Kevin Hollinshead, Staff Writer
Ideology: Progressive | Writing from: Fort Collins, CO
Rush Limbaugh makes a living by mindlessly railing against any government program that benefits society as a whole, including government-run health care, flinging around that dirty word, “socialism.” Health reform has been unfairly given a negative connotation by wonderful human beings like him.
Yet, he apparently loves socialized medicine now, if his praise for Hawaii’s universal health care system is any indication.
Hawaii has had nearly-universal, employer-mandated health insurance since 1974. Although the state’s distance from the mainland makes the costs of living highest in the nation, health care premiums in Hawaii for comprehensive care, with small co-pays and deductibles, are nearly the lowest, and their costs per Medicare beneficiary are the lowest in the nation.
Universal coverage is the reason for this. With everyone’s primary care covered, most emergency room visits are for, you know, real emergencies, as opposed to a last resort for people with chronic conditions that cannot afford health insurance.
This in turn reduces ER costs, as well as the costs of non-emergency care since patients can be handled less expensively and more effectively by their primary care physicians. Hospitals in Hawaii thus do not overbuild by acquiring expensive machines to compete with other facilities for patients, further driving up costs. Insurance companies have instituted various screenings and other measures to improve wellness among their covered populations. Who’d have thought, insurance companies actually want to improve the health of their customers somewhere!
Upon his discharge from the hospital after being admitted for chest pain, Rush remarked that “there is nothing wrong with the American health care system. I received no special treatment.” Here, he inadvertently stumbled upon the real point here—American medicine is indeed a godsend. At least, for those who can afford it. No one in Hawaii is given special treatment, because, yep, everyone can afford it.
By (gasp) accepting socialized medical treatment in Hawaii, Rush has shown that when someone is ill or injured, what matters is availability of quality health care, even if it’s socialist. Of course, Rush does not live in Hawaii, so the costs of his angiogram are not covered by the Hawaiian insurance system. But, having that “socialist” system for more than 3 decades has not reduced the quality of the care he received. He himself enthusiastically testified to that, and serves as yet another example of conservative hypocrisy with regard to socialized medicine.
Every member of Congress has a medical office available in the Capitol, at the expense of taxpayers (psst, this is socialized medicine). Dick Cheney’s bum ticker has benefitted from pacemakers paid for by the government (read: socialized medicine saved his heart). Dubya had a government-paid (socialist) colonoscopy while in office. And the list goes on and on.
If Hawaii-style medical care (which is actually a stronger form of socialized medicine than the watered-down bill in Congress) is good enough for the Lord of the Dittoheads, it’s good enough for me, and one would be safe in assuming it’s good enough for the American people as a whole. If Rush is so satisfied with the treatment he got, he shouldn’t have any problem returning the favor by supporting a similar system here in the lower 48.
Hawaii is among the worst for physician reimbursement and therefore physician recruitment. Limbaugh isn’t employed in Hawaii and didn’t benefit directly from the 35 year-old reforms. Hawaii dropped its “universal” coverage for children after only 7 months due to its cost and other reasons. It also has a growing number of uninsured since employers don’t have to provide coverage for those who work fewer than 20 hours per week.
Yes, about the Congressional plans:
“Why can’t everyone enjoy the same benefits as members of Congress? The answer: The country probably couldn’t afford it — not without reforms to bring costs way, way down.
Given their choices, lawmakers can tailor coverage in a way most Americans cannot. If a child has asthma, for instance, a federal employee might opt for coverage that costs a little more but has a bigger doctor network and lower office-visit fees.
The plan most favored by federal workers is Blue Cross Blue Shield, which covers a family for about $1,030 a month. Taxpayers kick in $700, and employees pay the rest. Seeing a doctor costs $20. Generic prescriptions cost $10. Immunizations are free. There is no coverage limit. ….. Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) sponsored an amendment requiring members of Congress to forgo their current health coverage and enroll in any government plan they pass to compete with private insurers.
“Let’s demonstrate leadership and confidence in the system,” Coburn said before his amendment squeaked through the Senate Health Committee. A similar measure was defeated in the House.”
Congressional members can choose from 10 plan choices with access to doctors nationwide. They also get special treatment at Bethesda Naval Medical Center and Walter Reed Army Medical Center and no waiting period. Hardly “socialized.” Also, Dick Cheney had his major operations in the 80′s and 90′s, pacemakers are pretty standard to monitor people with a history of cardiac probems – I’d say that was when his heart was saved… by the free market.
