Promises ObamaCare Can’t Keep
Promise: If you like your current health care coverage, you can keep it.
Fact: Even though President Obama told the American Medical Association that no one would have to change their health care coverage if they liked their current set up (see video), that is not the case. There are so many heavy-handed, as well as subtle, regulations disguised as “consumer protections,” that insurance companies will have to raise premiums. Additionally, the weight of those onerous regulations will change policies substantially, to the point where policyholders no longer will recognize their insurance plans – even “grandfathered” plans – so as to force people out of private insurance and into a government-run plan. (See Mary Katharine Ham and Guy Benson at HotAir.com.)
Promise: Obamacare will lower premiums.
Fact: You mean, if we’re still allowed to own, or can afford, health insurance? Let’s say we can (but see above before you get too confident). That certainly was one of the Congressional Democrats’ big talking points, anyway, as they rammed the bill through Congress. However, if they were so confident ObamaCare would lower rates, why did Senate Democrats, only four weeks after ObamaCare became law, begin legislation to limit what insurance companies could charge? The New York Times, of all papers, has it documented here. But let’s hear it straight from the horses’ mouths: Here’s a video with Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) saying premiums are going up under ObamaCare followed by the POTUS promising the opposite. If they can’t believe each other, why should any American believe them?
Promise: ObamaCare actually will strengthen the private market by opening it up to millions of new consumers who must buy insurance or face a penalty, or join a government-run “pool.”
Fact: First, maybe you haven’t seen the news lately (Washington Times). That aside, forcing insurance companies to lower premiums (i.e., dictating how much profit they can make) is more than regulation. It’s price control – out and out socialism. That, while forcing millions more onto their rolls, is a recipe for rationing and poor care. Either they go out of business or the government mandated low rates force cost cutting through layoffs, lower quality care and other service degradations. Use some common sense: How can the government add patients and mandates to insurance companies, and not expect the companies to raise costs to average Americans, cut services to the bone or, finally, go out of business? (Hotair.com offers more.)
Promise: ObamaCare will make Medicare more financially sound.
Fact: Months after it was signed into law, the Department of Health and Human Services said ObamaCare would extend the life of Medicare 12 years. One problem: It based that on a Congressional Budget Office study. Next problem. There is no such study. In fact, CBO said the opposite: “. . . to describe the full amount of HI trust fund savings as both improving the government’s ability to pay future Medicare benefits and financing new spending outside of Medicare would essentially double-count a large share of those savings.” Reason.com has more.
Promise: ObamaCare won’t cut Medicare benefits.
Fact: The president made the claim himself – he’s made all the promises in this edition, although maybe he doesn’t use the word “ObamaCare” (or maybe he does) – at an AARP panel in 2009. But according to his favorite source, the Congressional Budget Office (see CBSNews.com), there will be $130 billion in cuts to companies that offer Medicare Advantage – and 25 percent of Medicare recipients use Medicare Advantage. See Reason.com.
Promise: Much of the cost to fund ObamaCare comes from money already appropriated. It doesn’t add any new spending.
Fact: The president has said that the $100 billion per year cost of ObamaCare would come out of the $2 trillion per year we spend on health care costs. There’s that pesky Congressional Budget Office, again. The president’s favorite source reported that “the two pieces of legislation [that make up the health care law] were estimated to increase mandatory outlays by $401 billion and raise revenues by $525 billion.” See Reason.com.
Promise: ObamaCare penalties do not cover illegal aliens!
Fact: Who can forget the president making this claim during the State of the Union Address, followed by Congressman Joe Wilson’s (R-S.C.) “You lie!” outburst? (See video, here.) Despite his lack of tact, Congressman Wilson is right. Although he was talking about the then-proposed House version of the bill (the Senate bill is the one that passed), the law exempts illegal aliens from the individual mandate! Citizens and legal aliens, of course, get fined if they don’t purchase a government approved insurance plan. (Of course, the courts are speaking to this matter this week! See National Review Online.) Yet, hospital emergency rooms will not be allowed to turn the illegals away. See the National Center for Policy Analysis for more.
Promise: Federal tax dollars will not pay for abortions under ObamaCare. Obama, himself, signed an executive order prohibiting such use of federal expenditures.
Fact: Better than a spoken statement, we have his written word! But it’s not worth the paper and ink it’s written on and with. Executive orders only deal with the administration of government. It does not trump statutory law. Already, Maryland and Pennsylvania, under the state insurance pools ObamaCare has set up, are offering abortion coverage. See Michael Tennant at The New American.
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