The story of Trina Bachtel, an Ohio woman supposedly denied health care because of a lack of insurance has gotten attention because it became part of a Hillary Clinton stump speech (later retracted because Clinton’s facts were wrong).
The amazing thing is that even when the full story is known, it’s being twisted to serve an agenda. Take Paul Krugman of the N.Y. Times, who’s written frequently about the need for a national health insurance program. In today’s column he says:
*"Not long ago, a young Ohio woman named Trina Bachtel, who was having health problems while pregnant, tried to get help at a local clinic.
Unfortunately, she had previously sought care at the same clinic while uninsured and had a large unpaid balance. The clinic wouldn’t see her again unless she paid $100 per visit — which she didn’t have.
Eventually, she sought care at a hospital 30 miles away. By then, however, it was too late. Both she and the baby died.
You may think that this was an extreme case, but stories like this are common in America."*
Krugman now claims that “the essentials” of Hillary’s secondhand story were correct, and that the news media and Obama supporters are guilty of a “disgraceful episode” in jeering at Hillary.
Oh, really?
Using updated information from the Washington Post and today’s Columbus Dispatch, we find that the following happened:
Ms. Bachtel worked at a southern Ohio Pizza Hut where her benefits included health insurance (contrary to the Clinton account). After she became pregnant, in 2007 she visited the local clinic where she’d been previously seen (and run up unpaid bills). The clinic wanted her to pay $100 a visit to help retire her debt. She was unable or unwilling to do that and instead went to a clinic 30 miles away (the O’Bleness clinic, which is affiliated with and just across the parking lot from the Athens, Ohio hospital of the same name). She was seen regularly there for a total of 14 visits (including outpatient stops at the hospital itself). The day after the last visit she was admitted to the hospital where her baby was stillborn. A couple days later she was transferred to a Columbus hospital and died of several complications two weeks later.
She didn’t lack health insurance, she was not denied care, she had regular prenatal visits, and was cared for on both an outpatient and inpatient basis. Paul Krugman is claiming that after her local clinic wouldn’t see her unless she made payments on the old debt:
“Eventually, she sought care at a hospital 30 miles away. By then, however, it was too late. Both she and the baby died.”
It is hard to escape the conclusion that Krugman is lying through his teeth or incredibly sloppy about a story that’s already caused major embarassment.
Krugman obviously is dismayed that there has been a distraction, however brief, from the mission to develop a national health care plan. What he and others of like mind have a giant blind spot about is this: There’s already been a big setback to health care planning due to secrecy (the Clinton Administration closed-door debacle), and many people are justifiably skeptical about the cost and availability of care under a federal program. Spinning and telling lies in order to dramatize the subject are just going to turn more people off, and damage prospects for genuinely needed reforms.
Paul Krugman is an ass.