What's Really Despicable? Rick Ungar, Obamacare, and Rick Santorum

By Jennifer Hartline
2/28/2012
Catholic Online (www.catholic.org)

There's nothing more despicable than denying the humanity of the child in the womb

Last week Forbes' contributor Rick Ungar indignantly labeled Rick Santorum a "despicable human being" for saying that Obamacare will result in rationed care based on usefulness and not on the dignity of every human life. Sorry, but when the government is in charge of health care, and new committees are created to make decisions about care vs. cost, it is only the most duped among us who will be confident in a bureaucrat's willingness to grant expensive medical care to the less-abled, the elderly, and even to children like Bella Santorum.

Rick and Bella Santorum

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WASHINGTON, D.C. (Catholic Online) - Forbes' contributor Rick Ungar had some very harsh words for Rick and Karen Santorum last week. In his column, "Rick Santorum's Despicable and Hurtful Health Care Lie", he blasted the Santorums for "scaring the hell out of parents whose children face illness and disability in their lives" and said Rick was a "despicable human being."

Mr. Ungar believes the idea that disabled children might be denied care under Obama's health care law is so far-fetched as to be absurd, and thus the Santorum's concerns are the most egregious sort of fear-mongering imaginable. But the Santorums are hardly the only ones to see the writing on the wall, even if the language of the bill is tricky. When insurers in 34 states suddenly stopped offering child-only policies as a direct result of Obamacare in 2010, some states had to respond with legislation requiring them to continue selling such policies.

But just how far can all these requirements go and what happens when cost/profit meets disability/life expectancy? Which medicines and procedures will insurers be required to cover, and for what time frame, and for whom under what circumstances? These decisions will have to be made, and they'll be made by people whose motivation will likely be dollar signs and not patient care.

When the government is in charge of health care, and new committees are created to make decisions about care vs. cost, it is only the most duped among us who will be confident in a bureaucrat's willingness to grant expensive medical care to the less-abled, the elderly, and even to children like Bella Santorum.

Amidst all of Ungar's scathing insults was the following gem, just too good to pass up:

"However, when Rick Santorum tells us that the law would deny the right to life and the care needed to sustain that life to children like his own daughter, because such a child would be deemed to not be of 'sufficient use to society', he accuses the President, every member of Congress who supported the law, and every other supporter, such as myself, of being unfit to walk to this earth."

"Anyone is welcomed to disagree with my judgment as to whether the Affordable Care Act is a good or a bad law... But if you are going to accuse me of being willing to allow a child-or anyone else- to die because I would somehow deem her to be inconsequential to society, you'd really better be prepared to not only say that to my face but take the punishment that I promise you will follow." (emphasis mine)

Them's fightin' words, Mr. Ungar, and I'm delighted to hear you say it. We need more passionate pro-life citizens in America.

Naturally, I understand you to mean that you find it despicable to deny a child the right to life. I understand you to mean that you find it despicable to say that just because a child isn't "wanted" or wasn't "planned" that the child is inconsequential to society and can be destroyed by whatever means necessary. Certainly what you mean is that every child's life is precious and the adults have no right to say which children can live and which must die by our "choice."

Because surely you realize, Mr. Ungar, that children are killed every single day in our country precisely because they are deemed inconsequential to society. Worse, actually. They're considered enemies of freedom and prosperity. Worse still, they aren't even considered human. Their murders are sanctioned by the law and police power of the State, and millions of people -- not you, of course -- consider it a good thing, a moral thing, a necessary thing.

Let me make it clear, Mr. Ungar: If you are of the opinion that abortion is a legitimate and moral "choice" that should be protected by the laws of our nation, that is despicable. If you are willing to allow the child in the womb to be killed and call it a "right", that is despicable.

What you're doing in that case is exactly what you falsely accuse Rick Santorum of doing, except it's far, far worse. You are denying the child in the womb her humanity. You are calling the child an "it"; far less than merely inconsequential to society, you've made her a slave to someone else's power and self-interest; a "thing" to be eliminated in service to someone else and society at large.

