How Old Before You Don't Deserve Life-Saving Treatment?

Rush was talking about Dick Cheyney and his heart transplant today.

RUSH: This is an interesting thing you bring up. Let's look at it, 'cause the short answer to your question is yes, and let's look at Dick Cheney. Dick Cheney received a heart transplant operation over the weekend, on Saturday. He waited 20 months. He got no special favors. By the way, you ought to see -- on some of the Democrat Party blogs -- some of the abject hate that is aimed at Dick Cheney. I marvel. I literally marvel at all the allegations that Obama and the Democrats make against Republicans and conservatives about "hate." They own and have cornered the market on it. Some of the stuff -- and it's voluminous; there's a lot of it -- aimed at Dick Cheney is despicable.

It would make you sick to your stomach if you saw it. But there's also another vein of criticism. And it's from the people who deny that there will be death panels in Obamacare. There are liberals and Democrats who say that Cheney's too old, compared to other people, to have received a heart. It doesn't matter if he could afford it, doesn't matter if it was paid for. He's too old. Somebody more deserving should have gotten his heart. Now, the hate for Cheney is part and parcel of this. But by their own words and by their own actions, the left -- denying that there are death panels -- are now wishing that there were in the case of Dick Cheney.

There are people (and they're not all fringe people) who are claiming that this is a very selfish act by the Cheney family to take this heart. "He shoulda just died. He's 71. He's finished working. He's performed his public service. He's written his book. He's not doing anything else. Somebody else should get that heart." Hello, death panels. So your question here about treatment? Well, the treatment may not be forthcoming. That's the whole point. You will be forced to sign a contract and forced to buy health insurance. But if this thing ever gets fully implemented, that's no guarantee you're going to be treated. That's the whole point. Because that, all of a sudden, is when costs will matter. Oh, yes, my friends! That's exactly when cost will matter.

Then they will start determining whether or not a 71-year-old former vice president should in fact get a heart.

"How many years does he have left? What kind of productivity are we gonna get out of him? What contributions to his country can he possibly make? He's 71! There are people far more deserving." That will be exactly what happens when Obamacare is fully implemented -- and they will use cost. They will say, "Look, it doesn't make any sense for us to spend all this money on a pacemaker or a heart transplant or whatever for whoever if they're 70 years old. It just doesn't." In fact, grab audio sound bites 12 and 13. Let's just put this in perspective. What we have here is from last night on ABC's "World News" weekend. Anchor David Muir spoke with the Chief Health and Medical Editor Dr. Richard Besser about Cheney's heart transplant, and the question was: "A transplant for someone in their sixties and seventies, that can really prolong their life!"

BESSER: It's really incredible. Seven and a half years. That's the average length it will extend someone's life who has this transplant if they're over 65. It used to be that age 55 was the cutoff. Anything above that you wouldn't get transplanted. But now they look at the person as a whole. If there's no kidney disease, there haven't been any strokes, if they're in good health, age is no longer a barrier. I was talking to the program at UCLA. The average wait is three to six months. He waited 20.

RUSH: "He waited 20." He didn't ask for preferential treatment. He didn't get any. But to the hate-mongers on the left, he shouldn't have gotten it at all.