Neal Boortz: Hey, Olbermann, the lines are open

Let’s talk about MSNBC’s Keith Olbermann.

It’s only fair: He talked about me on his poorly rated television show last Tuesday.

Olbermann, you see, is more than a little bit upset because I said that the Democrats’ ObamaCare plan would do more damage to this country than a terrorist attack — and might end up killing more people.

So along comes Olbermann to open his TV comments about me with the “hate radio host” label. (This is required of any liberal who wishes to comment on talk radio.) He then says that I have been “dehumanized.”

Some of you might think he had a point there, but hopefully your dementia hasn’t progressed to the point that you would agree with his next statement, to wit:

“What would you do, sir, if terrorists were killing 45,000 people every year in this country? Well, the current health care system, the insurance companies, and those who support them are doing just that. ... Those fighting health care reform — not those debating its shape or its nuance — people who demand the status quo, they are killing 45,000 Americans a year.”

So, there you have it. Insurance companies and people like me who oppose nationalized health care are killing 45,000 Americans a year. You would think that Olbermann has a source for this statistic; and indeed he does. Olbermann didn’t do the research on his own. Instead he went with a study published last December in The American Journal of Public Health.

Consider first the study’s methodology; then consider the conclusions drawn by Mr. Olbermann, and you’ll see the dearth of logical thought processes that make up this man’s worldview.

The survey was conducted of 9,000 Americans between 1988 and 1994. The participants were asked at some point during this period if they had health insurance.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention then tracked these 9,000 Americans through the end of 2000. Naturally, not all of these Americans made it that far. Some died. So, some people who did not have insurance at some point between 1988 and 1994 took the eternal celestial dirt nap before the end of 2000. Happens to the best of us.

Along come two doctors named David Himmelstein and Steffie Woolhandler. This duo run an organization called “Physicians for a National Health Program.” They take the CDC statistics and come to an amazing conclusion: If a person told the researchers back in, say, 1992, that he didn’t have insurance, and if that person died before the end of 2000, then it follows that that person died because he didn’t have health insurance! These researchers admit they made no attempt to determine whether or not these now-dead study participants had insurance at the time of their demise. They just assumed that once you’re uninsured, you remain uninsured; and when you die, that’s what did you in. The study’s authors even admitted the limitations in their own study, writing they were “unable to measure the effect of gaining or losing coverage after the interview.”

Along comes Keith Olbermann who gloms on to this study and concludes that your humble commentator is killing 45,000 people a year. He even signed off Wednesday night by telling his enthralled viewers that I nailed yet another 140 or so people that very day.