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SAY WHAT?:  This is NOT ONLY A LIE but it is a perfect example of how the GOP is using fear and lies to kill health care reform. The best lies take something that is true and then they distort it, or bend the truth until the distortion fits the lie they wish to spread.  Within at least one of the bills floating around is a requirement for Medicare to pay for direct consultations (about Living Wills and/or hospice issues) with health care providers. But no one is required to use the benefit.   If you want this consultation the Medicare would have to pay for it, but if you don’t want the consultation then you just don’t consult. The Living Will, or an Advance Directive lays out a patient’s wishes for life-extending measures under various scenarios involving terminal illness, severe brain damage or other life threatening emergencies. I’m 59, and I’ve had three joints replaced. These were serious surgical procedures, but not procedures that commonly lead to death, still, the possibility was there and I Googled my way to a site, got an Advance Directive and was prepared before I got my new knees and shoulder. Under the health reform bills patients and their families would be allowed to consult with health professionals, not government agents, and they would be in charge of choosing OR NOT choosing to use this benefit. 

 

GOP Lie #1b:  The Obama health reform bill requires old people to be euthanized

 

ARE YOU FRICKIN’ KIDDIN’ ME?:  It is not in the bill. This lie is so outrageous it seems too silly to be worthy of response, and yet, there are elderly people who have heard this lie and believe this lie. How disingenuous it is to spread this lie that health reform is going to force old people to die. This crap is not in the bill and many of the Republicans that stood in Congress and said it was there knew they were lying. It is easy to see why many of our senior citizens might be predisposed to believe such an outrageous lie. After all, the target of most Republican anger is towards what they call entitlement programs. The entitlement programs are Social Security and Medicare, two benefits that are paid to senior citizens. All we hear is about how expensive our senior citizens are, and how we have to cut back on their benefits. Naturally they feel, (and me being 59 I am starting to include myself in this group) that tax payers would just as soon put us out on an ice flow and let a polar bear eat us. It’s not true. It may feel true, but it is not true.

 

GOP Lie #2:  These health reform bills will authorize the funding of abortions.

 

NAY NAY BRUTE:    This is not just a lie, it is a damn lie! None of the purposed bills would violate the Hyde bill. The Hyde bill already forbids the paying for abortions through Medicare, or Medicaid, the government insurance program for the poor. There is nothing in the bill that would link abortions to tax payers paying for abortions, it just isn’t there, and it isn’t being proposed or considered at all by anyone, period, end of story.

 

GOP Lie #3:  Obama’s health reform will force Americans out of their current plans.

 

THE ACTUAL FACT:   All of the health reform bills being bandied about in both the House and the Senate are employer-based systems. This means the heart and soul, the spine of Health Care Reform begins with and depends upon most people being in employer provided health insurance plans  – but giving all American some peace of mind by knowing that IF something bad happens. No one will have to worry about being denied insurance because of a pre-existing condition. No one will have to fear being without coverage if their employer drops coverage. People will not have to feel trapped in a job they hate because at least there they have health insurance. The fact that all of us must keep in our minds is that IF current health care cost continues to go up, more employers will do cost shifting (requiring the worker to pay higher deductibles and co pays, and to pay growing parts of the premiums and out of pocket cost and when this doesn’t end the problem more and more employers will be forced to drop employee health care, all together.

 

GOP Lie #4:   This health reform stuff is going to result in  raising taxes, and will make coverage more expensive.

 

Negatory:  I’m not sure which part of health reform is most important (health care for the currently uninsured, or in controlling health care costs). I will say that controlling rising health care costs is at least of equal importance. Right now, the way things are now,  middle-class families are already paying an enormous “hidden tax. Middle class families pay nearly $1,100 each year to pay for the health care going to  the uninsured and underinsured who frequently rely on emergency room visits for their health care needs.  Hospital Emergency Rooms provide health care for people regardless of their ability to pay. But hospitals do not require their employees in the ER to work for free, and to provide their own bandages and x-ray machines. Now, the ERs cost money and when people go to the ER and can’t pay, guess where they get the money to pay for the medical treatments they gave away? If these people using free ER services had health insurance often they would go to a doctor’s office and not to the ER. Going to the doctor is cheaper than going to the ER. This is a savings right off the bat. If people go to the doctor for a minor health problem, get preventive treatment, then a serious health crisis is avoided and that lowers health care costs. Additionally, the House proposal for health reform also invests in reforms to contain the costs of health insurance overburdening businesses, families and the federal deficit. Currently, we pay $6.000 more per person than any other nation for health care.

 

GOP Lie #5:  Obama’s Health Reform will mean rationed access to Health Care.

 

Here’s the Truth Ruth:   Health Care is already rationed by poverty and lack of insurance coverage. The House proposal will expand and improve the availability of quality health care for all Americans, not ration it.

 

GOP Lie #6: Health reform will cause business to cut jobs and squeeze out small businesses.

 

Liar, Liar Pants on Fire:  The rising cost of health care and health insurance is what is burdening business now. If reform controls rising health care costs, and if access to insurance become affordable, then business will be blessed by this reform, not cursed. Under the House proposal, employers will continue to offer their employees health care or contribute towards coverage. Very small businesses would be exempt from this requirement, and their employees would have new options to purchase affordable health insurance not currently available now. If the mandated new insurance options were not affordable these workers would have access to the public option for affordable health care.

 

GOP Lie #7:  If it ain’t broke don’t fix it. Health Care in America isn’t broke so it doesn’t need any reform.

 

Dumb Lie: Health care is broken. I watched a clip of one town hall meeting where protestors were trying to shout down any discussion of health care. One person stood up and shouted, “If you like health care just they way it is now raise your hand.” Almost every hand went up. The legislator then shouted out, “If you are on Medicare or Medicaid raise your hand.” Almost the same number of hands, and the same actual hands went up.” Then an older lady stood up and shouted, if you have NO health insurance raise your hands.” Now I couldn’t see the whole crowd in that picture, but what I did see was ONE single hand going up. The people who like things the way they are have health insurance. Many, on Medicare apparently are unaware that they are currently in a government run, government financed health insurance plan. Health care is broke if you can’t get health care. 

 

I married a woman with juvenile diabetes. Her pre-existing condition has prevented us from access to privately purchased health insurance. Unless we have employer provided health insurance with an open enrollment, we could not buy insurance. Now that we are old we both have diabetes, and I have high blood pressure, cataracts, heart troubles, and multiple joint replacements. Under the current system I can’t afford to buy insurance on the open market.  

 

Talk about euthanasia, the thing that will kill me is not government provided insurance, but free market insurance that can’t be obtained. Without access to medical care I will die sooner than later, so the current system, the way it is now, is a death sentence for me, my wife, and millions of people like us.

 

Under the Obama inspired health reform bills we would have:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

THE TRUTH:   Most of us need affordable easy access to health care. Every day, 14,000 Americans lose their health coverage. Each and every week, more than 17,000 Americans file bankruptcy because health care costs.   If we don’t do something now, then what is bad will be worse, and worse will quickly become terrible. The truth is that if you don’t have good health insurance right now you are already in a terrible state. You may be health enough not to know how bad things are for you, but just wait. If you live you will have accidents, and illnesses. If you live long enough your need for health care will rise, and as it does you will come to know just how bad your life is with no insurance or poor insurance. The time for health care reform is NOW.