{"id":10396,"date":"2014-01-17T18:41:23","date_gmt":"2014-01-17T18:41:23","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2014-01-17T18:41:23","modified_gmt":"2014-01-17T18:41:23","slug":"socialized_medicine_makes_you_a_number","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/admin.rushlimbaugh.com\/daily\/2014\/01\/17\/socialized_medicine_makes_you_a_number\/","title":{"rendered":"Socialized Medicine Makes You a Number"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Listen<\/a><\/p>\n

RUSH: New Bern, North Carolina, Donna. Great to have you on the EIB Network. Hello.<\/p>\n

CALLER: Hello, Rush. It\u2019s an honor and a pleasure to speak with you.<\/p>\n

RUSH: Thank you.<\/p>\n

CALLER: Long-time listener, first-time caller. Can you hear me okay?<\/p>\n

RUSH: Well, I hear you fine.<\/p>\n

CALLER: Okay, great. Listen, Rush, I wanted to get your opinion on something I\u2019ve been thinking about, and that is, you know, under Obamacare, certain tests the doctors may want to order, they won\u2019t be able to. So I\u2019m wondering how that\u2019s gonna impact malpractice suits. My suspicion is that they\u2019ll go up, maybe dramatically. And then, more importantly, how is that gonna affect the practice of medicine? Will more physicians decide to get out of medicine, paying exorbitant malpractice fees? I just want to get your thoughts on that. I haven\u2019t heard anybody talk about that.<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

RUSH: Well, your theory on the malpractice, let me see if I understand what your theory is. So Obamacare mandates less testing, we\u2019re gonna do fewer mammograms for women under 40 because the statistics say it\u2019s a waste of money and a waste of time.<\/p>\n

CALLER: Right.<\/p>\n

RUSH: If the government\u2019s paying for it and the doctors are only gonna get reimbursed by the government and you go in and want a mammogram, and they say, “Sorry, I can\u2019t give you one, unless you\u2019re gonna pay for it yourself.” You don\u2019t have the money to pay for it so there\u2019s no mammogram. And then, lo and behold, a lump is found later. Then the patient gets all mad and wants to sue the doctor for malpractice \u2019cause it could have been discovered but it wasn\u2019t because of, “Well, the government wouldn\u2019t let him test \u2019cause I didn\u2019t have the money,” or whatever. And is that gonna lead patients to charge doctors with malpractice?<\/p>\n

CALLER: Right.<\/p>\n

RUSH: You know, I suppose it could. As litigious as our society is it will cause rising malpractice. Doctors, I think in droves, are gonna be pulling out of this and trying to find alternate ways of staying in business without depending on government reimbursement. In fact, that is happening. I mean, these are things that I don\u2019t think you can avoid happening, once people lose control of their own health care, either to an insurance company or government or combination of the two, and once you just become thrown in with a statistic rather than being treated as an individual. The solution to this, of course, is if they won\u2019t do a mammogram because they won\u2019t pay for it, then pay for it yourself.<\/p>\n

CALLER: Hm-hm. Right. Yeah.<\/p>\n

RUSH: And then you might say, “Well, what if I don\u2019t have the money?” Well, it depends on what\u2019s important to you.<\/p>\n

CALLER: Hm-hm. Right.<\/p>\n

RUSH: But, you know, individual predictions of pitfalls are fairly easy to make in a generic sense. The more individualistic you get in the prediction it\u2019s problematic. But it\u2019s already started, this kind of stuff. It\u2019s already starting. There\u2019s no way medicines are gonna be improved. There\u2019s no way diagnostics are going to be improved. And it\u2019s really sad treatment isn\u2019t gonna be improved. I mean, everybody\u2019s just gonna be a number. And their number is gonna have whatever characteristics associated with the number. Are you overweight? Are you old? Is it gonna make any sense to spend money on treating you? All of these things are gonna become factors. <\/p>\n

Again, I just want to take time to explain myself. If you\u2019re a new listener and you think, “Rush, this sounds so stupid,” let me remind you that five years ago there was a prime time health care special from the White House broadcast on ABC, and an American citizen, a woman, participated, and she actually asked the president of the United States, who is not a doctor and is not her doctor, and never will be her doctor. In fact, he isn\u2019t involved in her life at all, and yet she had to ask the president if her mother, who is a hundred, would qualify for a pacemaker because she wasn\u2019t ready to die, she\u2019s got a great spirit, great will to live. I\u2019ve told you this story countless times. I couldn\u2019t believe what I was watching. <\/line>