Fallout from yesterday's 'stupid thing said by McCain surrogate' continues

I posted yesterday (“McCain staffer says something stupid”) about McCain’s healthcare architect John Goodman saying that there aren’t any “uninsured” people in the US because all Americans have access to emergency rooms.

Anyone with common sense can see why that’s a bad idea… but today the American College of Emergency Physicians has gotten in on the debate, issuing a statement that calls Goodman’s statement “reckless.” The statement reads; “We urge the McCain campaign to rethink the reckless suggestion by Mr. Goodman that the tragedy of uninsured patients can be erased by the magic of emergency departments. […] Emergency physicians can and do perform miracles every day, but taking on the full-time, medical care for 46 million uninsured Americans is one miracle even we cannot perform. Access to care in the emergency department is no substitute for the comprehensive health care reform policy that should be at the heart of the platform of any presidential campaign.”

Ignoring the fact that his campaign’s health care plan is, in the words of The New Republic’s Jonathan Cohn, “perfectly consistent with Goodman’s statements”, they still claim that Goodman’s healthcare beliefs and philosophies are “out of step with John McCain.”

Now with pressure from ACEP, one has to wonder how long until McCain disavows Goodman… Because it worked so well when he did that with Gramm, didn’t it?