RUSH: The Republican health care plan, the repeal, replace, smack down of Obamacare, whatever it is, it is hinging on the entire procedure, methodology, policy, how we\u2019re gonna deal with insuring people with preexisting conditions. And I\u2019m gonna explain what all\u2019s going on in the monologue segment of the next hour. But I want to say something before we get there, and it illustrates that we\u2019re not really talking about insurance here.<\/p>\n
When you get down to it, we\u2019re told that the argument here is about health insurance and the costs, the deductibles and the premiums and the copays, but that\u2019s not it. Health care long ago ceased to have anything to do with insurance. And when you\u2019re talking about preexisting conditions, we\u2019re not talking insurance.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.rushlimbaugh.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/RushMaking-The-Complex.jpg\")
If you know what insurance is, I mean what the business plan, the model, if you know what the definition of the insurance business is, if you know that, then you would know automatically and instinctively that people with preexisting conditions cannot possibly be insured. In a real world, it isn\u2019t possible. That makes insurance essentially welfare.<\/p>\n
You\u2019ve heard the old argument that — and people understand this. This is a dirty little secret. People understand this. The health care in this country has slowly evolved to an entitlement program that nobody wants to admit is an entitlement program so we all fall for the idea that what we\u2019re buying here is insurance. We\u2019re not. We\u2019re buying a welfare plan but having to pay a little bit for it. That\u2019s called our insurance premium. But we\u2019re not buying insurance. We\u2019re buying into an entitlement. Once the government got involved in this, there\u2019s no way we\u2019re buying insurance.<\/p>\n
If you have a house but you don\u2019t have any insurance on it, A, you might be in violation of the law, you probably couldn\u2019t get a mortgage. But let\u2019s say that you\u2019re a shifty guy and you\u2019re able to buy a house with no homeowners insurance. And one day you\u2019re on your way home and your home is on fire, you can see the smoke, you can see the flames before you get to the driveway.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.rushlimbaugh.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/ObamacareUnaffordable-1.jpg\")
You pull in the driveway, oh, my God, the fire department\u2019s not here yet, who do you call? Your insurance agent and ask for homeowners insurance? No, because you know why? Because you know you\u2019d be laughed at. You know there\u2019s no way you can buy insurance at that point. Nobody will sell it to you. It\u2019s not the purpose of insurance. Insurance is insuring against the odds something\u2019s gonna happen to you. It\u2019s based on mathematics and actuarial tables, and it\u2019s a real live business.<\/p>\n
But it isn\u2019t in health care. The minute you start tacking preexisting conditions on to what you\u2019re going to call health insurance, you\u2019ve just blown up the whole argument that what we\u2019re talking about here is insurance, because you cannot — how many people do you know, if you think that I\u2019m whistling Dixie here (no offense to Dixie), how many people do you know who have driven home and they\u2019ve seen their house on fire and called an insurance company?<\/p>\n
You don\u2019t know anybody because nobody\u2019s ever done it because everybody knows they couldn\u2019t get it. There\u2019s no way. The same thing with an automobile. I know the law says you have to have it, but how many people do you have an accident with that don\u2019t have insurance? It happens more frequently than the law says should. So you have an accident, you don\u2019t have any auto insurance, you gonna call somebody, “Hey, I just totaled my car, I need insurance.”<\/p>\n
“Oh, really, what kind of policy do you have?”<\/p>\n
“Well, I want you to give me a new car.” Ha-ha, they\u2019ll laugh you off — you\u2019re not so stupid that you even make that call. But when we\u2019re talking health, preexisting conditions represent maybe 4% of the population that we\u2019re talking about. So any health care, I don\u2019t care if it\u2019s Obamacare, Trumpcare, Ryan, whatever, it\u2019s being held up basically here on the preexisting condition side for 4% statistically of the population.<\/p>\n
But here\u2019s why it works, Jimmy Kimmel notwithstanding. Preexisting conditions, people that have preexisting conditions are really sick. They are not waiting to get sick, they are. Other people buying, quote, unquote, insurance are not sick yet, but the law says they have to have it or they want to have it because it\u2019s so expensive they go broke, blah, blah, blah, and with Obamacare a lot of people are. So when the really sick are told they can\u2019t get health care under current health care, everybody, “That\u2019s not fair! It isn\u2019t right!”<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.rushlimbaugh.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/GOPTRAP.jpg\")
‘Cause people with preexisting conditions really are sick. People ask, “Why can\u2019t they get covered? Why can\u2019t they be taken care of?” Well, they will be. They always have been. In fact, in Obamacare, the high risk pools that were designed to create the revenue to care for people with preexisting conditions, you know what happened? Nobody enrolled in \u2019em! That\u2019s why there wasn\u2019t any money in \u2019em.<\/p>\n
