RUSH: Hey, do you young people know — I’m a making this up. In terms of Obamacare, the target demographic to sign up is young people, Millennials, and primarily young men. And they happen to be the smallest group that is signing up. The most needed enrollees are the fewest. The theory, you need young men who are working, who are healthy, buying health insurance but not making any claims because they’re healthy. And the money that they spend, theoretically, will fund health care for our beloved and respected seasoned citizens, who need health care daily because they’re old and decrepit and infirm and everything else.

Well, it turns out that young men are the slowest to sign up because they’re figuring out, precisely because they are healthy, that they don’t need health insurance. They’d rather pay the penalty. There’s also the sad reality, none of ’em have jobs and none of ’em have any money to enroll anyway, which I can’t believe more people don’t discover as the primary reason the target demo is not signing up. Look at all the assumptions in this that are nutso. The assumptions: young guys, everybody wants health insurance. They’ll sign up. They’ll pay the freight, but they’re healthy, making no claims, therefore they’re not gonna cost us anything. We’ll take the money they’re spending and we’ll spend that on treating the elderly.

Do they not look at the unemployment situation? These people that are target demo are not working. Do they not see this? Do they not see that the target audience has no money? Do they not understand that the target demo is gonna find every which way possible not to do this as a matter of principle? These are people of an age that will automatically reject and rebel against authority. You tell ’em they have to do something, they’ll do the exact opposite.

So, anyway, the best laid plans of the brilliant inside-the-Beltway elites have crumbled by the wayside. However, there is this little bitty news item here that ran in the Washington Times earlier this week. “A government investigator found that Medicare is paying twice the amount for erection assistance devices compared to private providers.”

Now, I realize that many of you bring your children to this program each day that are not in school because it’s a learning experience. The next minute or so could be something you don’t want them to hear, ’cause they could end up saying, “Mommy, mommy, what is that?” You probably don’t want to deal with it, so you might want to turn the radio down for a minute or so while I do this. I’ll give you a countdown from five. If you’re still here after that, you’re on your own. Five, four, three, two, one.

Okay, “Investigators said the cost of erection assistance devices –” these are also known, for those of you in Rio Linda, as penis pumps. (interruption) You didn’t know that? That’s the point. You young people — let me cut to the chase here. You young people, part of what you’re paying for is so Grandpa and Grandma can still have sex. You are paying for erection machines. Part of your premium, if you sign up for Obamacare, will be paying for erection machines for Nanaw and Papaw. I would love to be there when they find out that this is what they are paying for.

“Investigators said the cost was ‘grossly excessive compared with the amounts that non-Medicare payers pay,’ and that the federal government could have saved $86.4 million dollars over the past six years,” going to the private sector for these penis pumps. Now, any time that Medicare pays twice as much for any piece of equipment or any item for which it provides coverage, the taxpayer ought to be concerned, which is true. But wait ’til these target demographic young men find out what they’re actually paying for.

Now, the article here in the Washington Times reflects a certain amount of outrage because Medicare’s paying for this, period. But then they find out they’re overpaying double what the private sector costs for these penis pumps. My take is a little different. What in the hell is Medicare doing paying for this anyway? Have you ever seen one? Do you know what one — don’t answer that because if you have, then that gives something I know you don’t want — forget that I asked the question. It could be very embarrassing to admit that. I have no clue what this is. I mean, I know they exist. I’ve never seen one. And I’m not asking you, Snerdley, you don’t have to answer the question. It was a faux pas. It was a slip. Don’t even go there.

“As for the inevitable eyebrow raising over the government paying for this equipment, Medicare has long covered similar medical supplies like Viagra.” If we’re gonna cover Viagra, why not pay for seasoned citizen erections, which are otherwise not possible. It says here in the story, “ItÂ’s difficult for people not suffering from the condition to judge whether or not the government should help pay for it.” Well, of course. Of course, if you’ve never needed an erection pump, then who are you to be critical of the government providing them to seasoned citizens?

Now, we don’t have a vote in it. It’s in there. It’s just like people have to pay for contraception for women. Whether they need it, want it, or not, it’s in there. This is one of the many reasons why these Obamacare premiums are sky-high. It’s because of the inclusion, the demand for inclusion of things like that. Contraception for women. Whether they want it or not, whether they need it or not, it has to be purchased — and now Medicare is providing these erection pumps, and they’re overpaying by millions.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: This is Dale in Syracuse. Dale, great to have you. Thank you for calling the EIB Network. Hi.

