Obamacare Myths - both sides

FactCheck.org has been dealing with myths about Obamacare, really the Affordable Health Care Act, since 2009. However, that does not stop the opponents from trotting out the same old spurious claims about it at all. Likely, we will see more and more of them. Recently they picked the top three to give facts rather than fiction about Obamacare. I’ll just list them from their blog.

§  Republicans have made the overblown claim that the law is a job-killer, but experts predict a small impact on mainly low-wage jobs. The Republican National Committee says 8.2 million part-timers can’t find full-time work “partly” due to the law. That’s the total number of part-time workers who want full-time jobs, and there’s no evidence from official jobs figures that the law has had an impact.

§  Proponents say premiums will go down, while opponents say they’ll go up. In general, employer plans won’t be affected much, and a price change for individuals seeking their own insurance will vary from person to person. Obama claimed that all of the uninsured would see lower premiums than what they could get now (before accounting for federal subsidies), but that’s not the case.

§  Critics continue to make scary claims about the government coming between you and your doctor, but the law doesn’t set up a government-run system. If anything, the law comes between you and your insurance company, forbidding them from capping your coverage or charging you more based on health status. Meanwhile, Obama can’t promise you can keep your plan. Employers are free to switch coverage, just as they were before.

Then there is the claim that 8.2 million Americans can’t find full-time work partly due to Obamacare. Another false claim. There is just no evidence for this just guesses based upon ideology.

There is also the claim it is job killer, another overblown statement. There may be some loss of low-wage jobs but economists see this as minimal.

Next is the claim that premiums are going up because of the law and the counterclaim that they will go down. Well, it depends. If you are uninsured and have a pre-existing condition you will pay less. If you are young and healthy you likely pay more, but as I wrote earlier, that true for insurance companies as well. Employers may see an increase of 1 to 3% because of added benefits. We did see a 9% increase in family plan premiums but that was due to higher medical costs (we always see to miss that we have the highest health costs of anywhere in the world and that has nothing to do with Obamacare.) As to individual plans the jury is out, some will go up some down and some will receive subsidies to offset in the exchange plans.

Next, all the uninsured will pay less on the exchanges that they would in the individual market even without federal subsidies. Not true. We still have to work with a very high priced medical system and the ACP won’t change that. It is also misleading to claim that 8.5 million Americans will receive rebates of about $100 because of the law. It is a per family number not a per person number.

The claim you won’t be able to choose your doctor and the government will get between you and your doctor is just plain wrong. This is the boggy man of creeping socialism. It fits right there with death-panels, shear fabrication.

The claim that you can keep your plan and your doctor is misleading. Companies may change providers, some may have to change insurance companies. It’s up in the air.

Then there are those who claim folk applying for federal subsidies without facing verification and is another blatant lie.

Is congress exempt from the law? No. Actually by 2014 they will no longer be able to get insurance through the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program. It is part of the law.

The Affordable Health Care Act is incredibly complicated, which leads to all this misinformation by folk on both sides of the issue. The simple solution of course would be to just adopt and single payer plan – but the big buck folk in the medical and insurance fields have scared everyone that than will destroy the country totally ignoring how well in works in the countries that have such programs.

“My mind is made up don’t confuse me with the facts” continue to rule the day.

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