So, anyway, preexisting conditions are what is the, not the final, but it\u2019s the biggest clog in the Republican effort to come up here with a repeal and replacement bill. And I will explain what the plans are, what the proposals are, what the procedures are as we get into the next hour. But I don\u2019t want anybody getting mad at me here. My contention is that we have all been lulled into, over the years, like the frog in the pot of water on the stove and the heat\u2019s not on and gradually one year they turned the heat up a little bit more, “Hey, that actually feels good.” Turn the heat up a little bit more, by the time you realize you\u2019re in trouble, it\u2019s too late.<\/p>\n
And that\u2019s what the encroachment of government-run health care has been. And the fact is, with the government now involved in so much of it, we\u2019re not even talking insurance. It\u2019s just a welfare plan where we have agreed to pay a little bit into it in order to access it, and we call those payments our premiums. If you doubt me, who\u2019s running this show? Who\u2019s running health care? Who sets the rules? Who tells you whether you can or can\u2019t get covered? Who tells you what it costs? I\u2019ll give you a hint: They don\u2019t live and work in the markets.<\/p>\n
BREAK TRANSCRIPT<\/p>\n
RUSH: Now, I want to explain what insurance is. I\u2019m not trying to make a big deal about this. I\u2019m just trying to make sure that everybody understands what we\u2019re talking about when we talk about health care and health insurance in America, because we\u2019re really not the talking about health insurance. And we haven\u2019t been talking… Well, I take it back. That\u2019s what we\u2019re talking about, but that\u2019s not what we have.<\/p>\n
This whole business of government being involved in health care, you can trace it back to the sixties with Medicare and Medicaid. You go back to the sixties and you can find Democrat politicians salivating over their dreams of what the health care system could become, and it\u2019s basically become that. More and more government involvement. ‘Cause it offers you so much opportunity to control people in practically every aspect of their lives. If you hold the keys to their wellness — if you can succeed in driving the cost of wellness — past the point people can afford it and you\u2019re the only place they can go to get treated for sick, then they own you, or you will own them.<\/p>\n
And for people that want to own people — by that I mean for people who want as many people dependent on them as possible — then doing to the health care system of this country what has been done is one of the best ways to make that possible. But the business model of insurance bears no resemblance to what health care insurance is in America today. In the real world, if you go talk to people that are passionate about insurance… I know that insurance is a subject that most people look at as a necessary evil, and they certainly can\u2019t understand people being passionate about it.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.rushlimbaugh.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/ObamacareQuoteDoctor2Lies2.jpg\")
But the people who are will tell you that it\u2019s one of the greatest inventions, genius inventions of humanity of all time because by design, for a small premium — i.e., payment — a person can be protected against calamities that could wipe them out. Insurance is needed because the cost of a calamity that wipes you out is much greater than any average person is ever going to be able to afford. And insurance, depending the company, you can buy insurance for whatever you want, if somebody will run the numbers and create a policy for you. That\u2019s why there\u2019s Lloyd\u2019s of London.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s why there are any number of insurance companies that are off the wall and way out there and not part of a big nationwide brand name. But for just a small premium or relatively small premium you can be protected against calamities that could wipe you out, whether it\u2019s massive health issues or your house burning down, disability, unable to work and therefore produce an income. It\u2019s helped a lot of people over the years. And it is a valid business model when it is done honestly and sincerely. But the people that are gonna take on this responsibility…<\/p>\n
If you\u2019re gonna become an insurance company, if you\u2019re gonna be the person that sells these premiums to people, you had better be able to pay off. If you can\u2019t pay off, then you\u2019ve got hell to pay. So insurance companies, the people that sell these relatively small premiums that insure people — you\u2019re buying against the odds. When you give the insurance company money, you hope that what your insuring against never happens. If it does, the insurance company had better be able to pay off.<\/p>\n
They had better have access, not just to the money you paid them, but all their other policyholders, and they had better have invested all of that money so that their pool grows and grows and grows to be able to handle any and all claims that come their way. They\u2019re hoping nothing happens to you. They\u2019re hoping that they never have to pay you off. They\u2019re hoping that the only relationship they have with you is you paying them. But they always are gonna have to pay off. A tornado goes through town.<\/p>\n
When I was young, when I was growing up — I mean, very young — a tornado ripped through our little town, Cape Girardeau, Missouri. My parents told me that the first people on the scene were the insurance companies paying off. It was a PR opportunity like no other. Be the first in the town. When people finally were able to go back and look at the destruction, the first people they saw were insurance agents willing to help them right then and there. It worked.<\/p>\n
