FACT CHECKING THE FACT CHALLENGED ON HEALTH REFORM

In a previous post I noted my frustration with the lies and gullibility that surrounds the current health care debate (shouting match?). While I would like to suggest that this is how good policy is made, that would be too far from the truth. Simply stated, the opponents of President Obama's health care overhaul (whatever it's final form) are worried sick that genuine reform will undermine the electoral prospects of the republican party, and the profits of the health care industry.

At the forefront of this irresponsible and fact challenged parade is Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele. Here's Michael Steele writing about health care in the Washington Post:

First, we need to protect Medicare and not cut it in the name of "health-insurance reform." As the president frequently, and correctly, points out, Medicare will go deep into the red in less than a decade. But he and congressional Democrats are planning to raid, not aid, Medicare by cutting $500 billion from the program to fund his health-care experiment.

Apart from the fact that no final bill has been introduced, President Obama has repeatedly stated that there would be no cuts to Medicare beneficiaries. Indeed, according to a Kaiser Family Foundation analysis of HR 3200, proposed legislation allows for a 5% Medicare payment INCREASE for primary care services to some physicians.

Unswayed by the facts, Michael Steele continues:

Second, we need to prohibit government from getting between seniors and their doctors. The government-run health-care experiment that Obama and the Democrats propose will give seniors less power to control their own medical decisions and create government boards that would decide what treatments would or would not be funded.

This statement is an obvious reference to "health boards" and "death panels" that republicans like to claim are at the heart of President Obama's health care reform.

What republicans like Steele fail to mention is that the "health boards" system they are trying to scare Americans about is little more than a nation-wide information sharing infrastructure that allows health care professionals "access" to medical information so that proper medical decisions can be made. There are no "mandatory" rulings or steps that have to be made.

In fact, one piece in the proposed legislation that pushes for sharing “appropriate information to help guide medical decisions at the time and place of care” is almost identical to President Bush’s 2004 Health Information Technology executive order, which pushes for a nationwide infrastructure to "to guide medical decisions." Put another way, if the goal of sharing medical information amounts to "health boards" then President Bush has already created them.

Because the goal is to share information rather than to make collective decisions this means that government sponsored boards and panels - unlike the processes followed by private "claim denial" specialists - are NOT going to use money as a criteria to decide whose life is worth cutting loose. Period.

There's more - much more - to the lies and innuendo surrounding Michael Steele's fact challenged op-ed. You can go here to see the details.

If you also want to see how the conservative Heritage Foundation is using abortion, rationing, "illegal immigrants" and health care industry funded research to try and scare Americans about proposed health care reform, click here.

- Mark

UPDATE: Here's a woman - whose family has insurance - explaining that her husband has been denied (by a private "board" or "panel," I'm sure) the care necessary to keep him fed and hydrated. In this WWJD moment, Senator Coburn (R-OK) makes a lame appeal to neighbors helping neighbors (but nobody volunteers to help) and then asks her to make an appointment with his staff after saying government is not the solution (unless, of course, you're a corporation looking for bailouts, subsidies, and write-offs). Classic.