Health Care

Setting the Record Straight on Health Care Reform

I thought I’d do my part to counter the lies being spread by radicals around the nation by posting this information culled from the Organizing for America site, which itself cites several credible, independent third-party sources.

THE TRUTH: A WIDESPREAD CHAIN EMAIL THAT CLAIMS TO OFFER PAGE-BY-PAGE ANALYSIS OF THE HOUSE HEALTH CARE BILL IS BLATANTLY FALSE.

Many people have received variations of an anti-health-reform chain email that claims to provide a page-by-page analysis of a House healthcare bill. Jennifer Tolbert, an independent health care analyst at a nonpartisan foundation that studies health care reform, called the email “awful.” [1]

“It’s flat-out, blatant lies,” she said. “It’s unbelievable to me how they can claim to reference the legislation and then make claims that are blatantly false.”

Independent fact-check site PolitiFact called the email “a clearinghouse of bad information circulating around the Web about proposed health care changes.” [2]

[1] “Finally, we consulted with Jennifer Tolbert, an independent health care analyst at the Kaiser Family Foundation, a nonpartisan foundation that studies health care reform. Tolbert has read and analyzed all the major health proposals, including those of the Republicans…. we sent Tolbert a copy of the latest from our in-box, and she was none too pleased. ‘It’s awful,’ she said. ‘It’s flat-out, blatant lies. It’s unbelievable to me how they can claim to reference the legislation and then make claims that are blatantly false.’” [Politifact, 7/30/09]

[2] “It may be the longest chain e-mail we’ve ever received… Most of what the e-mail says is wrong. In fact, it’s a clearinghouse of bad information circulating around the Web about proposed health care changes…” [Politifact, 7/30/09]

Separating fact from fiction in health care debate

“This chain e-mail is very persuasive in many ways because it has specific language, page numbers from the bill, but when you look at what it uses to back up a claim like that, it’s just not true.” – Bill Adair, editor of PolitiFact and the Washington bureau chief for the St. Petersburg Times [NPR, 8/7/09]

THE TRUTH: THERE IS NO “DEATH PANEL” MENTIONED IN ANY OF THE HEALTH INSURANCE REFORM BILLS UNDER CONSIDERATION, AND THERE NEVER WAS.

Former Governor Sarah Palin recently posted a note on her official Facebook page that falsely claimed that, under health insurance reform, a “death panel” of bureaucrats would “decide, based on a subjective judgment of their ‘level of productivity in society,’ whether they are worthy of health care.” The truth is that no such panel exists, or has ever been proposed in any version of the health care bills in Congress, that would judge a person’s “level of productivity in society” or determine whether they are “worthy” of health care. [1]

The author of a similar provision, Republican Johnny Isakson, said it was “nuts” to claim the bill encourages euthanasia. [2] Even Palin’s home-state Republican Senator Lisa Murkowski, after hearing Palin’s comments, said, “It does us no good to incite fear in people by saying that there’s these end-of-life provisions, these death panels… Quite honestly, I’m so offended at that terminology because it absolutely isn’t (in the bill). There is no reason to gin up fear in the American public by saying things that are not included in the bill.” [3]

[1] “We have read all 1,000-plus pages of the Democratic bill and examined versions in various committees. There is no panel in any version of the health care bills in Congress that judges a person’s ‘level of productivity in society’ to determine whether they are ‘worthy’ of health care. Palin’s claim sounds a little like another statement making the rounds, which says that health care reform would mandate counseling for seniors on how to end their lives sooner. We rated this claim Pants on Fire! The truth is that the health bill allows Medicare, for the first time, to pay for doctors’ appointments for patients to discuss living wills and other end-of-life issues with their physicians. These types of appointments are completely optional, and AARP supports the measure. … But that’s not what Palin said. She said that the Democratic plan will ration care and “my parents or my baby with Down Syndrome will have to stand in front of Obama’s ‘death panel’ so his bureaucrats can decide, based on a subjective judgment of their ‘level of productivity in society,’ whether they are worthy of health care.” Palin’s statement sounds more like a science fiction movie (Soylent Green, anyone?) than part of an actual bill before Congress. We rate her statement Pants on Fire!” [Politifact, 8/10/09]

[2] “However, other Republicans, including Senators Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Johnny Isakson of Georgia – who sponsored similar legislation – have said Palin’s claim was hurting the party’s attempts to influence the bill…. Isakson said it was “nuts” to claim the bill encourages euthanasia.” [The Boston Globe, 8/14/09]

[3] “‘It does us no good to incite fear in people by saying that there’s these end-of-life provisions, these death panels,’ Murkowski, a Republican, said. ‘Quite honestly, I’m so offended at that terminology because it absolutely isn’t (in the bill). There is no reason to gin up fear in the American public by saying things that are not included in the bill.’” [Anchorage Daily News, 8/12/09]

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