Progress Illinois

Using a notorious quote we grabbed from a cable access interview back in July, SouthtownStar columnist Kristen McQueary gets in a good dig at Marty Ozinga the day after Dick Cheney had to cancel a fundraiser with the Republican congressional candidate for health reasons:

Had Cheney's heart problems developed during the course of his Will County visit, rest assured he would have been in good hands. Ozinga could have recommended any number of area emergency rooms. After all, as Ozinga said, health care accessibility isn't a serious problem in this country: "You just go to the hospital, and you get taken care of."

Of course, Cheney is covered by the federal government, a point the California Nurses Association raised in a stinging ad campaign late last year:

The patient’s history and prognosis were grim: four heart attacks, quadruple bypass surgery, angioplasty, an implanted defibrillator and now an emergency procedure to treat an irregular heartbeat,” the ad states, referencing Cheney’s lengthy medical chart. “For millions of Americans, this might be a death sentence. For the vice president, it was just another medical treatment. And it cost him very little.”

CNA exectuive director Rose Ann DeMoro sums it all up: "Take that chart to Blue Cross, UnitedHealth, or Aetna and try to get coverage or even continued care."