But they require a mathematical certainty, and if the certainties are ignored, then the insurance falls apart, and it\u2019s not there. Now, the principle of insurance is to collect these premiums from a lot of people. You go out and you sell policies to as many people as you can, where the trends and the actualities of loss can be calculated. So that\u2019s what the actuarial tables are. For example, if you\u2019re in the business of selling health insurance, let\u2019s say.<\/p>\n
You are gonna find out some hard, cold facts. You\u2019re gonna get some stats. Okay, you sell a policy to a thousand people. What\u2019s gonna happen? What\u2019s gonna happen to those thousand people? Well, you can\u2019t predict it. All you can do is study averages, occurrences, and create likelihoods. So if they end up knowing — quote, “calculating” — that for every 1,000 people, 380 are so are going to get cancer, then that\u2019s step one in pricing the premium that they sell you.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.rushlimbaugh.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/RushObamacareMakingtheComplexHealthcare4.jpg\")
By knowing these numbers, they can put together a business model that serves the purpose of insuring all 1,000 people while realizing a profit on the investment of those premiums that will pay off the 380 people they expect to come calling because they have contracted cancer or whatever disease is being insured against. But none of this works, and the business model falls apart, if you throw preexisting conditions into this. If all 1,000 people coming to you buy insurance already have cancer, what in the world are you doing — you can\u2019t. You wouldn\u2019t. You would not sell them insurance. You would have to send them someplace else.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s not what you do. You\u2019re selling people an opportunity to be made whole if something happens, not after it has happened. Insurance is not what you do if you\u2019re selling policies to people who are already sick. You wouldn\u2019t do it because that\u2019s not the business you\u2019re in. So who does pay for people who are already sick, who can\u2019t buy insurance because of it because it makes no sense to sell it to them. In the real world, that\u2019s a dumb thing to do, to sell insurance to people that already are sick.<\/p>\n
So what are we as a society gonna do in that circumstance? Because the fact of the matter is, the vast majority of those people with preexisting conditions are not gonna be able to afford it themselves. So what do they do? Where do they go? Well, what we\u2019re trying to do is include that group of people in a system that we\u2019re calling health insurance. I\u2019m sorry, folks. It breaks down, the numbers don\u2019t work, the business model falls apart, and we\u2019re not talking insurance anymore.<\/p>\n
And when you\u2019re going to use the money raised by the premiums of the healthy to cover those with preexisting conditions, you\u2019re gonna have to charge them more than you would if you weren\u2019t covering preexisting conditions. So everybody\u2019s premiums are gonna go way up beyond what they would be if we\u2019re going to call this insurance. And we damn well are gonna call it insurance \u2019cause we\u2019re not gonna call it what it really is. Because if we called it what it really is, we wouldn\u2019t have nearly the massive support for it that we do. I mean, people wanting government to take care of them.<\/p>\n
If, for example, the coverage of people with preexisting conditions was called an entitlement or welfare, it would change entirely the way people look at it, and it would change attitudes, not for the better. But as long as we can convince people that all we\u2019re talking about here is insurance, then that makes it fine. The health care system in this country blew past the insurance model decades ago. Nobody\u2019s selling health insurance.<\/p>\n
Even when you had employment-based coverage, the employer was supposedly paying your premiums up to certain point, you paid this, they paid that, whatever. It was a benefit. It wasn\u2019t an insurance plan. And when Harris Wofford came along in 19 whenever it was, sometime in the late eighties, early nineties, Senator from Pennsylvania, and declared that it was now Democrat Party policy that if the Constitution of the United States is going to guarantee you a lawyer when you can\u2019t afford one, then by golly, by gosh, it ought to assure you a doctor and a nurse and a hospital when you can\u2019t afford one.<\/p>\n
And the masses said, “Yes, exactly right! It\u2019s our right to be well, it\u2019s our entitlement to be well, and to have provided for us whatever is needed for us to be well.” And Big Government architects were only too happy to comply. And when Big Government architects got involved, the game ended because that\u2019s when prices for everything began to skyrocket because the people buying the service were not the ones paying for it, therefore prices were not based at all on market-based forces.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.rushlimbaugh.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/650-032417-Healthcare-Bill.jpg\")
