‘This is Herman Cain!’ (as told to Herman Cain).
During the September 22 GOP debate, Godfather Pizza president Herman Cain repeated the claim that he would have succumbed to cancer had the Affordable Care Act been law when he was diagnosed. “I said I would be dead under Obamacare because…[after I was diagnosed] I was able to get the necessary CT scan, tests, go to the necessary doctors, get a second opinion, get chemotherapy, get surgery, recuperate from surgery, get more chemotherapy, in a span of nine months. If we had been under Obamacare, and a bureaucrat was trying to tell me when I could get that CT scan, that would have delayed my treatment.”
Hogwash. The law changes nothing about the way insurers handle cancer patients’ treatment (Cain was sixty at the time of the diagnosis). No one would have stood between Cain and a CAT scan or surgery. He has it backwards. Let’s say Cain wasn’t wealthy. If he were to lose his job and health insurance and try to get coverage on his own without the Affordable Care Act in place, that would pose a threat to his survival–because before the law, insurers were allowed to refuse coverage on the basis of “preexisting conditions,” just as they were permitted to drop patients who become expensively ill.
So I wondered: Why doesn’t a person who beat stage-four cancer know that? What kind of person would trade so brazenly–and so mistakenly–on his own bout with cancer?
Well, last week my answer arrived at Commonweal HQ in the form of This Is Herman Cain! by Herman Cain, released today. The chapter on his struggle with cancer doesn’t shed any light on how he paid for treatment, which is strange, because, as anyone who has had to cope with catastrophic illness knows, how you covered expenses looms large in your memory of the ordeal. But it does show how Cain got into the treatment facility of his choice, MD Anderson in Houston. One of Cain’s employees had been researching top cancer-treatment hospitals. She asked Cain, “Do you know someone that can help you get into MD Anderson?”
I said, “Yes I do. Boone Pickens, the oil magnate.”
I called Boone Pickens, a good friend to this day. He used to be on the board of MD Anderson and was a contributor, and he called the head of the hospital and said, “Herman Cain is not just another person trying to get into MD Anderson; he’s also a friend of mine.”
But before becoming a patient at MD Anderson, Cain needed a second opinion. So he went to Savannah to be looked at by a Dr. Lord. The doctor examined Cain’s medical records, and asked him to grab some lunch and come back in ninety minutes.
He called in several of his colleagues and they went over my results. I went back and talked to him and he didn’t charge me a dime–and he supported me in my Senate campaign. He said, “There’s something greater that you’re supposed to do for this country and this is my contribution.”
These are precisely the sorts of scenes that make it clear why we needed health-care reform in the first place. Access to quality medical treatment should not be determined by whether you have a job that offers health insurance, how rich you are, or who you know. Of course, what’s amusing about Cain’s claim is that even if his worst fears about “Obamacare” came true, his health outcomes would not be affected. He’d still be able to get the best health care money could buy. How long will the journalists who run these debates allow him to get away with such claptrap?
What other insights are offered by This Is Herman Cain! by Herman Cain? I’ve been working through it, and thought it might be instructive to share some of the book’s more memorable passages. Let’s start with this one, a concept key to understanding the mind of Herman Cain:
There are three steps involved in becoming a true CEO of Self. I call them ROI.
R: Remove barriers that prevent self-motivation to achieve goals.
O: Obtain the right results by working on the right problems.
I: Inspiration. Learn to inspire yourself.
In my experience, great leaders inspire others. But, more importantly, they inspire themselves.
If one thing about Herman Cain comes through in This Is Herman Cain! by Herman Cain, it’s that Herman Cain is extraordinarily self-inspired.
Tags: Herman Cain
Having to face four or eight years of Successories like those quoted here are a good reason to not vote for anyone from the business world.
Not that I know anything about politics. But I’ll be pretty surprised if his candidacy continues to be credible after another thirty days of vetting.
Did he really have no restrictions at all on his imaging procedures and other medical care? I want whatever bureaucrat-free insurance he’s got. Or is that also something T. Boone arranged for him?
The book doesn’t make clear whether he even relies on health insurance.
If you liked this post you may be interested in another sleuth’s report about a prominent presidential candidate’s claims. It was widely reported but, unaccountably, seems not to have been noticed here.
“President Barack Obama’s mother had no major problems with her health insurance coverage at the time she was dying of ovarian cancer in 1995, a new book about her life claims, raising questions about the accuracy of a story that Obama often told on the campaign trail in 2008.”
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0711/58969.html
Breaking: Tu quoque invalidates precisely nothing.
