Scrolling down Ann Coulter's blog-page (who although she does not know it, is in fact my arch-nemesis), I was looking for a fight; However, this was not exactly the case. As nauseated as it might make me to say (or maybe that's just the 3-day old leftover Chinese take-out I ate for dinner), I actually agree with some of the points made in her blog post Guns Don't Kill People, The Mentally Ill Do. Yes, I cringed while typing that sentence; even at first glance, her utterly abrasive title choice is enough to turn my stomach.Ah, but there is solace to be found within my qualm of ideological doubt. Although I must shamefully admit that Coulter makes decent points regarding how focus needs to be shifted from gun-control to the mentally ill in order to prevent shootings, it is those very points that allow me to contradict some of Coulter's more ridiculous proposals about health-care.
Her post begins by examining the psychological history of Seung-Hui Cho, the 2007 Virginia Tech shooter, Jared Loughner, the 2011 Tucson, Arizona mall shooter, and James Holmes, the alleged Aurora, Colorado shooter. Coulter reveals how each of the three shooters were either institutionalized for mental care at some point, had committed crimes that were obviously the result of some psychological abnormality, behaved in odd, violent, or offensive ways, or were noted by their peers, teachers or families to seem like they had a few screws loose. The text states that "studies have found a correlation between severe mental illness and violent behavior. Thirty-one to 61 percent of all homicides committed by disturbed individuals occur during their first psychotic episode;" this statistic reinforces Coulter's assertion (which I actually agree with) that the ability to receive psychiatric care is what will prevent these tragedies from re-occuring, not increasing gun control.
In 2010, Ann Coulter wrote the article "My Healthcare Plan," in which she suggests her plan of creating a "one-page bill creating a free market in health insurance." Coulter's primary audience happens to be hard-core Conservatives (who, might I add, probably still have Confederate flags billowing from their flag poles), that hear "free-market" and instantaneously and without much deliberation, feel like a kid in a candy store. This proposal makes health-care seem more like choosing between buying a Volkswagen, Honda, or simply taking the bus to work, than the real necessity that it is. Coulter targets her grievances on privacy laws and how they affect how a patient is treated, but the problem is not 'how,' the patient receives treatment, it's 'if' the patient can even receive treatment in the first place.
Jenny Gold, editorial columnist for Kaiser Health News, the independent, nonprofit, nonpartisan health policy research and communication organization, reports in her 2010 article "After Newtown shooting, questions about mental health insurance coverage," on government official's responses to the incident.
The President proclaimed, "I will use whatever power this office holds to engage my fellow citizens--from law enforcement to mental health professionals... in an effort aimed at preventing more tragedies like this." Other than that she's a bully and does what she has to do to get that lunch money, Coulter has no reason to try and characterize Obama as a useless hack, who mindlessly is focusing his time on a solution that wont fix the problem. Obama clearly states that he wishes to extend his power to not only gun control, but mental-health coverage as well, which he has proven by the passing of the Affordable Care act of 2010 and the Mental Health Parity Act of 2008.
In 2010, Ann Coulter wrote the article "My Healthcare Plan," in which she suggests her plan of creating a "one-page bill creating a free market in health insurance." Coulter's primary audience happens to be hard-core Conservatives (who, might I add, probably still have Confederate flags billowing from their flag poles), that hear "free-market" and instantaneously and without much deliberation, feel like a kid in a candy store. This proposal makes health-care seem more like choosing between buying a Volkswagen, Honda, or simply taking the bus to work, than the real necessity that it is. Coulter targets her grievances on privacy laws and how they affect how a patient is treated, but the problem is not 'how,' the patient receives treatment, it's 'if' the patient can even receive treatment in the first place.
Jenny Gold, editorial columnist for Kaiser Health News, the independent, nonprofit, nonpartisan health policy research and communication organization, reports in her 2010 article "After Newtown shooting, questions about mental health insurance coverage," on government official's responses to the incident.
The President proclaimed, "I will use whatever power this office holds to engage my fellow citizens--from law enforcement to mental health professionals... in an effort aimed at preventing more tragedies like this." Other than that she's a bully and does what she has to do to get that lunch money, Coulter has no reason to try and characterize Obama as a useless hack, who mindlessly is focusing his time on a solution that wont fix the problem. Obama clearly states that he wishes to extend his power to not only gun control, but mental-health coverage as well, which he has proven by the passing of the Affordable Care act of 2010 and the Mental Health Parity Act of 2008.
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