Yesterday on Randi Rhodes' show she played a clip of Rush Limbaugh...

[Tommy_Carcetti]

...apparently making a comment on his show to the effect that most people don't have health insurance for their pets and that their owners simply pay out of pocket for vet bills, and that seems to work out fine for their owners.

Was this actually real or was Randi just quoting him out of context? Because if it is, good lord, man:

a) Dogs and cats only live naturally for 10-20 years
b) Rush is comparing human beings to animals
c) If making these comments Rush is insinuating that people don't need any type of health care insurance, public or private and that paying out pocket for hundreds, even thousands of dollars in health care expenses is somehow okay--and then you think about what happens when your pet is too old or too injured and any type of additional medical care is too risky given its cost, well what happens? Who's advocating euthanasia now?

Please tell me he didn't actually serious make those statements.

[kestrel91316]

1. Vet bills are only a miscule fraction of human medical bills.

I can't honestly recall the last time a client paid me over $1000 at release. Dog owners can of course incur bigger bills than cats for a number of reasons, but I earn a very meager living compared to physicians, who live like royalty AFAIAC.

[4dsc]

2. To hell with Randi

Randi is washed up in my eyes after making disparaging remarks about Al Franken.

[Tommy_Carcetti]

4. She's lost a lot of my respect in my eyes....

....and that's from someone who used to consider her a personal hero of mine, prior her meltdown and ego trip of the past couple of years.

That being said, she's the only liberal radio show in my area that I can listen to on the drive home, so I'll tune in from time to time.

[Doctor_J]

3. I just took my old dog to the vet

1. Called at 1:30 PM. Appt for 1:50 PM
2. Appt lasts 20 min (not 5 like mine)
3. Got her an exam, lab (dug out an ear culture and put it under the scope), medicine (2 wks worth of drops)
4. Bill: $28

Such a visit for me would have been billed at at least $400.

As usual, Limpballs is a lying piece of shit

[CountAllVotes]

6. that would have cost me $200.00 at least

you got a cheap vet is all I can say!

:kick:

[sweetpotato]

5. You've missed his point

I think the point is that if you don't have health insurance go see the vet.

[Doctor_J]

7. Exactly. As soon as some entrepenuer starts selling pet health insurance,

the price will quadruple

[Bluenorthwest]

8. My cat has an insurance policy

So, there you go. She's got health insurance. Premiums, co-pays, the works. Pet insurance. I hold a policy. Or rather the cat does, and I pay on her behalf.

[guitar man]

9. And if I can't afford a vet

I can legally take my pet out, shoot it in the head and bury it in the yard. Maybe we ought to ask pigboy if he thinks poor people should be able to do the same for sick family members when they can't afford the bills. I mean, after all, wouldn't it be easier on the rich if we could do this? :eyes:

[sinkingfeeling]

10. I don't know what Rush said. However, I paid about $20,000 in vet bills for my dog over 5 years.

She had diabetes, discoid lupus, Cushings' disease, and was hypothyroid. She had 3 eye operations. I did use a Canadian pharmacy to lower the cost of her cataract eye drops (same as humans use) and Lysodren (around $10/tablet in US).