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Limbaugh says health care reform will "destroy the private insurance business, just wipes it out"

March 17, 2010 2:22 pm ET

From the March 17 edition of Premiere Radio Networks' The Rush Limbaugh Show:

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Previously:

Beck claims that health care reform* will "drive out of business every single health care insurance company"

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    • Author by dogbreath (March 17, 2010 2:26 pm ET)
      2  
      Have we heard that tap dance this morning already?
      Report Abuse
      • Author by The_Cat (March 17, 2010 3:31 pm ET)
           
        Yes, indeed. Rush Limbaugh is now parroting Glenn Beck talking points.

        Mr. Ailes? Mr. Murdoch? Mr. Armey? This is what happens when you directly control too much of the media. Americans quickly begin to realize that puppet A and Puppet B are saying the exact same things, leading them to question whether or not this is being scripted. You're tipping your hands, gentlemen (and I use that term very loosely here).

        The public option will no more destroy private insurance than Medicare has. Or than Social Security wiped out private retirement plans. Or than Barnes and Noble has been wiped out by public libraries. It's an epic fail of an argument. It's the 'what about the JOBS!' cry from the same segment of society that likes to ship middle class jobs overseas to save a buck or two to fatten their quarterly bonus checks.

        I hear all the time about how 'it's rich people that make jobs! Cut their taxes!' from wingnuts who post here. Okay, so, aside from a couple of pharmacists, a housekeeper, a chauffeur, a pool boy, and maybe two or three security guards, how many jobs has Rush made with his $400 million? Just askin'.
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    • Author by AB-001 (March 17, 2010 2:27 pm ET)
      2  
      why should rush care that the insurance business fold? not everyone gets to stay in a 5 star hotel, as he points out, so why should a business sell set-aside $$$ just in case someone else gets sick? What a silly investment!

      If you can afford to stay in the five star hotel, you get to stay there. If not, then you stay at the motel 6. and if you can't afford that, then you die in the gutters. it's that simple.

      idiots
      Report Abuse
    • Author by nerzog (March 17, 2010 2:28 pm ET)
      4  
      Not really. If they ever get around to the Public Option, it certainly will shorten the gravy train. There will always be a market for private supplemental insurance, just like there is now for Medicare. Rich people like Rush will never be satisfied with anything offered by the government, so they'll buy extra coverage.

      Of course, some of those Insurance CEOs may have to go to the Banking industry to maintain their obscene salaries.
      Report Abuse
    • Author by all your eyes (March 17, 2010 2:30 pm ET)
      3  
      If anything, this bill CODDLES the insurance companies. They're getting 30 million new customers mandated to buy their product, with absolutely no price controls. We are into the looking glass, folks.. but that's nothing new around here.
      Report Abuse
    • Author by Old55 (March 17, 2010 2:32 pm ET)
      2 1
      No, that's what might happen if this were truly 'nationalized healthcare" -- but it's not.
      Report Abuse
    • Author by blueline99 (March 17, 2010 2:33 pm ET)
      6  
      Let's hope so.

      LA Times Rescission Coverage


      Blue Cross of California is sending physicians copies of health insurance applications filled out by new patients, along with a letter advising them that the company has a right to drop members who fail to disclose "material medical history," including "pre-existing pregnancies."



      The state's largest health insurer systematically -- and illegally -- cancels coverage retroactively for people who need expensive care, 10 former Blue Cross members claimed in lawsuits filed Monday.


      The state's largest for-profit health insurer, Anthem Blue Cross, was accused Wednesday of a widespread pattern of false advertising and fraud in a $1-billion lawsuit that claims that the company's coverage "is largely illusory."

      Los Angeles City Atty. Rocky Delgadillo alleged in the suit that the insurer sold people false promises of coverage and concealed a scheme to renege on policies for those diagnosed with serious and often expensive medical conditions, including cancer and congestive heart failure. The suit says more than 500,000 people were tricked into buying individual and family policies from Blue Cross.



      One of the state's largest health insurers set goals and paid bonuses based in part on how many individual policyholders were dropped and how much money was saved.

      Woodland Hills-based Health Net Inc. avoided paying $35.5 million in medical expenses by rescinding about 1,600 policies between 2000 and 2006. During that period, it paid its senior analyst in charge of cancellations more than $20,000 in bonuses based in part on her meeting or exceeding annual targets for revoking policies, documents disclosed Thursday showed.










