Talking Points Memo has the article Ted Cruz’s Dad Suggests Obama Is A Muslim (AUDIO).

The father of Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) suggested Friday that President Barack Obama is a practicing Muslim and slammed “RINOs” for not backing his son’s efforts to defund the Affordable Care Act.

I know that posting this audio is so akin to shooting fish in a barrel that I almost feel bad for posting this.

Apparently this guy never saw the movie “As Good As It Gets“.

The audience cheered when Helen Hunt railed against her HMO for deciding that her child could not get the medical care it needed because of cost/benefit analysis. The HMO was a private company that controlled her health care long before President Obama came upon the political scene.

How can the people against Obamacare be so ignorant of what private health insurance is like?

In discussions with my SO, we came up with an answer to what many might have considered a rhetorical question as posed above.

Since the majority of Americans have private health insurance, they cannot be so ignorant of what it is like to have private health insurance.

However, most people do not get sick enough to experience the worst parts of the private health insurance system.

I have received a good deal of expensive medical care through my private health insurance, and for the most part, I have not experienced the worst effects of the system. I have experienced minor difficulties, but I stood up to the issues and got them resolved.

In order to know about the worst of the worst, most people will have to hear about other people’s experiences. So why are the Republicans so good at making people fear things that never happened, and yet the Democrats cannot engender the same fear over events that actually did happen?

There is another section of the audio that is particularly telling.

He also said that the Affordable Care Act denies and rations coverage for elderly patients while claiming that the law includes “suicide counseling.”

“As a matter of fact, one of the things in Obamacare is that for the elderly, every five years you must have end-of-life counseling,” Cruz said. “Translation: suicide counseling.”

The end-of-life-planning is about what are your options, hospice, in-home hospice, legal issues, as you near the end of life. There is no discussion of suicide which is illegal in most states.

Now it is conceivable that at some time in the future, a government (as well as private) health care plan end-of-life planning could devolve into a discussion of suicide as a means of saving the system money. Under what type of administration is this most likely to occur? Obviously a Republican administration. This Republican just told you what comes to his mind when he thinks about saving money for the system.

The Democrats talk about being more efficient, negotiating prices harder, researching cost containment methods, promoting best practices from health care around the world. Many Republicans think about counseling suicide as a possible method. What does this tell you about the Republican mind?

Also note that if you are elderly and using Medicare, the ACA has nothing to do with your health care. (Except for the elimination of the unfair subsidy the insurance company gets when you use Medicare Advantage. I use Medicare Advantage. Supposedly, the ACA negotiation included the insurance companies’ promise to still do Medicare Advantage without the subsidy.)