Health care prices decades ago ceased being about what most people could afford. That has not happened in other industries. Hotel industry, there are as many different hotels as there are people willing to pay what for them. Airline tickets, you name it, cars, TV sets, houses, they\u2019re available in every price range based on people\u2019s ability to pay. In health care, no relationship whatsoever to what people can afford. Prices are nowhere near what people can afford. Prices are the most that they can get an insurer or the government to repay them for.<\/p>\n
When you have third-party payers once or twice removed from the actual patient, customer, then long gone is any market pressure on prices. That\u2019s where we are in our health care system, but yet we still call it what it isn\u2019t. We call it insurance, we call it this, because it\u2019s easier to sell it to people as insurance. When what it really has become is its own entitlement program or welfare program that you have to pay a little bit for.<\/p>\n
Kind of like Social Security. Yeah, but you have to pay for it, theoretically. And that makes it all okay. “It\u2019s not welfare. I have to buy a policy. I\u2019m paying for a policy.” Yeah. A policy that\u2019s now so out of whack you can\u2019t even afford to use it, thanks to Obamacare. Premiums are skyrocketing, the deductible is such that you don\u2019t want to use the policy yet you want to get covered because the government\u2019s told you you have to have this. Now a matter of law, you have to have Obamacare insurance. If you don\u2019t, you are in violation of the law.<\/p>\n
And when you go out into the marketplace trying to buy it, there is nowhere you can go where the price makes any sense based on what you can afford. You can\u2019t afford it unless there is a subsidy. And where does this subsidy come from? Well, other taxpayers, but most people think from the government, because the pricing here is not relevant to reality in any way, shape, manner, or form.<\/p>\n
BREAK TRANSCRIPT<\/p>\n
RUSH: In an answer to an emailer, my point about insurance and preexisting conditions, look at what we… I\u2019m gonna try to describe attitudinally the way most Americans see this entire health care, health insurance, medical treatment array. It begins with the realization everybody has that they can\u2019t afford it. They can\u2019t even afford the basics anymore. The basics have gone way beyond most people\u2019s ability to afford them. Just a checkup to the doctor — because the law requires all these tests now — you just can\u2019t afford it.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.rushlimbaugh.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/ObamacareTaxes.jpg\"){kind=icon}
You go to the doctor, an emergency room — or you don\u2019t need any treatment but they have to do $10,000 worth of tests. So everybody knows they can\u2019t afford it. Ergo, they need somebody helping them out. What\u2019s the objective? Most people think the objective is to make the sick better. Most people think that there is compassion behind the American health care system and that it is there to take sick people and make them well or to make them better, at least to give them treatment. Because we think that\u2019s a right now.<\/p>\n
Enough people think that is a right. That has been one of the ways all of this has been sold, if you will, by the Democrat Party. So in the discussion of finding the most efficient ways of providing this access to people. Ergo, they get sick, they get to go get treated, it gets paid for, and they\u2019re not destroyed in the process. Financially. Well, in the real world, the vast majority of people are not sick at any one moment in time. But at some point in their lives, they will be.<\/p>\n
The younger you are, statistically, the healthier you are, and the less time you need to spend with doctors and nurses and medical appointments and all this. It was Obamacare which sought to soak these people, charging them exorbitant premiums, knowing full well they would never put any cost strain on the system \u2019cause they don\u2019t get sick and they don\u2019t get catastrophic illnesses in high percentages, compared to the elderly or older part of the population. But the point is this: The entire system…<\/p>\n
As far as people are convinced, as far as they\u2019ve been made to believe, the health care system is there to help people get well — and that we, as a society, have agreed that that\u2019s what our health care system should do. The sick should be treated and get well. Now we move to those with preexisting conditions. By definition, those people are really sick. They are sick every day, all the time. And yet, what does our system say? “Well, sorry. We can\u2019t insure you. We can\u2019t insure you.”<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.rushlimbaugh.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/183060916-300x200.jpg\")
And people say, “What do you mean, you can\u2019t? The purpose of our system is to make people well, and you\u2019re telling me they can\u2019t participate?”<\/p>\n
“Well, no, because it\u2019s silly to insure people that are already sick, who may be terminal. It\u2019s a losing proposition.”<\/p>\n
“You SOBs! You heartless SOBs!”<\/p>\n
You see where it breaks down? In a system that most people think is rooted in compassion and helping the sick get well, we tell this one group over here, “Sorry, we can\u2019t treat you.” And those people happen to be the really sick. It doesn\u2019t make sense. “Why can\u2019t we sell \u2019em insurance, Mabel? Why don\u2019t they want to?” “I don\u2019t know, Nancy, but they tell me that that\u2019s not really insurance.” “But why can\u2019t they give them something? Those are really sick people!” And it breaks down.<\/p>\n
