Chickens for Cancer

Not to be too facetious but Nevada GOP Senate candidate Sue Lowden is suggesting that we repeal health care reform and go back to barter for medical treatment:

"And I would have suggested, and I think that bartering is really good. Those doctors who you pay cash, you can barter, and that would get prices down in a hurry. And I would say go out, go ahead out and pay cash for whatever your medical needs are, and go ahead and barter with your doctor."

Is this a woman who's lived without health insurance and had any kind of serious medical issues in her adult life? Does she really think that there's enough barter out there to pay for, say, breast cancer treatment?

She also suggests socking away $20,000 in a health savings account. Again, does she have any sense of what catastrophic medical treatment costs?

What's crazy is that she doubles down today on a local news show:



My favorite line: "I'm telling you this works." Sure, back in the 1860's.

Look, my father was an OB-GYN, and we had some pretty incredible artwork and craft items around the house from some barter deals he did with patients who were cash-strapped artists back in the 1960's and 1970's, maybe even into the 1980's. It was a very small percentage of his business, and he was actually instrumental in forming a regional doctors-owned HMO that went in direct competition with the big corporate outsider HMO. So I get that there's always room for other types of transactions between individuals.

A chicken, we'd have no need for. Well, maybe if it came plucked.

Scary thought: this removed-from-reality woman could end up replacing Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid.

And that would be a bum deal.