Obamacare Claims plus data comparisons

So much gets said about a program that is not fully implemented but I, with the source of Politifact Truth-O-Meter thought I’d share some salient information.

1)   Mitt Romney claims that Obamacare will add trillions to the deficit. Politifact says this is just plain false. Mitt’s claim: "Obamacare raises taxes on the American people by approximately $500 billion. Obamacare cuts Medicare -- cuts Medicare by approximately $500 billion," Romney said. "And even with those cuts and tax increases, Obamacare adds trillions to our deficits and to our national debt, and pushes those obligations on to coming generations."

They find no factual basis for this claim. You can go to their site for more information. http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2012/jun/28/mitt-romney/mitt-romney-says-obamacare-adds-trillions-deficit/

2)  Romney claims Obamacare means up to 20 million Americans will lose insurance they like and want. This is also rated an outright lie. For particulars see: http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2012/jun/29/mitt-romney/mitt-romney-says-obamacare-means-20-million-americ/

This is a “cherry picked” number. He also ignores that some leave for better options and many people lose coverage for a variety of reasons.

3)  Obama claims those who have health care under his health care law will keep it.  This is rated half true. For particulars see: http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2012/jun/29/barack-obama/barack-obama-says-under-his-health-care-law-those-/

They say Obama makes a reasonable point in that the law allows folk to keep their health plan but it is not a guarantee. There are things the keep them from keeping their insurance.

My main complaint of Obamacare is that it just doesn’t go far enough. Under our current system there is just too bloody much paper work. If we would just underwrite all Americans and give them health care it would save huge amounts in paper work. And the fair system would be to pay it all through taxes, progressive taxes that is. They countries that do that are much more efficient and less wasteful overall.

If you don’t have a profit based health care system them perhaps the workers in that system will remember why they do they work they do more clearly; to help people be well.

You often hear doctors leaving Canada in droves so they can make the big bucks here in the U.S.A. If that were true, it seems to me they would be getting rid of poorly motive crass materialistic doctors. But that is not the case. The number of doctors in Canada is at an all time high. Most places have doctor shortages but their situations seems to be improving increasing 87.1% from 1980 to 2010 according to the Canadian Institute for Health Information. In 2010 there were 203 doctors per 100,000 Canadians versus 151 in 1980. Of those 69,699 doctors 35,366 were family medicine practitioners and 34,333 specialists. This trend is expected to continue into the future.

We also worry in this country that we have less doctors that we need but it is also true that we have more doctors that ever before.

It is hard to find reliable comparison data but I found that in 2010 Canada had 2.4 doctors per 1000 people, exactly the same as the U.S.A.  The United Kingdom had 2.7, Sweden 3.8, Ireland 3.5, Germany 3.7, Greece 6.1, Finland 3.3, Norway 4.1, Mexico 2.0… We don’t compare well. If you go to http://www.oecd.org/document/60/0,3746,en_2649_33929_2085200_1_1_1_1,00.  You will find an excel chart with this information from the OECD Health Data 2012.