Summary

The conservative 60 Plus Association has launched a flurry of ads against 16 Democrats, many of them in tight House races. The group is spending more than $5 million – from donors whose identities it doesn’t have to disclose – to run the ads saying the lawmakers "betrayed" their constituents by voting for the health care overhaul signed into law earlier this year. That’s a matter of opinion, of course. But most of the ads also make statements that can’t be backed up, lack important context or are wrong.

• Some of the ads say that the law means "seniors could lose their doctors" or that it "threatens seniors’ ability to keep their own doctor." But what the ads are talking about here has nothing to do with the new health care law. Some doctors have said they may stop accepting Medicare patients because of scheduled payment cuts set in motion by a 1997 law, cuts that are unaffected by the new statute.

• All of the ads say that the new law cuts $500 billion from Medicare. It’s true that the law would restrain future growth of the program, but this isn’t cutting from existing spending. And the amount is spread over 10 years, totaling about 7 percent of what Medicare was projected to cost over that decade.

• Many of the ads feature seniors saying the law will "hurt the quality of our care." But the law specifically forbids cuts in the basic package of Medicare benefits, and even adds some new features, such as wellness checkups. It also closes the "doughnut hole" gap in the prescription drug benefit.

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