Injury Classifications for Turtle Bites & Burning Water Skis? Here?s Rand Paul?s Hilarious Obamacare Rant | Video | TheBlaze.com
Physicians currently have about 18,000 medical diagnostic codes, called ICD-9, to choose from to help them inform insurers of their patients’ ailments. But according to Paul (himself a physician), Obamacare will require physicians to adopt roughly 122,000 new codes — and some of them sound downright ridiculous.
“Included among these codes,” the senator continued, “will be 312 new codes for injuries from animals; 72 new codes for injuries just from birds; 9 new codes for ‘injuries from the macaw.”‘
“The macaw?” he asked. “I’ve asked physicians all over the country, ‘Have you ever seen an injury from a macaw?”‘
He continued, adding that he had found “two new injury codes under Obamacare for ‘injuries sustained from a turtle.”‘
“Now, you might say, ‘Well, turtles are dangerous’ — but why do you have to have two codes?” he asked. “Your doctor has to inform the government whether you’ve been struck by a turtle or bitten by a turtle.”
He added: “There is a new code for … walking into a lamppost. There’s also a code for ‘walking into a lamppost, subsequent encounter.’”
“I guess that’s if you don’t learn,” he added. “[T]here is [also] a code … for ‘injuries sustained from burning water skis.”‘
