The Health Care Law - The Govt takeover Lie

Now that the Supreme Court of the United States has ruled on the Patient Protection & Affordable Care Act (ACA) and validated the laws constitutionality, we can now sit back and brace ourselves for the endless streams of misinformation, myths and outright lies that will be foisted on the public from those who oppose the ACA.

Let's look at a few of the main misinformation, myths and lies that will ensue:

1) Calling the bill a “government takeover of health care” - This will be the biggest lie used to continue the Republican mantra that President Obama is a socialist and this ACA is the zenith of a huge government takeover of the country's Health Care system.

Nothing could be farther from the truth than this LIE. This law is a boon for PRIVATE Insurance companies as it brings in new customers that before might have avoided health insurance.

Not one doctor will switch from private practice to a government salary, not one medical clinic will be switched from private practice to government control and not one hospital will go from private/public (local municipality) ownership to a federally run operation. The only hospitals that are government run are the various VA (Veterans Administration) Hospitals.

This LIE was given the 2010 LIE OF THE YEAR award by PolitiFact: http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/article/2010/dec/16/lie-year-government-takeover-health-care/

2) " ‘Obamacare’ puts the federal government between you and your doctor." - This is a favorite of Republicans was was used by Mitt Romney on the very day the Supreme Court issued their ruling.

Obviously Mitt Romney is taking the Fox News route/strategy, which is to keep saying and pounding away with the same LIE, to the point it becomes part of the national psyche. Similar to the Sarah Palin LIE about "Death Panels", she said it enough and with the aid of the mis-information machine that is Fox News, people actually bought into the falsehood that death panels were included in the law.

Things will remain the same under the ACA as they were before, because you will still be dealing with your private insurance provider.

The following is from PolitiFact: The overarching fact about the law is that it relies on the private sector. Employers still buy private health insurance for their workers. The law doesn’t change how much doctors are paid or what services they can provide, though it does create incentives and penalties to promote better care. (One example: It penalizes hospitals if patients are re-admitted soon after being discharged.)

It establishes a minimum benefits package for insurance plans and fosters competition among health insurance companies by creating shopping websites. These sites, called exchanges, will allow customers to pick insurance plans the same way they might buy other things online, such as refrigerators or airplane tickets.The law also gives subsidies to people of limited means so they can buy their own insurance.

If the health care law did get between doctors and patients, you would think most doctors would complain loudly. While some do, the leading physician advocacy group, the American Medical Association, does not. On the contrary, the AMA supports the law.

See full PolitiFact article here: http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2012/jul/09/mitt-romney/health-law-puts-government-between-patients-and-do/

3) "The health care law rations care, like systems in Canada and Great Britain." - This is the third Lie in the republican trifecta of mis-information against the ACA.

From Media Matters:  Insurance companies already ration care. Insurance companies acknowledge that they ration care, restricting coverage of procedures and tests like MRIs and CAT scans and denying coverage for pre-existing medical conditions.

I myself was limited by insurance to 1 of 3 tests my physician wanted me to undergo, because my insurance did not cover the stress test or colon-oscopy.

More from Media Matters: Insurance companies ration care by rescinding coverage. As former senior executive at CIGNA health insurance company Wendell Potter explained in June 24 Senate testimony, insurance companies restrict or deny coverage by rescinding health insurance policies on the grounds that people had undisclosed pre-existing conditions. President Obama recently cited one such example, noting that "[a] woman from Texas was diagnosed with an aggressive form of breast cancer, was scheduled for a double mastectomy. Three days before surgery ... the insurance company canceled the policy, in part because she forgot to declare a case of acne. ... By the time she had her insurance reinstated, the cancer had more than doubled in size."

From AARP:

Fact: None of the health reform proposals being considered would stand between individuals and their doctors or prevent any American from choosing the best possible care.
Fact: Health care reform will NOT give the government the power to make life or death decisions for anyone regardless of their age. Those decisions will be made by an individual, their doctor and their family.
Fact: Health care reform will help ensure doctors are paid fairly so they will continue to treat Medicare patients.
Bottom Line: Health reform isn't about rationing; it's about giving people the peace of mind of knowing that they will be able to keep their doctors and that they will always have a choice of affordable health plans.

For more from AARP: http://aarp.convio.net/site/PageNavigator/Myths_vs_Facts