Dean Blasts Limbaugh, GOP on Healthcare Research

Former Democratic National Committee (DNC) Chairman Howard Dean lashed out Tuesday at talk radio host Rush Limbaugh and the “far right” for opposing provisions of the stimulus supporting research into medical information technology.

“Mr. Limbaugh and his cohorts would have you believe that this research will be used to deny needed care to your great Aunt May and be run by the politburo,” Dean wrote in a blog at the Huffington Post. “But the Bill passed by Congress states right up front that the Government can not make coverage decisions based on this research.”

Conservative lawmakers had attacked provisions of the stimulus promoting “Comparative Effectiveness Research” as being a step toward nationalizing healthcare, and arguing that a rotating board of doctors overseeing the research into the most effective treatments may delve into excessive government influence in treatment decisions.

“This claptrap is really about the far right laying the ground work for a far greater and more sustained attack on the Democrats’ attempt to fix our health care system,” Dean, a physician by trade, added. “Medicine is and should always be science based – not driven by ideology.”

Dean also attacked Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.), a fellow physician, for opposing the effectiveness research.

“Sadly, it seems that Senator Coburn has his political hat on and not his white coat when he relies on Rush Limbaugh to ‘help’ his patients,” Dean asserted.