Of course it’s not merely a tu quoque. We cannot exclaim, in imitation of the above post, “What kind of person would trade so brazenly–and so mistakenly–on his own (mother’s) bout with cancer?” For Obama has an excuse that Cain does not have — he was busy doing what he does best, campaigning, and so could not be at his mother’s side when she was dying. We all understand It’s easy to make mistakes about insurance coverage when you’re disengaged and distant from the actual sickbed doing more important things.
“Obama had not seen his mother for some months when she died in a Honolulu hospital in 1995, according to Scott’s book …Her son was in Chicago, planning a run for an Illinois state Senate seat.”
http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/obamas-mother-had-health-insurance-according-to-biography/2011/07/14/gIQAUFm7EI_story.html
But if I’m mistaken and we have a genuine tu quoque per GG, then Helen may want to chime in with a repetition of her considered opinion.
Sure it is. Your bread and butter. Along with your constant half-serious holy-Christmas-I’m-hilarious tone.
I don’t know your family history, Patrick. Are both your parents alive? Do you have kids? What do you want them to do when you’re dying? Suspend their lives to be with you at the very end? Every parent is different, of course. Some demand a great deal from their offspring. Others understand that raising children means turning them into adults with lives of their own, with families of their own. Maybe it was too difficult to get to Hawaii from Illinois in the final months. Who knows? Oh, you think you do. Tell you what. I’ll do you a solid and remove Helen’s comment.
Yeah, that’s it – - Obama was an adult with a life of his own and therefore couldn’t visit his mother in her last months. Also people forget that there are endless plains, dangerous mountains, and an immense ocean between Chicago and Hawaii. And It’s such a nuisance to get a ticket at O’Hare Airport.
Why didn’t I think of that? But wait, I think I said something similar above – Obama was just too busy with his campaign. I think we are in rare agreement. If it works for you, Grant, it works for me. Still, why did he have to fib about the insurance arrangements? Perhaps it was stress.
To respond to your interest in my family history. We are descended from many pious popes on my mother’s side and from Constantine, Charlemagne and Louis XIV on my father’s side. A cadet branch has produced a majority of the Holy Saints of Ireland. Attendance at deathbeds and funerals has always been optional, expected only if one isn’t engaged in pursuit of one’s own autonomy and/or a hopeful vision for the betterment of humanity as a whole. Particular attachments have always been frowned upon as they unduly inhibit the pursuit of the common good. At the appropriate time you’ll be among the first to know about my own funeral arrangements.
We came to America because we were told that a lively religious press flourished here. Of course, we haven’t been disappointed. I hope it goes without saying that I look forward to more of your fair and balanced profiles of those foolish challengers of our visionary incumbent. Lately it seems that each new day he courageously explores new paths in the area of religious liberty — Whatta guy!!
It must be frustrating for his supporters to find that the intellectual and moral pygmies on the other side don’t grasp the scope or the beauty of his dream for our nation. My advice is to take solace in the long view as our dynasty does. In a few centuries he will be recognized for exactly what he was.
Grant et al:
Perhaps, I over-reacted, but it is particularly galling to me to hear a man, who obviously has the money and contacts to get top-notch medical advice and care, say that he would be dead under a program that would provide medical care for those without those advantages.
The health care issue is not new to Herman Cain. He came on the political stage in the 1990’s when he was instrumental in the defeat of Clinton’s Health Care Plan. The reason: the high cost to small businesses.
Five years ago he was diagnosed with Stage IV cancer of the colon, which had spread to his liver. He is now cancer-free. Is it implausible to think that perhaps his health issue could have brought about an epiphany?
When two of children were diagnosed with cancer, Ted Kennedy wrote in his autobiography that he became even more dedicated to providing health care for those who did not have the same access as he and his family had.
Have you considered writing jokes for Mitt Romney, Patrick? Your comic and moral genius shouldn’t be wasted on a blog.
Patrick –
Did it ever occur to you that Obama’s mother might have told him to tend to his political duties and stay away? She seems to have been quite ambitious for her son, and seems to have had a very strong sense of acting for the common good first. You can’t put off a campaign.
Judge not.
“One of Cain’s employees had been researching top cancer-treatment hospitals”
On company time? So the shareholders were paying for this personal service?
Sorry for the delayed response. I was out tearing down Obama signs. Only the illegally posted ones, I hasten to add.
Grant, I see that you are distracted by my style. I’m reminded of the lawyer joke. When the law and facts are not on his side he pounds the table. I wonder if there’s an equivalent regarding writers. When they don’t want to discuss substance they focus on style.
If however you should find the time to address substance it would be interesting to find out what your view is regarding Obama’s confusions (to put it politely) about his mother’s insurance problems as discussed in Janny Scott’s book. Do they amount to a little fib, a big fib or do they rise to the level deserving the reproach “What kind of person would trade so brazenly–and so mistakenly–on his own (mother’s) bout with cancer?”
