RUSH: Now, the Obamacare Stack. You remember…? You probably don’t, ’cause when I read the story I had to jog my own memory and remind myself that I had made the very point. It’s a See, I Told You So in the story. Because there’s been so much to say about Obamacare in explaining it, and there have been so many things to predict about it that are coming true.
One of the things that I had said in the past that I’d, frankly, forgotten ’til I saw the AP story was it wouldn’t be long — wasn’t gonna be long — before massive criticism of doctors erupted. That criticism would take the form of, “Why should people treating the sick become rich?” Remember? It was going to be long — I warned you — before we saw a class warfare assault on doctors.
“Why should that be a source of wealth? That’s a public duty! That is a community responsibility. We should all be trying to help the sick and the helpless and the starving and the thirsty. Why should anybody get paid, and why should anybody get rich?” Lo and behold, here comes the first installment in the effort to stigmatize doctors as undeserving profiteers.
It comes from the AP. I think the memo has gone out from the Regime: It’s time now to bash Medicare. As I predicted, doctors are the next heavies here. “Why should they make so much money?” This story, I think, is the first move or one of the first moves in an effort to open a the war on Medicare and doctors. The headline is: “Database: Some Doctors Getting Millions From Medicare.” (Gasp!)
You’re supposed to get mad when you see that headline, and you’re supposed to be outraged. “Medicare paid a tiny group of doctors $3 million or more apiece in 2012. One got nearly $21 million. Those are among the findings of an Associated Press analysis of physician data released Wednesday by the Obama [Regime], part of a move to open the books on health care financing.”
We’re not “open[ing] the books on health care financing.” Health care financing is Obamacare! By the way, CBO I think does have it. The latest cost on Obamacare is now $2 trillion and climbing — $2 trillion and climbing! It sort of takes you back to those heady days when they told us we’re gonna be able to pull all this off for $900 billion. (New Castrati impression) “It was going to cost less than the Iraq war, Mr. Limbaugh.
“In that way, it was going to net cost us nothing. We were just going to replace the obscene, immoral cost of the Iraq war with the humanitarian costs of Obamacare.” Well, we blown through that first trillion and now we’re up to $2 trillion, and there’s no end in sight to this. So this little paragraph: “Medicare paid a tiny group of doctors $3 million or more apiece in 2012.
“One” of these eeevil charlatans “got nearly $21 million. Those are among the findings of an Associated Press analysis of physician data released Wednesday by the Obama [Regime], part of a move to open the books on health care financing.” No, what this is is part of a move to open a war on Medicare and doctors. Because don’t forget… There’s so much to remind people that happened that they forgotten, ’cause it’s just enough to keep up with present day.
Don’t forget this Regime was the one who cut $700 billion from Medicare and transferred it to Obamacare to keep the original cost under $1 trillion. It was all part of the original fraud. They cut $700 billion from Medicare. Romney tried to make a big deal of it in the campaign. So they take $700 billion away from Medicare. Because, see the Medicare fees are too costly now.
“Oh, no, these doctors! Look at how they’re profiting! This is not moral, Mr. Limbaugh! This is not right.” That money? That $21 million, and that $3 million to that other doctor? That money could be going to food stamps, and that money could be going to unemployment extension benefits. That money could be going to Obamacare. That money could be going to the Medicaid.
“That money could be going to the poor but, no!
“It’s ending up in the back pockets of the doctors, and it’s outrageous. Naturally it’s those greedy doctors who are the big culprits here. The greedy doctors, I guarantee you, are going to become culprits number one in runway Obamacare costs. I knew it was gonna happen, I warned you about it, and here comes the first planting of that flag thanks to the Associated Press working in conjunction with the Regime.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: We went back and found it from July 17, 2012. We’re coming up on two years ago I made this prediction. Here’s what I said. “All this talk about profit. Why should there be profit? Why should anybody make any money when they sell something. It’s like I told you [July 17, 2012]. I’ll tell you how they’re going after doctors next, I’ll tell you how Obama’s going after doctors.
“Now, I want you doctors to listen to me ’cause what’s gonna be said is just immoral, it’s just not right, that people should get so wealthy treating the sick. Why should there be profit in that? Why should there be obscene profit? Why should doctors be so rich? Which they’re not anymore, but the cliche is, the stereotype is that they are. Why should they be? They’re treating the sick.”
Why should there be any profit in that? Why shouldn’t that just be volunteer work? So that was July of 2012. And, by the way, it wasn’t any great prediction. Obama had led me into it. Obama, in selling Obamacare in the early stages. Remember all those stories about doctors who did unnecessary tonsillectomies to earn an additional $40,000?
How about doctors who did unnecessary amputations? I’ll take you back to the beginnings of this. You have to remember that Obama, in selling Obamacare, launched on the doctors. They were the incarnate of evil. They were the primary reason everything cost so much. They didn’t work very hard; they cheated you. They put you out on the operating table.
And they did things to you that you didn’t agree to, and they charged you extra for it, and your insurance company paid, and they got rich! They would just as soon exploit you as treat you. I couldn’t understand it. Why were the doctors going along with this, or why were some? Why were some hospitals going along with it? Why didn’t people see at the time at what we were headed for?
