It's Dallas vs. Dallas, As ER Docs Assail McCain's Advisor's Health Care Claims

Couple of years back in the paper version of Unfair Park, we profiled National Center for Policy Analysis boss man John Goodman, who was in the news at the time for firing Bruce Bartlett -- a longtime Republican who'd been critical in the press and in a book about George W. Bush. Long and short of it: Karl Rove made Goodman and the Dallas-based think tank give Bartlett the heave-ho. Two years later, Goodman's been all over the news again, as this week he told The Dallas Morning News that there are no uninsured Americans -- because, look, that's what emergency rooms are for.

The quote from Goodman -- who helped John McCain come up with his health-care policy, and from whom McCain has since distanced -- has been a popular topic of conversation this week. And one group of docs think it's "irresponsible" and "reckless," at the very least: the Dallas-based American College of Emergency Physicians, which yesterday "lambasted McCain health policy advisor John Goodman's assertion that anyone with access to an emergency department effectively has health insurance, and called his logic flawed and his statement irresponsible toward all patients, insured and uninsured alike," according to its media release. --Robert Wilonsky

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