A White House Health Reform Reality Check, Hiking health insurance premiums 95 percent? Surgery vs. Abortions? Counseling to Die?
While carefully avoiding Town Halls YouTube revelations, we're including a Reality Check about Health Insurance Reform sent out from the White House:
CEA Chair Christina Romer details how health insurance reform will impact small businesses.
Domestic Policy Council Director Melody Barnes tackles a nasty rumor about euthanasia and clearly describes how reform helps families.
Matt Flavin, the White House's Director of Veterans and Wounded Warrior Policy, clears the air about Veteran's benefits.
Kavita Patel, M.D., a doctor serving in the White House's Office of Public Engagement, explains that health care rationing is happening right now and how reform gives control back to patients and doctors.
Bob Kocher, M.D., a doctor serving on the National Economic Council, debunks the myth that health insurance reform will be financed by cutting Medicare benefits.
From FactCheck.org:
CPR Administers Bad Facts, Again
The group says premiums could nearly double for those who buy their own insurance. Experts we consulted disagree.
Summary
"The latest ad from the group Conservatives for Patients’ Rights claims that 'new rules could hike your health insurance premiums 95 percent.' That’s misleading."
"The claim in the ad refers to only 5 percent of Americans who have health insurance – those who buy it on their own."
"The claim comes from an analysis by a group that advocates for insurance carriers that sell policies in the individual market, among other areas."
"That analysis also doesn’t take into consideration several elements of leading congressional legislation that other experts say will keep premium costs down – and in fact, lower premiums for some. Other independent studies show premium costs decreasing on average for Americans that currently have health coverage."
"It’s not true that any of the health care overhaul measures that have been approved by committees in Congress would add "a trillion to the federal deficit," as the ad says. The Senate bill would add roughly $597 billion over 10 years, and the House bill that was approved by the Ways and Means Committee in mid-July would add a much smaller $239 billion, according to the Congressional Budget Office."
Surgery for Seniors vs. Abortions?
Family Research Council says abortions will trump care for the elderly in public plan.
Summary
A new TV ad sponsored by an anti-abortion group shows a white-haired man fretting that under a federal health plan, "They won’t pay for my surgery, but we’re forced to pay for abortions."
" 'Will this be our future?' the ad asks, merging the fears of seniors worried about their health care with those of anti-abortion advocates. 'Our greatest generation, denied care. Our future generation, denied life.' "
In fact, the bills pending in Congress – at least those that have made it through the committee level – don’t mention abortion at all. Furthermore, none of the bills call explicitly for cuts in Medicare coverage, or rationing under a public plan.
Whether or not the secretary of Health and Human Services, or the advisory panels that are supposed to make recommendations to HHS, would choose to cover abortions under any new federal plan is something we can’t predict. Our crystal ball functions no better on the topic of whether the elderly, or anyone else for that matter, will get the care they need under such a plan or under Medicare.
Read the rest of the ananlysis and citiations at FactCheck.org as well as the false euthanasia claim.
False Euthanasia Claims
The claim that the House health care bill pushes suicide is nonsense.
Summary
On former Sen. Fred Thompson’s radio show, former lieutenant governor of New York Betsy McCaughey said that the House’s proposed health care bill contained a provision that would institute mandatory counseling sessions telling seniors how "to do what’s in society’s best interest … and cut your life short." House Minority Leader John Boehner made a slightly more measured statement, warning that the same provision "may start us down a treacherous path toward government-encouraged euthanasia if enacted into law."
In truth, that section of the bill would require Medicare to pay for voluntary counseling sessions helping seniors to plan for end-of-life medical care, including designating a health care proxy, choosing a hospice and making decisions about life-sustaining treatment. It would not require doctors to counsel that their patients refuse medical intervention.
Analysis
Our inboxes have exploded recently with worried queries from readers who have heard that the House’s proposed health care bill, H.R. 3200, contains a provision that would require that ailing seniors be pressed to consider suicide in order to save the taxpayers money on Medicare. Most messages mention that this clause appears on page 425 of the legislation. A sample e-mail forward:
Chain e-mail: On Page 425 of Obama’s health care bill, the Federal Government will require EVERYONE who is on Social Security to undergo a counseling session every 5 years with the objective being that they will explain to them just how to end their own life earlier. Yes…They are going to push SUICIDE to cut medicare spending!!!
Page 425 does deal with counseling sessions for seniors, but it is far from recommending a "Logan’s Run" approach to Medicare spending. In fact, it requires Medicare to cover counseling sessions for seniors who want to consider their end-of-life choices – including whether they want to refuse or, conversely, require certain types of care. The claim that the bill would "push suicide" is a falsehood.
Read the rest of the item at FactCheck.orgMore Articles
- Updated Subsidy Calculator and 300+ FAQs Help Consumers Understand the ACA Marketplaces as Open Enrollment Begins
- 4.7 Million Uninsured People Nationally Could Get a No-Premium Bronze Plan in the ACA Marketplace, Though Deductibles Would be High
- GAO Reports: Health Insurance Exchanges & College Students and Food Assistance
- CBO's Preliminary Analysis of Legislation That Would Replace Subsidies for Health Care With Block Grants
- Updated: A CBO Estimate of the Direct Spending and Revenue Effects of the Better Care Reconciliation Act of 2017, a Senate Amendment in the Nature of a Substitute to H.R. 1628
- Breaking News!!! SHOCKING, JAW DROPPING or ASTONISHING Notifications
- Medicare Fraud Reports From the Office of Inspector General and Recent State Enforcement Actions
- HHS Pushes States To Negotiate Lower Obamacare Rates
- Washington State's Death With Dignity Act: A Gratefully Received But Rarely Used Prescription
- Twenty-six Lies About H.R. 3200