Kathleen: Thank you for pointing out the flawed conclusions and misplaced emphases in Kevin’s argument(diatribe)the subtext of which is “I hate Rush Limbaugh and everyone like him, and I wish he would just die.”
What was Mr. Limbaugh to do to please you, Kevin? Should he have foregone institutional care altogether? Should he have suffered at home, and either gotten worse, or gotten better, on his own?
I’m made extremely uncomfortable with the idea that the “system” may pick and choose the patients it will pay better or worse attention to. Are my politics “correct” enough to get sick in Hawaii, or in Massachusetts, or anywhere in the U.S.? Are yours?
Palin correctly derided the coming courts of medical bureaucracy as “Death Panels” and obviously to ration the care to save costs, Death Panels they shall be.
And enter the system with the wrong politics, and you may just die in the hall waiting for an angioplasty.
I find it mysterious that mine is the last word on this, as if the board would rather not think about it, while the entirety of Wash. DC can think about nothing else.
It’s kinda like the global warming farce, you just gonna think about something else for a while?
This is the Politicizer!
It appears that O&D is made “extremely uncomfortable” because he has no grasp on how healthcare systems work abroad, or how they might work in the United States.
And for the record, as it currently stands, the “system” CAN pick and choose the patients it will pay better or worse attention to. Indeed — in many states, people who have paid for their insurance their whole lives are made to jump through hoops, denied coverage, or simply have their coverage entirely revoked when they apply to have something paid for.
Additionally, you seem to have missed the point of the post entirely. The issue here is not that Limbaugh sought TREATMENT — the issue is that he received perfectly decent treatment from — and then praised — a system against which he has railed for so long.
In short: he’s wrong. And so are you.
He wasn’t a part of the system, as I pointed out. “Limbaugh isn’t employed in Hawaii and didn’t benefit directly from the 35 year-old reforms.” He is uninsured, and paid in cash (for 35% less!). He praised the doctors and the treatment he received. He wasnt in a Hawaiian state program – it was an entirely private transaction.
I think Kevin’s point is that Limbaugh received acceptable care even though it has universal health care, and therefore the dissenting argument that socialized care leads to lower quality is incorrect – not that Limbaugh was treated for free.
I admit that I am not an expert on the Hawaiian health care system, but it seems that their system works despite socialized care, not because of it. My home state, Massachusetts, has possibility the highest level of care in the country and (supposedly) universal care. But that socialized system is starting to be an enormous draw on the system (see here for an article I wrote about this). As Kathleen points out, physician recruitment is low in Hawaii, among other problems. Socialized medicine is unsustainable long-term.
Though this wasn’t directly addressed in the article, I think that it is worth pointing out that the majority of people who are opposed to the health care plans in Congress (among them: independents in the Northeast, people at the Tea Party protest) aren’t necessarily opposed to people being able to access affordable care – quite the contrary. The GOP opposition to the Democrats’ health care plan is not rooted in some evil plan to force people to die or go into bankruptcy – and in fact recognize that the current system does this all too often. However, the fear is that the current Congressional plans would destroy the entire system by not dealing with systemic problems (decreasing numbers of physicians because of the high cost of malpractice insurance, high costs of prescription drugs, etc) and force the government to go further into debt. It is telling of Congress’ partisan, lobbyist-influenced approach to health reform that the Democrats have refused to incorporate of the GOP’s main ideas for reform (tort reform, etc) – except for hot-button amendments on abortion.
If the Democrats really wanted to bring down costs, they wouldn’t be ignoring the calls for tort reform. The high cost of medical malpractice insurance is driving medical students into specialties and away from primary care, where they are most crucially needed. Any reform I would support would have to include provisions that limit punitive damages (people should be able to cover medical bills and lost wages from error, but not millions in “emotional damages”) and serious tax cuts for primary care physicians to encourage people to go into/back into the field. Doctors do make mistakes, but people need to recognize that medicine is an imperfect science.
So all we need to do for everyone to afford health care is allow government to run it?
Damn, why didn’t I think of that? We should have signed up the millions of people who starved in Asia and Africa last year! If only government could have solved their problems in time!