I'm prepared to say that to your face, and President Obama's, Nancy Pelosi's, and anyone else's. Do not boast about your appreciation of the value of human life and your unimpeachable virtue in protecting children if you continue to sanction ...

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1 - 10 of 28 Comments

vance
1 year ago
Rob, you can find Health Commission, Health Committees throughout the Bill. It explicitly states that these 'Nameless Faceless' bureaucrats will 'Approve or Deny" medical treatment from the "Doctor's" recommended treatments.
Rob
1 year ago
Trust me vance, I honestly think you hang much more on his words than I do. But again, I didn't ask what Obama said (I'll take your word for it that he said that), what section of the ACA provides for the killing of the elderly and handicapped?
vance
1 year ago
Rob, you're not listening to your Dear Leader. He told a lady on national TV that her 95 year old grand mother would not warrant a heart pace maker because of her age and expense. He said that she should be given an aspirin for pain relief. The lady asked him a real life situational question. It turned out that her grand mother had received her heart pacemaker and is still alive at 105. Being the Marxist Despot he is, he just doubled down on his point to "Ration" healthcare for the elderly.
Rob
1 year ago
vance, what part of the ACA references killing of the handicap and elderly?
vance
1 year ago
Rick Ungar is a great representation of the Marxist Democrat Party and the Liberal Establishment. Obamacare is explicit and clear about killing babies, killing handicapped, and killing the elderly. According to the Liberal Establishment killing is the moral thing to do. They say kill babies because they are an inconvenience and kill handicapped because they can not run around and hike up a mountain. The Liberal Establishment says "Let's kill elderly" because they are expensive, inconvenient, and useless to society. Despicable is a kind word to describe Obama, Pelosi, Reid, and the Marxist Democrat Party murderers.
John Mainhart
1 year ago
In my world the problem is us, indivdually. This culture has created so many systems that we only talk about solutions to problems by changing the systems, rather than requiring the individuals to suffer consequences who deliver the service. We then insure everyone in the myriad of systems we have so no one suffers any thing not even money for not doing his job. Then we get on juries to award people too much money because insurance or governments are footing the bill. Some people even suggest that if we are going to change what a system does we nees to go back to Church to enhance the power of that Catholic Church in that arena.
I disagree. I would urge people to go back to Church so they can increase their love for God and then make a difference in the lives of the people they meet in their community. You may not get world class health care but the souls in your community would get good health care and their suffering would be manageable because they woujd have so many people who love them and know them personally. Our savior did not promise a long life, only a good life if we follow him. I know a lot of people who would trade a number of tests and highly organized health care if they knew the people who were serving them were interested in doing the best they could for them, rather than a highly sophisticated system that lacks compassion or a sincere interest in their welfare as a soul of God.
Tonio
1 year ago
The real problem has always been the Health Care System itself. One has only to review the corporate care record for indications of what is wrong with our health care system. In fact every argument listed are the same ones we've currently seen with regards to current failings of corporate based health care delivery.
It is the reason an alternative health care system has been proposed by every President since Roosevelt.
If we really want to win the hearts and minds of our fellow citizens we are required to be the light they can see. The issue is whether we can remold corporate and governmental power to a common good without tyranny. Those who don't believe as we do should not be forced just as we don't wish to be forced by their world view.
With all due respect, Catholic culture isn't supposed to be dominant in our country as the separation of church and state is the reasoned response to the inevitable diverse views.
Rob
1 year ago
Pat, religious liberties are not the only liberties being usurped by the state. I would submit to you that part of the reason that our country is in such a ditch is because we've allowed our government to use debt and deficits to hide their activities. These moves by the Obama administration I find highly offensive. I also find many elements of the Patriot Act offensive. I find it offensive that we've allowed Presidents, without a formal declaration of war, engage in conflicts that have plundered our treasure and resulted in the high loss of life. But these things are never really felt by the people (less than 2% of American families actually serve) and we've never received the bills for all these wars. So the government quietly engages in these conflicts, get's everyone all worked up on American exceptionalism and patriotism, but borrorws from China to pay for it all. Where is the freedome in that? I see massive amounts in freedom being lost in these actions. If we really want to take our country back, it's not going to be in the election of a party, obviously. What we need to do is start sending the bill to American people, not the partial bill we get today, but the full bill. I guarantee we will have an election season unlike we've never seen. Until then, we just fight on these ideologies with no real change in our course. JoAnn, I have personally witnessed someone (single monther with small children) being turned away for care because the cash she had on hand, they didn't feel, would cover lab work that they thought might be needed. She cried as they referrred her to the ER because she said that she wanted to pay her bill and couldn't afford the ER. The entire room (urgent care clinic - Lovelace) was crushed. The way I see it, you are right, we cover SOME poor people, elederly (Medicare eligible) and everyone else is on their own. You are right that Candadian officals asked us to pass on Obamacare. But not because they don't feel that the coverage all of citizens isn't important. They recommended that becuse after the speical interest hacked the bill, it amounted to nothing more than a boon to insurance companies. I would qualify your statement about having the best healthcare in the world by saying that we have pockets of care that exceed other nations. As for overall system, our costs greatly exceed that of other nations while our outcomes are lower. But I would submit to you that our our current system lacks a sense of compassion and justice. Personally, I find it tragic that we are the only industrialized nation where sickness causes people to lose everything they own. There is just something wrong with that.
Pat
1 year ago
Great article. You point out a number of important issue regarding government control over our health care and a slippery slope giving up personal freedoms guaranteed in our Constitution. You also point out the natural extension of allowing government to choose for us.