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      • Author by dogbreath (March 17, 2010 2:37 pm ET)
        1  
        Heath insurance companies are the about the best scam going.
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        • Author by rtejon (March 17, 2010 3:12 pm ET)
             
          The right wing aren't giving insurance companies credit for having the ability to diversify. To name but one example, I've recently decided that the way to make money in the film industry is by selling errors and omissions insurance; I can make a documentary for under $300 but no one will pick it up if I don't spend many times that number on E&O coverage.
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      • Author by rwmacdonald2091 (March 17, 2010 3:00 pm ET)
           
        "Woodland Hills-based Health Net Inc. avoided paying $35.5 million in medical expenses by rescinding about 1,600 policies between 2000 and 2006. During that period, it paid its senior analyst in charge of cancellations more than $20,000 in bonuses based in part on her meeting or exceeding annual targets for revoking policies, documents disclosed Thursday showed."

        A real capitalist should mention they screwed the manager. 20K out of 35.5M, geez what a rip off.

        Report Abuse
        • Author by The_Cat (March 17, 2010 3:34 pm ET)
             
          Less than a tenth of a percent? Dang, that is small change. Must be some more of those 'very generous conservatives' we are always hearing about. About as real as unicorns, or so it seems to me.
          Report Abuse
    • Author by seahawks123 (March 17, 2010 2:39 pm ET)
        7
      Can anyone tell me what article in the Bill of Rights that guarantees healthcare?
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      • Author by hurricaneyankee52983 (March 17, 2010 2:48 pm ET)
        2  
        seabag, a little thing in the CONSTITUTION that says one of the GOVT.'s dutys is to provide for the general welfare.
        Report Abuse
        • Author by seahawks123 (March 17, 2010 2:52 pm ET)
            6
          Yes it does but that doesn,t mean healthcare or it would have been instituted from the start. It means life, liberty, the persuit of happiness, maybe national defence, throw in safety, some infrastructure to make things work. but not to provide medicine for your sorry A$$.
          Report Abuse
          • Author by blueline99 (March 17, 2010 2:55 pm ET)
            3  
            what about your sorry a$$ or your families?

            do you know how much chemo treatment costs? I guess if a loved one had cancer and didn't have health insurance you would be fine with going bankrupt to go through hundreds of thousands of dollars in treatments.

            In no other country does contracting a disease bankrupt you. But it does here... and btw, most bankruptcies from medical bills (75%) the people had insurance.
            Report Abuse
          • Author by New Frontier (March 17, 2010 2:58 pm ET)
               
            some infrastructure to make things work
            To paraphrase you, what article in the Bill of Rights guarantees infrastructure?
            Report Abuse
          • Author by ConstanceRifleII (March 17, 2010 2:59 pm ET)
            2  
            "Yes it does but that doesn,t mean healthcare or it would have been instituted from the start."

            *snicker*

            Do you even know what you are saying? When the Constitution was written, health care consisted of downing a fifth of whiskey while the "doctor" sawed your leg off to prevent your body from completely rotting.

            You see, since time is linear, and man has a natural inclination to be curious and discover things, some of those things we discovered were antiseptics and penicillin and heart surgery. But that was after the Founding Father's time.
            Report Abuse
            • Author by aerdna (March 17, 2010 3:39 pm ET)
                 
              Don't bother trying reason. People like that poster love to wrap themselves in a literal reading of the Constitution when they don't like something. The Constitution also doesn't say we should be allowed to own AK47s, but they go crazy over that.

              At one time, slavery was allowed and women and Blacks couldn't vote or own property. The Constitution was designed to be a living document and grow with our Nation - unless you are a Conservative, I guess.
              Report Abuse
            • Author by aerdna (March 17, 2010 3:39 pm ET)
                 
              Don't bother trying reason. People like that poster love to wrap themselves in a literal reading of the Constitution when they don't like something. The Constitution also doesn't say we should be allowed to own AK47s, but they go crazy over that.