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: Okay. Since you don’t remember and since some of you leftists think I’m making it up, let’s go back. There’s even YouTube audio and video of this, but I’ll just read it to you. It’s Obama back in 2009, and you’ll remember this when you hear it again. Obama said, “Let’s take the example of something like diabetes … a disease that’s skyrocketing, partly because of obesity, partly because it’s not treated as effectively as it could be.
“Right now … if a family care physician works with his or her patient to help them lose weight, modify diet, monitors whether they’re taking their medications in a timely fashion, they might get reimbursed a pittance. But if that same diabetic ends up getting their foot amputated, that’s $30,000, $40,000, $50,000 immediately the surgeon is reimbursed.”
A couple of weeks before that, Obama suggested that the surgeon’s decision to remove a child’s tonsils is based on the desire to make a lot of money. So here’s the president in 2009 selling Obamacare, and he’s basically accusing doctors of mistreating people with diabetes. Instead of treating them, they just go to the amputation, letting it get so bad that gangrene sets in in one of the extremities, and they have to amputate because there’s 30, 40, 50 grand in that.
He knows that people think doctors don’t have good bedside manner, that doctors are arrogant, that doctors don’t have time for ’em, that the nurse sees ’em in the hospital. The doctor comes, does his rounds, spends 10 minutes, and goes plays golf. So Obama piles on. “Oh, yeah! And the reason you’re in the hospital is ’cause they didn’t take care of your diabetes in the first place.
“They just wanted it to get worse so they could cut your foot off and charge the insurance company $30,000, $40,000, $50,000.” All of these stories like that were designed to get people so mad that they would support Obama’s Obamacare “reform” because he was going to stop all that mean stuff. He was going to take the obscene profit out. He was going to make sure that people weren’t able to get screwed like that.
In the process, he is impugning and worse the entire American health care system. Now, the Drive-Bys ignored it at the time, but the American College of Surgeons did reply to Obama’s lie. What they said was this: “[I]n fact, Medicare pays a surgeon between $740 and $1,140 for a leg amputation.” There isn’t 30 or 40 or $50,000 in amputating a limb below the knee.
“This payment [$740 and $1,140] also includes the evaluation of the patient on the day of the operation plus patient follow-up care that is provided for 90 days after the operation.” So the total cost was never more than 1100 bucks, according to the American College of Surgeons. Do you remember all this folks now that you’re reminded of it? You think back to the early days of the administration.
This is back in the days I said, “I hope he fails,” and everybody’s mad at me for saying that. I’m asking myself, “Why is nobody just fit to be tied over what this man is getting ready to do, the way he’s out insulting everybody? He’s insulting anybody that’s had anything to do with establishing greatness in this country anywhere, and he was going across the seas apologizing for this country.”
It was clear as a bell what he intended to do with the health care system, and it was just as frustrating as it could be. So I’m just reliving all this because I want to tell you, the first salvo in the war on doctors has now begun. It’s a very little, subtle thing here in the Associated Press. But you have to know a story like this will end up at Yahoo.com, or wherever the low-information crowd decide to read.
I’ll tell you what will happen. It’ll get tweeted all over the place and Facebooked all over the place and various ignoramuses will be out there saying, “Yeah, I knew these doctors were screwing us all! I knew they were ripping us off!” What happens is Obama continues to foster a culture war among groups of Americans, all to achieve his ultimate aim of ripping this all apart and putting ’em back together in his socialist dream vision.
In fact, there’s a story little, I’ll call it a companion story that is running today in the — UK Telegraph. “‘Guardian Angels’ to Protect Chinese Doctors From Patients — Beijing hospitals are to recruit volunteers to help prevent attacks on doctors as an increasing number become targets for violent and angry patients.”
This is the ChiComs. “Hospitals in Beijing will recruit 1,500 ‘guardian angels’ to protect their doctors from violent attacks by patients. In recent years, angry patients have killed a number of Chinese doctors, often citing frustration at how they have been handled by the health care system.” The other day, I didn’t get to this story. I may not get this 100% right ’til I go back and look at the story.
I might have seen where a hundred doctors have defected from Cuba. A hundred doctors have left Cuba for parts unknown just to get out, ’cause they not getting paid. Maybe I still have the story in the Stack from previous days that I didn’t get to. I have that Stack. It’s right under the clock. I’ll check it out during the break coming up. It was something like that.
So you get an indication of where we are headed. Could something like this happen in the “USSA”? Guardian angels to protect doctors. Well, I’ll tell you, were there guardian angels protecting any of the Wall Street executives as people marched on their front yards angry at the bonuses they got, encouraged by Obama? Or would Obama just say (impression), “Hey, well, you know what?
“I understand people’s rage at doctors. Uh, if I had my foot cut off, and I didn’t need to have that happen, and that cost me $30,000, I think I’d be a little mad, too.” When of course it doesn’t happen! So I just wanted to effectively let you know that you’ve been warned, those of you in the healing arts and sciences. You are now the new targets of the class warfare being conducted by this Regime.