Because of my generous nature I side with the big fib people though I could be persuaded by adherents of the more damning possibility. It seems that you have mounted a convincing explanation of Obama’s absence during the last months of his mother’s life. Perhaps you have an equally cogent explanation for his misleading campaign stories. In your eyes they may be only a little fib. I await the product of your cogitations.
I hope you give us an expanded book report on the Cain volume. I understand it has some funny stuff about Jesus and healing that could be held up to the ridicule of sophisticates. After that task is finished you may burnish your reputation as an insurance expert by attending to the charges about Obama made in the Janny Scott book.
Ann,
If you believe that, I won’t try to argue with you. You have more faith in the great man than I have. I admire you but I can’t as yet emulate you.
Don’t you think that judging or non-judging should apply equally to Herman Cain as well as to Barack Obama?
BTW, you can put off a campaign. Strange as it may seem it has been known to happen. As late as yesterday, in fact.
Patrick,
I don’t find your style distracting. I find it obnoxious–surely the intended effect. If you had shown the ability to write in another register, perhaps I wouldn’t find your interventions here so annoying.
But I can see that you’d rather focus on what Obama said about his mother’s illness four years ago than attend to the substance of my criticism of Herman Cain, whose grasp of the U.S. health-care system is tenuous at best. I’m sure you won’t be surprised to learn that I haven’t the slightest interest in dancing to your tune.
Grant,
I understand – - In the finest tradition, you step forward to declare a proud and resounding “Present.” I conclude that your faith in Obama’s veracity is unshaken and perhaps unshakeable.
The “9-9-9″ plan is gimmicky and regressive.
“These are precisely the sorts of scenes that make it clear why we needed health-care reform in the first place. Access to quality medical treatment should not be determined by whether you have a job that offers health insurance, how rich you are, or who you know.”
I suppose it’s easier to pick on a second tier candidate’s half-baked statements in glossy campaign books, but it seems a missed opportunity to choose him over Paul Ryan’s recent speech outlining a conservative proposal for healthcare reform, which whatever other merits or lack thereof it may have, would certainly meet the parameters you lay out in your quote above. And I daresay Mr. Ryan has more sway in the GOP these days than Mr. Cain ever will perhaps to the chagrin of those inclined to pore over his campaign book.
http://paulryan.house.gov/News/DocumentSingle.aspx?DocumentID=261967
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-10-04/paul-ryan-s-strong-antidote-to-obama-health-care-ramesh-ponnuru.html
(I know, I know, Paul Ryan is a lying, radical Randian individualist committed to destroying the social contract as we know it and pays lip service to his faith. But it’s still worth a read IMO).
Patrick M. –
I don’t know what the facts were concerning Obama’s non-visits to his dying mother. And neither do you.
About judging ==
I get really tired of speculations about people’s moral worth when nobody has any hard evidence about the intentions or character of the person. Sure, sometimes we have to make decisions based on speculations, but once we start calling speculations facts we’re in trouble.
In my experience the only time when you can know a person’s intentions with justified certainty is when you have seen someone make a hard decision that requires them to decide against their own apparent interests, or when you have an equivalent sort of evidence (e.g., tapes, or the testimony of witnesses you know to be totally reliable). That’s not cynical, only realistic.
In fact, I don’t think we really know ourselves very well until we see ourselves making a hard decision that costs us something. Pride gets in the way. And this is why I think Jesus Himself said, “Judge not”. It’s because we’re usually incapable of judging a person’s character without extremely strong evidence.
Sure, we can say *what* a person has done or not done is objectively wrong, but we can’t judge their subjective responsibility very often.
Having seen Cain interviewed only once on TV, I have no opinion about the man’s character. Politically he is much too far to the right. He seems to be a bad judge of economic matters. His worldview is much too simple. Does this make him a bad guy? No, only wrong.
I don’t know yet whether or not Obama is a great man. However, I think that he has had some notable successes in some almost impossible political and historical circumstance. So I’m still hopeful that he’ll end up at least a very good president even if not a great one. Sometimes the facts are intractable, as when the Tea Partiers decide to be irrational or when Pakistan decides to be hypocritical.
Ann,
If you follow up the links I provided above (9:59 and 11:11 PM) you’ll find evidence that everyone outside the Obama circle recognizes as indicating at least a little fib on Obama’s part during the campaign. You may want to give Obama the benefit of the doubt; I prefer to give it to Janny Scott who has no apparent axe to grind.
Agnosticism, I suppose, is always a possibility just as some are always afraid to judge — who was it who asked “What is truth?”
As utterly fascinating as the question of “who fibbed?” is, the fact still remains that Cain’s characterization of Health Care Reform is incorrect and Grant’s is correct.
And I for one am willing to give Cain the benefit of the doubt and just assume that he doesn’t know what he is talking about.