CALLER: Thank you, Professor Limbaugh.

RUSH: You bet.

CALLER: Hey, so I’ve been hoping… I appreciate you taking some time out of class here to talk with me, ’cause I’ve been trying to figure out this equation. I just really can’t figure it out. It deals with Obamacare. One of the things the Democrats really tout is, it allows my children to stay under my health insurance until the age of 26.

RUSH: Right.

CALLER: Yet now all of a sudden they’re surprised that there’s low enrollment numbers for that same age-group.

RUSH: Yeah, what does that tell you?

CALLER: The law is flawed. It’s designed to fail.

RUSH: No, the flaw… Well, the law is flawed. Yeah, yeah. But, I mean, who are these people to think that they announce Obamacare and that costs for the target group are going to increase…? What in the world made them think that these people were going to excitedly, eagerly make a mad dash to HealthCare.gov and sign up, whether they were on their parents’ policies or not? Where is the evidence that young people are gonna run to a new health care website and sign up for health care? They don’t think they need it. What kind of thinking is behind this?

CALLER: You know, that’s where I’m really confused, ’cause here I’ve got kids that are under that age-group that are on my insurance, and I’ve asked them, and they’re like, “Why would I go get insurance if I’m under you, dad?” It makes no sense whatsoever.

RUSH: Well, you want the cynical answer to your question? They’re not supposed to sign up. It’s all supposed to end up in chaos and the insurance companies are supposed to go out of business, maybe with a temporary bailout, and eventually all this is gonna lead to people throwing up their hands in frustration and saying, “We tried! We came up with the best plan possible.

“We’re not getting any cooperation. It’s too complicated still. You know what? We’re just gonna put everybody on Medicare,” i.e., single payer. The government’s gonna run it, and that’s where they want to end up anyway and get rid of all this “confusion” and applications and arduous procedures that people have to take. That’s even a charitable view, but I’ve got the story right here.

“Early Obamacare Exchange Demographics Worse Than Under Romneycare in Massachusetts In 2007.” That’s a Forbes story. “Obamacare Exchange Enrollment Skews Substantially Older Than The US Population; Cost Increases Likely.” There’s the key. What’s happening is the exact opposite of what the Regime planned on. The Regime planned on young Millennials, who they thought would have jobs that are high paying (imagine that), signing up but making no claims because they’re healthy.

So they would pay all this money in, but they wouldn’t require any expenses ’cause they’re not sick. The money they pay would then fund health care for the elderly. It’s not working. They aren’t signing up. In fact, the average age of enrollees is much older than the US population. Now, that means that the government isn’t going to get nearly the money that the plan said it was gonna get.

When Obamacare was a piece of legislation being scored by the Congressional Budget Office, it made all these claims. “It’s gonna cost X but here’s where the income is gonna come from: These people are gonna sign up,” but the people signing up are all subsidized. Folks, are you ready? Four out of five enrollees qualify for subsidies. This is a total disaster. It’s a total breakdown, and the Regime putting out this news is saying this is going to result in everybody else’s costs going up.

Because they’re nowhere near collecting the amount of money that they thought or told everybody they thought they were gonna get. Now, the cynical view is success, rising prices, is taking even more money from people. That’s what this Regime is about: Creating more and more dependency on government. It’s a hideous thing that’s happening here — and all of this, I have to say, was predictable. Your question, “Why would a 22-year-old, a 24-year-old, a 25-year-old sign up when he could stay on his parents’ plan?”

Why would he do it?

You say, “Well, why couldn’t the Regime figure this out?”

Maybe they did. Anyway, it’s an utter disaster, folks. It’s an utter, total disaster. None of it is going according to plan. That’s why Obama is playing dictator and changing the rules every day to accommodate for things that are happening that nobody expected. The experts are shocked. Four out of five enrollees are being subsidized. That means they’re elderly or poor, primarily both elderly and poor. The most dependent are signing up the fastest, and the people who have to pay for it are not signing up.

They’re going the penalty route.