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Today on his radio show Rush Limbaugh, went into full let’s scare some old people about healthcare mode, as he told his elderly listeners that their medical costs were too high. “Limbaugh said people at a certain age with certain diseases will be deemed not worth the investment…” He laid out his vision of stopping healthcare by mobilizing the elderly against it.

Here is Rush discussing what he thinks the GOP strategy should be:

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Here is the fear mongering:

Limbaugh said, “People at a certain age with certain diseases will be deemed not worth the investment, and they will just as Obama said, they’d give them some pain pills, and let them loop out till they die and they don’t even know what’s happened. It will be rationed. You’re not going to be able to choose your doctor. Probably after a while, will not be able to hold on to your private insurance or your current insurance, which is all by design, but they are going to be able to regulate call you a risk based on do you smoke, do you not smoke. How far do you drive to work? Do wear polyester, it’s more flammable. They could get ridiculous, but that’s who these people are, and that’s the kind of control they want.”

I hope people realize that all of the above statements that Limbaugh made about healthcare reform aren’t true. It isn’t going to kill the elderly. You will still be able to keep your insurance and choose your own doctor. Healthcare isn’t going to be rationed. You know, Limbaugh’s rant reminded me that Soylent Green was TCM last Saturday, and I think he must have watched it.

In the healthcare version of the sci-fi classic Limbaugh is Charlton Heston’s Thorn character defending Soylent Green as good for you. Rush would be screaming soylent green isn’t people, just as he is saying our healthcare system isn’t broken. Limbaugh, like most Republicans describes a system where there is nothing standing between the patient and the doctor.

However, I can tell you from firsthand experience that my insurance company comes between me and my doctor constantly. On numerous occasions my doctor has prescribed medication for me only to have my insurance company deem the medicine to be too expensive, so they refuse to pay. They problem with the current system is that medical decisions are being made by the insurance companies on the basis of cost. The insurance company, not my doctor, often determines the type and quality of my care.

Rush is living in a fantasy land if he thinks that Republicans can win by saying no to healthcare. If healthcare goes down to defeat, Republicans will take the blame, and they will be hammered at the polls in 2010 and 2012. The vast majority of Americans want healthcare reform, and I think that the Republicans are going to go home in August and get an earful from their constituents.