A friend of mine sent me this piece of propaganda regarding Obamacare. Let's look at it point by point.
Lie #1: President Obama wants to euthanize your grandma!!!
The truth: These accusations—of "death panels" and forced euthanasia—are, of course, flatly untrue. As an article from the Associated Press puts it: "No 'death panel' in health care bill." What's the real deal? Reform legislation includes a provision, supported by the AARP, to offer senior citizens access to a professional medical counselor who will provide them with information on preparing a living will and other issues facing older Americans.
These claims are all properly footnoted with quotes from liberal sites. But they don't address the question: why would people be concerned that Obamacare will "euthanize your grandma"? The reason stems from Obama's promises to cut costs. Since the elderly spend a disproportionate amount of the health care dollars, cost cuts will come from the elderly. And that means rationing of treatments and options and implied or overt calls for the elderly to die and get over it. Critics are correct that Obamacare advocates some sort of euthenasia, whether that's a Logan's Run style offing people (of course not) or simply by reducing options for living for the elderly. It's simply impossible to believe allowing old people to die rather than trying to save them is an element of this plan.
Lie #2: Democrats are going to outlaw private insurance and force you into a government plan!!!
The truth: With reform, choices will increase, not decrease. Obama's reform plans will create a health insurance exchange, a one-stop shopping marketplace for affordable, high-quality insurance options. Included in the exchange is the public health insurance option—a nationwide plan with a broad network of providers—that will operate alongside private insurance companies, injecting competition into the market to drive quality up and costs down. If you're happy with your coverage and doctors, you can keep them.5 But the new public plan will expand choices to millions of businesses or individuals who choose to opt into it, including many who simply can't afford health care now.
This statement is fine as far as it goes, but it doesn't ask the big question: what happens next? Do they genuinely believe that businesses won't drop insurance coverage once a "public option" exists? Why would most businesses keep their insurance, when they can foist this obligation off on the government? Since we know business isn't benevolent, after all. This statement is horribly naive and fairly refuses to look at real life, rather than fantasy Obamaland.
Lie #3: President Obama wants to implement Soviet-style rationing!!!
The truth: Health care reform will expand access to high-quality health insurance, and give individuals, families, and businesses more choices for coverage. Right now, big corporations decide whether to give you coverage, what doctors you get to see, and whether a particular procedure or medicine is covered—that is rationed care. And a big part of reform is to stop that.
Health care reform will do away with some of the most nefarious aspects of this rationing: discrimination for pre-existing conditions, insurers that cancel coverage when you get sick, gender discrimination, and lifetime and yearly limits on coverage. And outside of that, as noted above, reform will increase insurance options, not force anyone into a rationed situation.
This is a bizarre Alice-in-Wonderland claim. We're now experiencing rationing because insurance companies can deny claims or refuse coverage for pre-existing conditions. But, somehow, government bureaucrats won't be rationing your care when they make you wait inordinately long amounts of time to treat you, or give you inferior treatments because your Quality Life Years isn't worth spending more on you. Do Democrats actually buy these arguments?
If your insurance company denies your claim, you can appeal the decision, and, surprisingly, many claims are accepted when customers pursue them. And if the insurance company's behavior is egregious, you can report it to the state board of insurance regulation. It's not like in the government, which will determine which procedures and treatments should be available to you and you must accept them.
Lie #4: Obama is secretly plotting to cut senior citizens' Medicare benefits!!!
The truth: Health care reform plans will not reduce Medicare benefits. Reform includes savings from Medicare that are unrelated to patient care—in fact, the savings comes from cutting billions of dollars in overpayments to insurance companies and eliminating waste, fraud, and abuse.
Health care reform will cut senior citizens' access to health care because cost-savings will have to come from somewhere, and electronic medical files will only save so much. This means that cost savings will be found in reduced payments to doctors, which will incentivize doctors to not treat patients (or treat no more patients than required). Plus, as I stated before, the elderly use a disproportionate amount of health care dollars. If we are going to cover everyone, someone will have to get less health care to cover the others. Guess who that someone will be?
Lie #5: Obama's health care plan will bankrupt America!!!
The truth: We need health care reform now in order to prevent bankruptcy—to control spiraling costs that affect individuals, families, small businesses, and the American economy. Right now, we spend more than $2 trillion dollars a year on health care. The average family premium is projected to rise to over $22,000 in the next decade—and each year, nearly a million people face bankruptcy because of medical expenses. Reform, with an affordable, high-quality public option that can spur competition, is necessary to bring down skyrocketing costs. Also, President Obama's reform plans would be fully paid for over 10 years and not add a penny to the deficit.
This is the most idiotic claim yet. We need to spend $1 trillion setting up a brand new health care system because individuals may face hardship dealing with medical bills. Only Democrats could believe this logic. Bankrupt the country because some small percentage of people have problems with medical bills.
What struck me most about this propaganda piece is how naive it sounds. These are the same people who apply healthy doses of skepticism to every claim by the military or by the business sector. Yet, because the left is so desperate to get a single payer system (and they know this plan is a step that direction), they are willing to swallow whatever deceptions are offered up to justify it.
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