Those people are 4% statistically here of the population. So we\u2019re now tying ourselves in knots for a nationwide health care run — once again — by a bunch of wizards that know nothing about it. We\u2019re trying to devise a health care system that accommodates 4% of the population first and that still provides insurance for everybody else. I\u2019m sorry, it isn\u2019t gonna work, because once you include people with preexisting conditions in an insurance program, you no longer have insurance.<\/p>\n
And I\u2019m not splitting hairs. It matters, because it matters in the way our government betters then come try to sell this. Why do you think that Obamacare created a mandate for you to buy this? Because they knew you wouldn\u2019t! The way they were structuring this, they know nobody with common sense would pay what Obamacare costs are, so they\u2019re gonna make it a matter of law for you to buy it. Obamacare made no effort to make this affordable. Obamacare made no effort to bring down costs or premiums.<\/p>\n
Obamacare made no effort… Obamacare\u2019s sole objective was to make as many people as possible think they were getting a freebie and then create — in those people — a nationwide demand for the program. So where are we today? Well, interesting story here. This is from the New York Times earlier today: “GOP Scrambles as a Crucial Voice Shuns the Latest Health Bill — With two days left before an 11-day recess and no vote scheduled, House Republican leaders worked on Tuesday to win votes one at a time for their latest bill to repeal [Obamacare].<\/p>\n
“A failure … would be the third time that Speaker Paul D. Ryan…” Bad news, couldn\u2019t rally his House members, blah, blah, blah. “Representative Fred Upton of Michigan was only the latest Republican defector, but [Upton] carries more sway than most.” Upton was a supporter. Upton early today, last night, pulled himself out; said he was a “no” vote on this. Does the name ring a bell, Fred Upton? (interruption) Well, it will when I tell you. Fred Upton led the charge in the House of Representatives to get rid of the incandescent lightbulb and replace it with these curlicue\u2019d compact fluorescents.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.rushlimbaugh.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/650-050317-Medical-Insurance.jpg\")
That\u2019s who Fred Upton is. Therefore, because Fred Upton did something the left loved, now he has a lot of power. So when Fred Upton pulls out, the media says, “Oh, man, Ryan\u2019s in trouble! Fred Upton! Oh, my God! Oh, my God!” Ever since Mr. Upton helped Obama lead the drive to do away with incandescent lightbulbs, he\u2019s been a darling of the Drive-By Media and a crucial voice.<\/p>\n
“Mr. Upton said the latest version of the health care bill ‘torpedoes\u2019 protections for people with,” dadelut dadelut dadelut dadelut, “preexisting conditions.” Now we move to a story from CNN right before the program. Breaking news: “GOP representatives Fred Upton and Billy Long say they will now support the Republican plan to repeal and replace Obamacare after having met with President Trump this morning.”<\/p>\n
So last night, darling of the left Fred Upton was opposed because the Republicans were gonna be mean to people with preexisting conditions. After having met with Trump, he\u2019s now switched to a “yes” vote. The White House is in a full-court press to rally Republican support. They want to get this done again because of upcoming 11-day recess. They just had a 14-day recess. Got another 11-day recess coming up.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.rushlimbaugh.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/Rush-Photos-SMALL-017.jpg\")
The truth is, nobody in this deal from the White House down to the House of Representatives wants to abandon people with preexisting conditions. This is along the lines of Republicans want to starve kids. This is along the lines of Republicans are gonna kick seniors out of their houses. Republicans are gonna take your Social Security away. It\u2019s a common tactic the left uses, and now they\u2019ve ramped it up: Republicans want to torpedo people with preexisting conditions. But no one wants to do that.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.rushlimbaugh.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/DemocratSHORT-1.jpg\")
The new House bill sets up a $130 billion pot of money federally funded, I don\u2019t quite know how, but it\u2019s $130 billion federally funded to pay for people with preexisting conditions. The whole nation chips in, not just people stuck in the individual market. That\u2019s the plan, essentially, is to segregate them out of the insurance market. We\u2019ll still call \u2019em insurance. But keep preexisting conditions separate so that their inclusion doesn\u2019t blow up the insurance business model pricing mechanism and everything else.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.rushlimbaugh.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/00-DittoNation-BLANK.jpg\"){kind=spacer}
CALLER: Well, it\u2019s interesting. I was a real estate broker here in Florida, and I was also an insurance agent. I was an insurance agent in Connecticut, New York, North Carolina, and Florida. I\u2019m just currently licensed here in Florida, but you\u2019re right on. The only thing that I may add to what you\u2019ve said about preexisting [conditions] is if you went to work for a large company like Microsoft or IBM or General Motors, after a 60- or 90-day period of time you\u2019d be eligible for their group insurance.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.rushlimbaugh.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/650-050317-Medicare-Dollars.jpg\")
RUSH: Yeah, that would be somebody… If you transplant a brain, that would be the end of you.<\/p>\n