Correcting The Lies About Health Care Reform

The New York Times lead editorial sets the record straight about health care reform, correcting lies put forth by Republican candidates and other detractors of change.  Yes, costs are rising, and some employers are dropping coverage, but that’s because of a still-bad but recovering economy, and fear generated by the lies being told about reform. Most of the reforms don’t even take hold until 2014. Here are some of the lies:

• John Raese, the Republican candidate for the Senate in West Virginia, is claiming that the law will require patients to go through a bureaucrat or panel to reach a doctor. That is flat out untrue. You will still choose your own doctor or insurance plan without interference. Nor, despite other claims, will the law provide subsidized insurance to illegal immigrants. They are precluded from using even their own money to buy policies on new exchanges.

• The Obama administration will not be compiling a federal health record on all citizens, including each individual’s body mass index, as Ann Marie Buerkle, a Republican running for a House seat in upstate New York, has claimed on her Web site. The administration is offering incentives to doctors to record various vital statistics in electronic medical records and report the data in the aggregate, to help understand national health trends.

• Republican politicians never tire of denouncing health care reform as a “government takeover” — or socialism. What is true is that the law relies heavily on private insurers and employers to provide coverage. It also strengthens regulation of those insurers and provides government subsidies to help low- and middle-income people buy private insurance on the exchanges.

• Some Republicans are also claiming that health reform is driving up premiums. There have been sharp increases in some states, primarily in response to soaring medical costs. Some insurers may also be trying to increase their profits before the reform law holds them in check…The Justice Department just filed suit against Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Michigan for allegedly using its market power to drive up costs for its competitors and its own subscribers.

• Medicare: Republicans talk about $500 billion being cut from Medicare, but benefits to most beneficiaries will be as good or better going forward.

• Medicaid: While governors complain that they’ll be forced to expand their programs, much of the added expense will come from the federal government.

Lost in all the misrepresentation are the facts that insurers now can’t drop you when you become sick, children can stay on their parents’ policies until age 26, with no punishment for preexisting conditoins,  lifetime limits are gone, and preventative services are paid for.  Democrats ought to be repeating these points constantly.

By: Alan

Alan Colmes is the publisher of Liberaland.