RUSH: We have a doctor from Jacksonville, Florida. Eric, thank you for holding on. You’re up first. Hello.
CALLER: Hey, Rush. Thank you for having me and definitely thank you for speaking for all the doctors out there. I think there’s a lot of interest in what’s been going on in Washington lately.
RUSH: Thank you, sir.
CALLER: I wanted to bring up a point. In order for a bill to be taken seriously by the American people, it has to contain some aspect of tort reform in it. I think the astronomical increase in malpractice costs for physicians is well known, but I do have a concept of defensive medicine practices. These are tests or studies that are taken not to improve diagnostic accuracy, but essentially to practice CYA medicine for liability from lawsuits. And this costs about 15% of all medicine costs, or $360 billion a year.
RUSH: Wait, now. I lost track here of what you said. Your concept: cost or tort reform costs?
CALLER: No, I think tort reform would limit this, the practice of defensive medicine.
RUSH: Oh, okay. Oh, defensive medicine. Okay, so with tort reform or without the threat of being sued every time you see a patient, you can eliminate a bunch of unnecessary tests that you know you don’t really need but you take ’em anyway in order to cover yourself, right?
CALLER: Absolutely.
RUSH: Against the trial lawyer.
CALLER: There’s a tremendous amount of data on how prevalent this is, and our hands are really tied without some sort of cap on lawsuits. And I think that’s an important concept that goes beyond just the dollars and cents value of —
RUSH: Well, there’s no question.
CALLER: — malpractice.
RUSH: There’s no question you’re right, but I’m going to give you the hard, cold truth. With Democrats writing legislation, there will never be anything approaching tort reform. The trial lawyers are among their biggest donors, contributors, supporters. Their trial lawyers end up being judges that advance liberal agenda without any accountability and no need to be elected. Many of the Democrats are tort lawyers themselves, members of Congress in fact. So as long as you have Democrats, liberals in charge, there isn’t going to be tort reform, but it would dramatically reduce health care costs.
CALLER: Absolutely. I agree with you, and I think the American people need to stand up for the physicians now. We need to take a stance and say that we want our physicians, we want our access, and we want our freedom to choose.
RUSH: Look, I agree with you a hundred percent. You guys are being demonized right along — and Obama did it again today in the speech. Demonize the drug companies. Demonize the insurance companies. They’re playing class envy.