Our natural rights which are given to us by God and not by man or the collectivist government. The founding fathers, whatever the perceived flaws, wrote and "inspired" documents that has "the Creator" as the cornerstone. Just as importantly, the document limits the power of government in our lives. God gave us freedom. The US Constitution sets up rules to protect those freedoms from those who would attempt to take those guaranteed freedoms away from us. The Bill of Rights, specifically the First Amendment, guarantees that "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof;". This guarantees that the government cannot establish a "religion" for the country. (What about secularism or the green religion?) As an aside, I am completely annoyed by conservatives that cannot defend this argument that is now being hijacked by atheist who misquote this right in favor of their anti-God belief system (religion?).

What is the natural extension of taking away are freedoms and forcing people to submit to the whims of the state? Have we not learned anything from the totalitarian regimes of the past lead by Hitler, Stalin or Mao? if the government can force people of faith or conscience do something that is completely against their core beliefs, where will the tyranny stop? If you will succumb to the coercive power of the state to provide a product or service that is completely against your religious convictions, where will they stop? The answer is they won't stop. If we give up any of our freedoms that were paid for by others blood, we are disrespecting those that sacrificed it all for us to live free.

As Catholics, we must wake up and speak up. We can no longer sit back and watch things happen to us, we need to stand up for our faith and stand up for the sacrifice that was made for us over 2000 years ago by Jesus Christ. Freedom is our promise from God, slavery is what we will suffer if we do not stand with God.
JoAnn
1 year ago
Troy: Poor people do have healthcare. You and I provide it. When was the last time you saw a poor person in the emergency room get turned down for treatment? When was the last time you saw a poor person not get medical treatment at a clinic? There is free medical treatment all over the place for the poor. Only it really isn't free, we pay for it. We are the government, remember. Obamacare is a ruse to control our lives. 73% of America didn't want Obamacare, remember. My brother died from lung cancer and he got the best medical care money could buy and he didn't have money for treatments. Troy, don't buy into the lie. America DOES have the best medical care on the planet. Just ask the people who come here from other countries to get it. Even Canada said not to pass Obamacare. There are testimonies all over the place from people from Canada and other countries who came here for medical treatment. Some of them were terminal and said that if they had to depend on Canadian medical care, they would have died waiting for the treatments. You said you are a Catholic. True Catholics do not vote for Obama. He is totally against what our Faith teaches. There's a little booklet called "A Voters Guide for Catholics." Pick it up sometime. It's very interesting reading. God bless.

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