Rick Santorum does not believe that a lack of adequate health care adds to the number of deaths in America. No I'm not kidding!

"Wait, a person's health and their longevity are connected? I don't believe that!"

This a statement I just found, from a campaign event in Christian college in Sioux Center Iowa, that took place about a month ago:

Santorum also had a tense moment when a student asked him about health care and the Christian responsibility of caring for the poor. 

The student said he didn’t “think God appreciates the fact that we have 50 to 100,000 uninsured Americans dying due to a lack of healthcare every year,” citing a 2009 study out of Harvard University. 

“Dying?” Santorum answered before going back and forth about the validity of the study. 

“The answer is not what can we do to prevent deaths because of a lack of health insurance. There’s — I reject that number completely, that people die in America because of lack of health insurance,” Santorum said to a crowd of 100. 

“People die in America because people die in America. And people make poor decisions with respect to their health and their healthcare. And they don’t go to the emergency room or they don’t go to the doctor when they need to,” he said. “And it’s not the fault of the government for not providing some sort of universal benefit.

WTF? "People die in America, because people die in America?" Does he also believe that "People die in car accidents, becasue people die in car accidents?" I guess passing a law to make drivers wear seat belts, or put their children in car seats, is just a complete waste of time then isn't it?

Now whether Santorum believes people should have universal health care or not, surely it is not an open debate that NOT having adequate health insurance leads to people skipping regular basis doctor visits, and not getting checkups when they don't feel well due to the cost?

And can he NOT then follow that line of logic to realize that if people do not receive physicals and health screenings, it is almost a certainty that potential health problems will not be diagnosed early when they are more treatable and that people will die as the result?

Not recognizing that seems either purposefully obtuse, or the result of some kind of mental retardation.

Perhaps somebody could direct this "frothy mixture of lubricant and fecal matter" to the study that student referred to done in 2009 by the Harvard Medical School:

Researchers from Harvard Medical School say the lack of coverage can be tied to about 45,000 deaths a year in the United States — a toll that is greater than the number of people who die each year from kidney disease. 

“If you extend coverage, you can save lives,” said Dr. Steffie Woolhandler, a professor of medicine at Harvard who is one of the study’s authors. The research is being published in the December issue of the American Journal of Public Health and was posted online Thursday. 

The Harvard study found that people without health insurance had a 40 percent higher risk of death than those with private health insurance — as a result of being unable to obtain necessary medical care. The risk appears to have increased since 1993, when a similar study found the risk of death was 25 percent greater for the uninsured.

You know just when I convince myself that the idiots running for the GOP nomination are just a few, and not representative of the entire field, another one opens their mouth and suddenly it seems that the ONLY way to become a nominee is to demonstrate a crippling lack of intellect.

And here I thought that Sarah Palin would simply embarrass herself if she tried to run. Hell from what I can see of the field she might have been chosen as the honorary valedictorian of the 2012 class of Republican Presidential candidates.