              At one time, slavery was allowed and women and Blacks couldn't vote or own property. The Constitution was designed to be a living document and grow with our Nation - unless you are a Conservative, I guess.
              Report Abuse
          • Author by dogbreath (March 17, 2010 3:00 pm ET)
            2  
            How do you know that it doesn't mean that seahawk? This is one of the problems with your understanding of the Constitution. It is, and was meant to be a "breathable" document that would allow the country and the people in it to grow and prosper to the best of their abilities. To say that the "general welfare" does not include health care is a matter of interpretation and because elections matter, your interpretation isn't the way things are being viewed right now.
            Report Abuse
            • Author by seahawks123 (March 17, 2010 3:04 pm ET)
                4
              But it never was meant to include socialism.
              Report Abuse
              • Author by dogbreath (March 17, 2010 3:09 pm ET)
                1  
                But the Constitution doesn't say whether the country will be capitalist or socialist. It only protects against tyranny, which in the Founders day was monarchy.
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              • Author by raddave43 (March 17, 2010 3:14 pm ET)
                1  
                It would be difficult to include socialism, since the idea of socialism didn't come around until about 1830.
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                • Author by dogbreath (March 17, 2010 3:15 pm ET)
                  1  
                  But don't tell that to seahag. He sees socialist, communists and facists behind every bush. Or it it Bush?
                  Report Abuse
          • Author by rtejon (March 17, 2010 3:13 pm ET)
               
            Would you eliminate the Department of Homeland Security on the same basis? After all, Hitler had one!
            Report Abuse
          • Author by bintx (March 17, 2010 3:48 pm ET)
               
            You wouldn't know what the Constitution said if somebody read it to you.
            Report Abuse
          • Author by hurricaneyankee52983 (March 17, 2010 4:59 pm ET)
            1  
            SEABAGS, the founders left the language deliberatly vague because they had the sense tosee that things would change over time an i use that to agree thit thoe DEMOCRATIC PARTY thathealth care should be a right of every American, not just a privlidge.
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      • Author by blueline99 (March 17, 2010 2:52 pm ET)
        4  
        Seahawk you keep bringing this up like because it's not an enumerated right it doesn't exist.

        Is there an enumerated right that says we have a right of protection from crime? Fire? Clean water?

        What if there was police insurance and the police would only respond to 911 calls if you had insurance. But, you weren't allowed to call 911, you had to call the insurance company first to see if your particular problem was covered by the insurance that allowed you to call 911. Then, because you've been a victim of too many crimes, you were dropped from 911 and had to pay for police protection and investigation yourself... which of course cost more than you made in a year.

        Would you then say "where in the constitution does it say that we have a right to protection from crime?"... nevermind, of course you would

        We are an enlightened society. We have emerged from the state of nature. It is enlightened self-interest to insure that we all have quality health care.

        Only a cave dweller can't see that it's in my interest that everyone in society deserves quality health care, or else our structure fails. Or should we return to the middle ages and live in fear of the plague.
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        • Author by seahawks123 (March 17, 2010 2:58 pm ET)
            3
          Healthcare is an ENTITLEMENT to you libs. That means a RIGHT to you. Just because your an american you think your eneitled to having someone else pay for you.
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          • Author by raddave43 (March 17, 2010 3:05 pm ET)
            1  
            To deny healthcare is to deny life. Show me in the constitution does it mention life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness anyway.
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            • Author by aerdna (March 17, 2010 3:40 pm ET)
                 
              not to be picky, but I believe that 'life, liberty,' etc is actually in the Declaration of Independence.
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          • Author by afriend (March 17, 2010 3:07 pm ET)
            2  
            Healthcare is an ENTITLEMENT to you libs. That means a RIGHT to you. Just because your an american you think your eneitled to having someone else pay for you.

            do you realize at all how ignorant your old cliches sound
            ("entitlement", "libs", "have someone else pay for you")? Are you suggesting only the right works, and everyone on the left has everything paid for by the right? Seriously, talk like Rush, then read back what you said...it sounds so ignorant.
            Report Abuse
          • Author by dogbreath (March 17, 2010 3:07 pm ET)
            1  
            Yes I believe that it is "an entitlement." The Declaration in Independence, which might be even a greater document than the Constitution (but don't tell that to the Texas Board of Education), states that all men (and women) are endowed by their creator with certain inalienable rights - life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. In order for those things to come to fruition, a person must have their health.
            Report Abuse
          • Author by blueline99 (March 17, 2010 3:13 pm ET)
            2  
            You are right... I feel entitled to health care.
            If I get cancer, I feel like I should have access to the most effective facilities, doctors, nurses, technicians, etc...

            The insurance companies are masters and lords over my health. I have insurance, but I have no idea if they will cover me if I ever get really sick.

            Health care is a right in every industrialized nation in the world, I'm embarrassed that it's not a right here in the greatest country in the world. Or are you saying, the US is the greatest country because it's not a right.

            What do you view health care as seahawk? A commodity like groceries? A service like cell phones?

            Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.... I'm entitled to these things
            Report Abuse
          • Author by rtejon (March 17, 2010 3:15 pm ET)
            1  
            By that reckoning, I don't mind acknowledging the failure of compulsory education in your case.
            Report Abuse
            • Author by dogbreath (March 17, 2010 3:18 pm ET)
                 
              How so?
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              • Author by dogbreath (March 17, 2010 3:24 pm ET)
                1  
                Sorry rtejon, thought you were asking me. I don't think that seahag had too much education. He just goes with what he is told.
                Report Abuse
              • Author by rtejon (March 17, 2010 3:25 pm ET)
                2  
                That's for Seahawks123 and the composition quality of their post.
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          • Author by hurricaneyankee52983 (March 17, 2010 5:02 pm ET)
            1  
            as long as that someone else is you SEABAGS.
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      • Author by rwmacdonald2091 (March 17, 2010 2:56 pm ET)
        1  
        Can you tell me where the words "Air Force" appear in the Constitution?
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        • Author by seahawks123 (March 17, 2010 3:02 pm ET)
            4
          "provide for the national defence" is
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          • Author by New Frontier (March 17, 2010 3:04 pm ET)
               
            Why are you spelling defense with a "c"?
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            • Author by New Frontier (March 17, 2010 3:05 pm ET)
                 
              Not just there, but up above as well.
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            • Author by bintx (March 17, 2010 3:50 pm ET)
                 
              He's talking about "de fence" around our borders that folks like him want. LOL!
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          • Author by raddave43 (March 17, 2010 3:08 pm ET)
            2  
            Provide for the common defense is mentioned before promoting the general welfare, so it is a seperate issue.
            Report Abuse
          • Author by rwmacdonald2091 (March 17, 2010 4:22 pm ET)
            1  
            Well, sounds like you're reading something into the Constitution. You can't do that by your own standards. The words Air Force are not in there. Sounds like you're "interpreting" the document.

            Just suck it up, you're wrong.
            Report Abuse
      • Author by Turk72 (March 17, 2010 3:09 pm ET)
        3  
        So if it's not in the bill of rights then it's unconstitutional? Are you a moron? Congress is tasked with protecting the general welfare, and interstate commerce. This most definitely falls into that catagory.
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      • Author by shaggles (March 17, 2010 3:10 pm ET)
           
        WTF does that have to do with anything?
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      • Author by raddave43 (March 17, 2010 3:10 pm ET)
        1  
        Ther are no articles in the bill of rights, only ammendments.
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      • Author by bintx (March 17, 2010 3:53 pm ET)
           
        The Bill of Rights consists of the first 10 Amendments to the Constitution, seahawks . . . there are no "articles" in the Bill of Rights.
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    • Author by fishgirl26 (March 17, 2010 2:40 pm ET)
      2  
      No Rush, it might cut into the profits but it won't wipe them out. As long as there are rich people that can afford coverage, private insurance companies will make profits. The only way it will drive it out of business is if we have a single payer system...which is what I would LOVE to see.
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    • Author by New Frontier (March 17, 2010 2:51 pm ET)
         
      health care reform will "destroy the private insurance business, just wipes it out"
      Here's what Limbaugh had to say about families who get wiped out by huge medical bills:

      (((crickets)))
      Report Abuse
    • Author by Dradeeus (March 17, 2010 2:55 pm ET)
         
      Heaven forbid.
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    • Author by shaggles (March 17, 2010 3:09 pm ET)
      1  
      Bull. It forces people to buy their product. They will get millions of new clients. It's a gift to the insurance industry.
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    • Author by fantagor (March 17, 2010 5:14 pm ET)
      1  
      Are 96 tears enough lamentation for the industry that has drained my bank account dry for the last 14 years? Well, tough, Rush. You'll get NO TEARS from me or anyone else gouged by the for-profit goons who hold the system hostage.

      It didn't used to be like this.

      The congressional loophole giving insurance providers a free pass under the Sherman Act was granted based on the non-profit model. The moment the for-profit model came into practice, the exclusion should have sunset.

      Randy
      Report Abuse
    • Author by progressiveright (March 17, 2010 10:22 pm ET)
      1  
      And just how will that be a bad thing?
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    • Author by rajihammr (March 19, 2010 11:19 am ET)
         
      Destroy the Medical Insurance industry with in years and give us single payer? Yeah, now you're talkin'!

      And the repeated "what's in this?' line. The Limpman trying to plant fear uncertainty and doubt.
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