Tuesday Sept. 24 New York Times opinion page has an article on the lies/distortions currently in the media on Obamacare better elucidated than my column: http://takingnote.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/09/23/sabotaging-health-care-one-lie-at-a-time/
Here is my column, with Links and additional commentary missing in The Big Horn County News, in italics:
It's hard for me to imagine that citizens of Big Horn County are as confused as many in the rest of the country over Obamacare. If they are, I'd like to do my part to help clear things up.
The mixed messages we're getting from media, politicians, and our fellow citizens could leave anybody's head spinning (and not from lack of medicine). Last month I saw a news picture of Tea Party demonstrators carrying signs that said "Hands off my health care" and "No socialized medicine." At first this seemed consistent with the familiar conservative message of reducing government intervention. Except, it turns out they weren't protesting expansions in government-subsidized health care. They were actually expressing their opposition to the proposed $500 billion cut in Medicare. Huh?
Then at the Kentucky State Fair in Louisville last month, a middle-aged man in a red golf shirt stood raptly at a booth labeled "Kynect." He was receiving services through Kentucky's state-run program to help citizens access the new health benefit exchanges (similar to services that will be available here in Big Horn County next month). The man was impressed. "This beats Obamacare I hope," he mutters to one of the workers. See http://kynect.ky.gov/ for a detailed report, and for further analysis http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/08/22/kentucky-obamacare_n_3801054.html
"Do I burst his bubble?" wonders Reina Diaz-Dempsey, overseeing the operation. She doesn't. If he signs up, it's a win-win, whether or not he knows it's really Obamacare. Yes, "Kynect" is the Republican-initiated program written ten years ago for Massachusetts. It was adopted with few changes by the Obama administration and dubbed "The Affordable Care Act." This program got lots of bipartisan support because it will significantly improve the average citizen's access to private health insurance, while potentially increasing health industry profit margins. So what's the problem with affordable and profitable health care? Is it all in the sound of the label "Obamacare," eliciting media-promoted emotional reactions nationwide?
Some people may prefer to be misinformed. After all, we're living in a world of sound bites and unexamined beliefs we like to call "facts." However, I think we're better than this here in Big Horn County. I want a little more straight talk and I believe you might, too. Let's take a look at some of the misinformation floating around about Obamacare.
1 Obamacare cuts $500 Billion From Medicare: Why would the same people trying to eliminate virtually all family support programs, also not want to reduce Medicare costs? It turns out that the health insurance companies are determined to keep their cash cow program, "Medicare Advantage," pouring tax money into their private coffers. The proposed cuts are not a slashing of the current Medicare budget or current benefits. Changes to the "Medicare Advantage" private insurance-run programs will lead to substantial saving for taxpayers over the next ten years. Of course, it will be cutting some government handouts to insurance companies.
Why would they suddenly promote this program benefiting primarily the poor? Obama wielded the same rhetoric against the Republicans:
Nevertheless, it's a $500 billion reduction in the growth of future spending over 10 years not a slashing of the current Medicare budget or benefits. It's true that those getting benefits will continue getting their benefits. But it's also true that Medicare Advantage's private plans (about 22 percent of Medicare enrollees) will have fewer options for add-on benefits that really bankroll more profit for private insurance companies. The bill aims to reduce rising costs from Medicare Advantage plans that simply hand over Medicare funds for corporate insurance administration.
These insurance administration costs have risen much higher, compared with the regular fee-for-service government-administered Medicare. But because congress has consistently stopped real medicare reform, it has inadvertently or not cultivated the resultant criticisms of medicare's problems. Medicare Advantage plans run by insurance companies have been quick to step into the gap, insurance companies have reaped increasing profits, and we citizens have sheepishly picked up the tab to pay insurance companies instead of the government (see how government messed up Medicare?) for the increased cost.
2. It will pay for illegal immigrants' health care: The Affordable Care Act doesn't provide health care for undocumented immigrants. In fact, there are numerous provisions that specifically require exclusion of undocumented immigrants. But whoa! Perhaps we should let immigrants pay into the pool. http://voices.washingtonpost.com/ezra-klein/2009/09/the_case_for_insuring_illegal.html
This lie was launched to prominence with the help of a false accuser, South Carolina Rep. Joe Wilson, who famously heckled President Barack Obama during an address to a Joint Session of Congress by yelling "You lie!" after the president had mentioned that undocumented immigrants would not be eligible for the credits for the bill's proposed health care exchanges.
Undocumented immigrants are younger, healthier, and prone to work harder than most of us long time citizens. With 7 million of these potential insurance premium payers in our country, they would definitely lower insurance costs for all of us.
3 It's a Jobs-Killer: Some pundits pronounce anything that the Obama White House does—from regulating pollution to flossing after meals—as something that would "kill jobs." The Affordable Care Act is no different. There's no real evidence to support this familiar diatribe. Come on guys, get a new slogan.
