W. Todd Akin: “Okay. So let me just see if I get this right. You're a medical doctor. You went all through med school. You've been…”

“Okay. So let me just see if I get this right. You're a medical doctor. You went all through med school. You've been practicing a number of years. You enjoy what you're doing. Old people come to you that need medical attention. You don't mind treating them. And before you were treating them at 80 percent of what the cost is. But let's say you drop down how much Medicare is paying. Well, at a certain point, you're just saying, I just can't afford to do this at this price, because ultimately, you've got to run an office. You've got to hire people. You've got to pay the rent on the building and all of those kinds of things. You've got a lot of insurance you're paying for, and you're trying to provide for your family. At a certain point, Medicare is reimbursing so little that you basically say, Hey, the old people I've been seeing before, I'm going to keep them on because I'm a nice guy. But I'm not going to take any new people. And so some old person that's sick wants to go find a doctor, perhaps they moved or something like that. And everybody says sorry, I'm not seeing any new Medicare patients. So while they've got Medicare, it doesn't mean they've got health care.”