Other things in the Obamacare Stack today, Washington Examiner’s Philip Klein: “Reversal of Medicare Advantage Cuts Could Be Ominous Sign For Obamacare.” It’s interesting. The same story treated a little bit differently at the Atlantic: “Obama, Democrats Back Off Medicare Advantage Cuts So Seniors Can Keep Their Gymnasium Perks.”
Now, this is a big hit piece on Medicare Advantage. That’s the next thing to happen with Obamacare. And this is how the media works. Yesterday, if you recall, we got news that Obama was once again delaying Obamacare cuts to Medicare Advantage until after the midterms. He delayed the cuts back in 2012 as well, and for the same reason: Upcoming elections.
But it was a clear signal to the media that they need to start trashing Medicare Advantage. The reason? “It’s so punitive. We’ve got to delay what is going to happen so that it doesn’t adversely affect our seasoned citizens,” and that’s a signal to the media to just start ripping the shreds out of Medicare Advantage, and that is what is happening in the Atlantic piece. Philip Klein treats it a little bit differently.
The Atlantic even goes so far as to call Medicare Advantage a scam. “See? Obama really cares. He’s such a decent guy. He’s realized now what a scam it is, so he’s delaying whatever’s supposed to happen in Medicare Advantage so that seniors don’t get ripped off.” He protects himself. “He’s the guardian of the seasoned citizen population!” When all of this is just yet another scam.
Medicare Advantage and the reason why it’s gotta go is because it’s keeping Obama from giving more money to his base for free sex-change operations. We gotta get rid of Medicare Advantage. Too much money is going to old people who are not gonna live long enough after we spend the money on ’em anyway. There are younger, deserving members of Obama’s base that need that money.
This is hideous stuff here, what’s happening.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: Here’s that Cuba story. It’s not a hundred doctors. “Cuban [communist] authorities say they have eliminated more than 100,000 jobs in” health care. Listen to what comes next. This is an AP story. Of course, we should be sympathetic with the communists in Cuba. “Cuban authorities say they have eliminated more than 100,000 jobs in the nation’s national health service, considered one of the pillars of the 1959 revolution.”
So the 1959 Castro revolution, it was a beautiful thing. It was a wonderful thing. It was so wonderful for people why one of the greatest revolutions in the history of revolutions, and it offered ultimately the best health care in the world. But something’s gone wrong ’cause Cuba has had to eliminate a hundred thousand health care jobs, and that troubling because health care was one of the pillars of the great revolution in 1959.
“The cuts come as the president, Raul Castro, tries to streamline government as part of a broader economic reform package.” Streamline a communist government! (laughing) Streamline a communist government! (laughing) “Cuba’s health care sector,” the AP says, “is entirely run by the state. Authorities have said that like other areas of the economy it is plagued by inefficiency, redundancies and bloated payrolls.”
Why, who could have predicted that? They’re shocked. They’re shocked at AP about the revolution — and it’s still going on. Do you realize the 1959 revolution is still going on? They still haven’t pulled it off yet. That’s why Castro gives four-hour speeches, to keep ’em revolting. It’s amazing.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: Let’s go back to the archives of our sound bite library. This is Obama. He’s in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. Sound bite 21. Obama is at a town meeting here on Obama. 2009. He’s been president for basically eight months.
OBAMA: If a family care physician works with his or her patient to help them lose weight, modify diet, monitors whether they’re taking their medications in a timely fashion, they might get reimbursed a pittance. But if that same diabetic ends up getting their foot amputated, that’s 30,000, 40, $50,000 immediately the surgeon is reimbursed. Well, why not make sure that we’re all reimbursing the care that prevents the amputation, right? That will save us money.
RUSH: Right, and that is classic. The doctors don’t make the 30 to 40 to 50. The hospitals do, but the doctors don’t. Medical associations, surgeon associations let it be known that you’re talking $1200 on an amputation below the knee, when they get paid. But that’s not the point. The point is here’s Obama demonizing them, as a means of creating class warfare and class envy.
It’s all for the purposes of gaining control of health care system and rebuilding it, remaking it, in the way he thinks it ought to function with everybody in it being a government employee, with the ultimate dream of it all being single payer. Look, I don’t mean to be beating a dead horse here, folks, but when all of this was happening, I couldn’t understand. Maybe I was naive.
I just couldn’t understand why so many people apparently were willingly duped into going along and helping and facilitating this. I was asking myself, “If I can see that this is a fraud, if I can see that none of this is true, if I can see that this guy’s got ill intentions of our health care system, why don’t these people? It isn’t hard. There’s no mystery what’s happening here. Why are so many people going along with this?”
I came up with the answers. Well, the lure of being close to power, the thinking that maybe the closer to power you are, the richer you’re gonna get. Crony socialism, crony capitalism. Then there was the union connection. But I just, to this day… See, I’m sitting here thinking this need not have happened. I’m not living in a fantasy world. What happened has happened. We’ve gotta deal with it in that reality.
What is, is, obviously. But, damn it, it didn’t have to if there had just been enough people confidently informed or bravely willing to oppose instead of acquiesce, to go along with it.
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