Debunking Rush Limbaugh on the stimulus bill’s health care provisions

From the ‘you just can’t make this stuff up’ file comes this gem from Rush Limbaugh:
“The stimulus pork bill being voted on in the Senate contains the nationalization of health care, the computerization of everybody’s health records, rationing of medical care for seasoned citizens. If you’re a seasoned citizen and you go to the doctor, you have an ailment of some kind, the doctor will do a test. The doctor will then consult your medical records. The doctor will then consult federal guidelines to find out if you are to be treated. And if the cost of your treatment as a seasoned citizen is deemed by the government to be too expensive based on how much longer you have to live, then you don’t get treated.[emphasis added] The architect of this is one Tom Daschle, and he says much like Governor Dick Lamm of Colorado, (paraphrasing) “Old people, you gotta come to grips with your circumstances, you gotta come to grips with your diagnosis and understand we’re all going to die sometime and it’s your turn.” This is in the Senate stimulus bill.”
Now, I didn’t read every word of the Senate version of the stimulus bill, but nothing in the bill remotely resembles Limbaugh’s description. And, as I noted last week, the provisions on comparative research in the final bill specifically forbid the use of that research for coverage or reimbursement decisions. Much to my dismay.
Oh, and what exactly is a ‘seasoned’ citizen?
Limbaugh went on to state:
“There is a new bureaucracy created, the National Coordinator of Health Information Technology,[emphasis added] which will monitor treatments to make sure that your doctor is doing what the federal government deems appropriate and cost effective regarding your treatment. It’s going to be just like the UK! When you go to the doctor, your doctor is going to have to consult either a book, a computer program, or maybe even make a phone call to find out what kind of treatment you can get and how much to charge for it based on how much the government’s going to reimburse him for it. As such… The author of this plan, by the way, is former senator from North Dakota — or South Dakota, I’m not sure which one; I get them confused — Tom Daschle…”

Well, Rush, you are confused about a lot more than Tom Daschle’s home state…
The National Coordinator post was actually created by the Bush Administration way back in 2004.
Limbaugh didn’t come up with this all by his lonesome, so where did he get this garbage? A likely source is an immensely-uninformed column penned by Betsy McCaughey Her credentials are truly amazing – according to FactCheck.com, “McCaughey was elected lieutenant governor on George Pataki’s ticket, but when he dropped her from his 1998 reelection campaign, she ran against him as a Democrat. She lost the primary and ran on the Liberal party’s line, getting 1.6 percent of the vote.)”
Boy did she get this wrong. McCaughey claims, as parroted by Limbaugh, that the stimulus bill would establish a national coordinator to “monitor treatments to make sure your doctor is doing what the federal government deems appropriate and cost effective.” McCaughey notes the word “guide” is in the stimulus legislation, saying: “The goal is to reduce costs and ‘guide’ your doctor’s decisions.” If she had actually done any research, like, perhaps, googling “National Coordinator for Health Infornation Technology”, she would have found Bush’s 2004 executive order used that exact language.
Here’s what the good Ms McCaughey would have found if she googled that big mess of tubes known as the internet:
Executive Order 13335, April 27, 2004: “In fulfilling its responsibilities, the work of the National Coordinator shall be consistent with a vision of developing a nationwide interoperable health information technology infrastructure that: (a) Ensures that appropriate information to guide [emphasis added] medical decisions is available at the time and place of care.”
By the Bush administration’s own account, the new office wasn’t effective, lacking strategic goals, performance measures, or efficiency measures. Perhaps what Limbaugh and McCaughey are concerned about is the ability of a heretofore poorly managed agency to actually deliver on its mission.
So, near as I can figure it, Rush quoted a petty party-jumping politician who got her own information wrong. Of course, other wingnuts (here here and here) jumped on the bandwagon, propagating the mis- and dis-information.

What does this mean for you?
Now we know where this massive socialization of medical care began – the Bush administration!