Health Care Reform: FACT vs FICTION

FACT vs FICTION:

³The House bill sets up a health-care exchange, essentially a list of private insurers and one government plan, where people who do not have health insurance through their employer or some other source (including small businesses) can shop for a plan, much as seniors shop for a drug plan under Medicare part D. The government will indeed require that participating plans not refuse people with preexisting conditions and offer at least minimum coverage, just as it does now with employer-provided insurance plans and part D.		You'll have no choice in what health benefits you receive.
³This refers to proposed decreases in Medicare increases. That is, spending is on track to reach $803 billion in 2019 from today's $422 billion, and that would be dialed back.		Health-care reform will be financed through $500 billion in Medicare cuts.
³There is de facto rationing under the current system, by both Medicare and private insurance. No plan covers everything, but coverage decisions "are now made in opaque ways by insurance companies," says Dr. Donald Berwick of the Institute for Healthcare Improvement.		No chemo for older Medicare patients.
³The House bill doesn't give anyone free health care (though under a 1986 law illegals who can't pay do get free emergency care now, courtesy of all us premium paying customers or of hospitals that have to eat the cost). Will they be eligible for subsidies to buy health insurance? The House bill says that "individuals who are not lawfully present in the United States" will not be allowed to receive subsidies.		Illegal immigrants will get free health insurance.
³A provision in the House bill will have Medicare cover optional counseling on end-of-life care for any senior who requests it. This means that any patient, terminally ill or not, can request a special consultation with his or her physician about ventilators, feeding tubes, and other measures. Thus the House bill expands Medicare coverage, but without forcing anyone into end-of-life counseling.		Death panels will decide who lives. Sarah Palin—need we say more?
³Physicians who choose to accept patients in the public insurance plan would receive 5 percent more than Medicare pays for a given service, doctors can refuse to accept such patients, and, even if they participate in a public plan, they are not salaried employees of it any more than your doctor today is an employee of, say, Aetna.		The government will set doctors' wages.

Know the Facts — Make Informed Decisions:

Please visit the links here to get the facts. And pass the URL for this site along to spread the word and encourage more Americans to stand up for our right to proper and equal health coverage.

Get the
FACTS:

Report broken links, technical issues, or misinformation: contact@timeforaccountability.org

"A small group of thoughtful people could change the world. Indeed, it's the only thing that ever has." ~ Margaret Mead

Updated: 19 September 2009 – 3:45pm EST