But does the health reform plan threaten jobs? Not by any honest measure. See McClatchy Newspapers:
4 It adds to The Deficit: Will this big government program push indebtedness to such a height that our future Chinese overlords will gleefully take over Sarpy Mine? We spend twice as much of our GDP on healthcare as other industrialized nations. This situation might make sense if we had better health outcomes, but unfortunately for all of us, this is not the case. How does this upside-down spending-to-benefit ratio ensure our financial future as a nation? Independent analysis shows that affordable health insurance is likely to save both public and private money, and is already showing this to be the case in states where implementation is progressing.
5. Republicans, and their ideas, were left out of the bill and the process.
In fact, the Democrats were eager to get GOP input and enthusiastic about including many of their desired components in the bill. The Affordable Care Act was modeled on a reform designed and implemented by a former Republican governor and presidential candidate, whose innovation was widely celebrated by the GOP while said former governor was running for president. The heritage foundation dreamed up the "individual mandate" used in Massachusetts in Romneycare to ensure "no free riders." Further provisions were borrowed from the Senate GOP alternative to the Clinton plan in the 1990s, and the 2009 Bipartisan Policy Committee plan, which was endorsed by Tom Daschle, Howard Baker, and Bob Dole.
As for the process, you might recall that the White House very patiently waited for the bipartisan Gang Of Six to weigh in with its own solution, and openly courted one Republican gang member, Sen. Chuck Grassley, long after it was clear to every reporter inside the Beltway that Grassley was intentionally acting in bad faith.
And perhaps you don't recall the bipartisan health care summit that was held in March of 2009? if so, don't feel bad about it -- RNC Chairman Michael Steele couldn't remember it either, when he yelled at the president for not having one.
Steele Criticizes Obama For Not Holding A Health Care Summit Last Year...Which He Did February 25, 2010 10:45 am ET — Matt Finkelstein
Today on MSNBC's "Daily Rundown," RNC Chairman Michael Steele dismissed today's bipartisan health care summit as a "dog and pony show." The beleaguered chairman added that if President Obama was serious about working across the aisle, he should have started off the reform process with a bipartisan event last year. But, as hosts Chuck Todd and Savannah Guthrie quickly pointed out, Obama actually did hold a bipartisan summit last March:
6 Death Panels will be terminating patients to fund Obamacare.
The "death panel" lie spread across Montana, only exceeded by its predictability. That is the best way to counter opening access and reducing cost to millions of Americans who have gone without health care for so long? Convince them the government wants them dead. "It really began with serial liar Betsy McCaughey, who in 1994 polluted the pages of the New Republic with a staggering pile of deception in an effort to scuttle President Bill Clinton's health care reform. As Nyhan documents, she re-emerged in 2009 when "she invented the false claim that the health care legislation in Congress would result in seniors being directed to 'end their life sooner.'"
Nyhan: "McCaughey's statement was a reference to a provision in the Democratic health care bill that would have provided funding for an advanced care planning for Medicare recipients once every five years or more frequently if they become seriously ill. As independent fact-checkers showed (PolitiFact.com 2009b; FactCheck.org 2009a), her statement that these consultations would be mandatory was simply false--they would be entirely voluntary.
7 Our health care is already 'The Best In The World'
We have the pinnacle of health care in the United States. Why would we mess with the best?
We also have the best first-class commercial air travel. What do the people in America who "fly coach" in the health care system get? By all objective measurements, it's overpriced and underperforming—if you were lucky enough to be participating in it. As anyone who's fortunate enough to have employer based health care or unfortunate enough to have a pre-existing condition can tell you, health care for ordinary people already involved all of those things that we were told would be a feature of the Affordable Care Act: long waits, limited choice, and rationing.
So Many More To Choose From!
Obviously, we in Big Horn County have been flooded with misinformation on Obamacare. For more, check out the Impossible Tale Of The One-Dollar Abortion, the Story of the State-Based Inflexibility That Wasn't,The Curious Case of the Politically Connected Waivers and Nancy Drew And The Hidden $105 Billion Expenditure.
Here's research on the vast numbers of young adults who simply don't know the meaning of the Affordable Care Act's reforms:
Covering Young Adults Under the Affordable Care Act:
The Importance of Outreach and Medicaid Expansion
Findings from the Commonwealth Fund
Health Insurance Tracking Survey of Young Adults, 2013
Sara R. Collins, Petra W. Rasmussen, Tracy Garber, and Michelle M. Doty
Here's the abstract: There is concern that many young adults (ages 19–29) will remain without health insurance in 2014 despite the Affordable Care Act's reforms, including subsidized private coverage offered in new state marketplaces and expanded Medicaid eligibility. How things turn out will likely depend on outreach efforts and states' decisions on expanding Medicaid. Commonwealth Fund Health Insurance Tracking Survey data from 2011 and 2013 show increasing awareness among young adults of the 2010 requirement that health plans cover children under age 26. Of the estimated 15 million young adults enrolled in a parent's plan in the prior 12 months, 7.8 million would not likely have been eligible to enroll prior to the law. Still, only 27 percent of 19-to-29-year-olds are aware of the marketplaces. Meanwhile, most uninsured young adults living below poverty will not have access to subsidized public or private insurance in states opting out of the Medicaid expansion.
David Graber
Hardin, MT
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