaries, on government-printed checks.
Taxpayer subsidized health insurance for the Elites.
Welfare for the wealthy.
YES, IT'S TRUE: GOVERNMENT DOES WORK.
When THEY want it to.

Single Payer Health Care for ALL!

[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]

Tempting though it is...
Posted by: zipper696 on Nov 3, 2009 6:54 AM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
to giggle with glee over this jerk's comeuppance, the insurance industry is cunning enough and wealthy enough to massage the requirements on "pre-existing conditions" to allow him cover and crown him the Poster Boy of how "private healthcare really works".

Let's just watch what happens....

[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]

This is correctly termed
Posted by: AMERICAN VETERAN on Nov 3, 2009 7:43 AM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
KARMAITIS.

YAYYYYYYYYYYY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Let more of these evil bastards share his leaking boat.

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Careful out here
Posted by: herronsmith on Nov 4, 2009 10:46 AM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
My initial reaction was to also shout from the rooftops, "F" you, you reap what you sow. However, it is too easy to just wish the man ill-will then go about my merry, uninsured way. I could easily write a response similar to others and then profess I am doing my part or at the very least, getting rid of some pent up anger. But I don't wish this man ill-will anymore than I wish it on anyone else. For the simple reason that when he enters the hospital for care related to his pre-existing condition as an uninsured patient, WE all end up paying and frankly none of us can afford it.
I have to stay on the single-payor wagon and hope this will become our healthcare. We are chided by other countries (rightly so) for being insensitive and even cruel in how we dole out health care.
I have thought many times to move abroad but I have to believe the people will rise up and take back what has been stolen. Align yourself with anyone who truly believes how you do then get another person and then another person. Soon we will have many who could then unseat those in power. We already have a handful who are doing the right thing. They need our support. MSM ridiculed Dennis Kucinich but he really does walk the walk. Same with Bernie Sanders and a few others. It doesn't need to be money that talks. It needs to be force in numbers. That is the only way we can succeed at this point as we are very close to marshall law and the complete demise of our country.

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