Hawaii Medical

source: http://trueslant.com/rickungar/2010/01/03/rush-limbaugh-accidentally-endorses-obamacare/

Text: When word came that Rush Limbaugh had been spirited off to the hospital with chest pains, I had to think for a moment about how I felt about his misfortune. It didn’t take long to realize that I was actually experiencing some concern for his health and hoped he would be all right.

Whether it was the holiday season, a suspicion that he might have a relative somewhere who could actually care about him or just the simpatico experienced by one who has been there for another whom might have to share the unpleasant experience, I just couldn’t wish the guy ill.

The warm and fuzzies didn’t last long.

Released from the hospital with a clean bill of health, Rush instantly took the opportunity to take a shot at the effort to reform the health care system while effusively praising the Hawaiian hospital that had taken such good care of him.

I don’t think there’s one thing wrong with the American health care system. I got no special treatment other than what anybody else that would have called 911 and had been brought in with the same kinds of symptoms.
Via USA Today

Now, I suspect old Rush has a pretty good health insurance policy, even if he does smoke cigars like a chimney and carry around about 100 extra pounds. So I wondered if Limbaugh could bring himself to give some thought as to how it might have gone for someone who was not so fortunate as to have quality health insurance coverage.

Then, it hit me. Limbaugh was actually right. He was telling the truth when he said he did not receive special treatment because, since 1974 when mandated health insurance was instituted in Hawaii, pretty much everyone in Hawaii has the same health care access afforded to Rush.

It turns out that Limbaugh has not been keeping up with his current events. If he was, he might have known he was lavishing praise on the most socialistic medical system in the United States.

Not only is Hawaii the closest thing to a socialist health care system in the nation, it was actually the model for the Clinton Administration’s failed effort to institute universal health coverage back in the early 1990’s. Despite the fact that the state has the highest costs in the country for just about everything – due to the necessity of shipping everything to the islands from the mainland- Hawaiian comprehensive health insurance comes with some of the smallest co-pays and premium charges in the country. What’s more, the costs per Medicare beneficiary is the lowest in the United States.

Oops.

With everyone covered by primary care, emergency room visits tend to be for real emergencies, not the non-emergent care mainland ERs dispense for people without coverage. That reduces the costs of ERs and the costs of non-emergent medicine since patients can be handled less expensively and more effectively by their primary doctors. Hospitals have not overbuilt, acquiring expensive machines to compete with their neighbors for patients. Insurance companies have instituted screening and other measures to improve wellness among their covered populations.
Via Fox4 TV Kansas City

And yet, there was Limbaugh standing before the cameras extolling the virtues of his Hawaiian health care. No complaints about long waiting times to see a doctor. No complaints about slow emergency room care. No complaints about waiting lists to receive important tests. No complaints about aged or inadequate technology.

Quite the contrary. It seems that, from Limbaugh’s point of view, the socialistic Hawaiian medical system, in practice now for over three decades, was as good as it gets.

This is not something that we can afford to allow Limbaugh to forget just as we cannot allow Rush to get away with not speaking to this massive change of heart (no transplant required.)

Let’s make the old blowhard cop to this. And should Limbaugh’s conversion to a socialistic system of medical care causes his clogged arteries to really explode – tough luck. Holidays are over and I’m willing to risk it.

Besides, to have a heart attack you actually have to have a heart. I’d say that puts Rush in the decidedly low risk category.
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Uh oh, Яush is supposed to be a big opponent of health care for everyone.

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