The push for Obamacare has been profoundly disingenuous, to the point of mendacity. (Yes, yes, I know: Opponents have told some whoppers, too, such as that the bill pushes euthanasia. But it does open the door for health care rationing.) The push is very Clintonian, as in debating the meaning of “is.” Example, the continual assertion that we can keep our “current” insurance policies. That is true, but any time an individual or a business seeks to change an element of their current insurance, all bets are off and only government-approved plans could be purchased.
The MSM goes loyally along with most of this, acting as if its job is to get Obamacare passed. The most recent example is this supposedly edifying NYT health care blog by Kathryn Q. Seelye that purportedly separates out reality from myth about the current bills in Congress. From the blog:
The federal government will become directly involved in making personal health care decisions for the public (myth; Medicare does not make such decisions now);
But that is to change. There are to be centralized boards to set standards of care as a cost containment measure that will impact the treatment patients can and cannot receive. Indeed, in Medicare Obamacare would establish the Independent Medicare Advisory Council, or IMAC, which David Broder the left-leaning Washington Post punded admitted “could become as much an arbiter of medicine as the Fed is of the economy or the Supreme Court of the law.”
Seelye continues:
A public option that competes with private insurance companies will be too expensive for the nation to afford (myth; if anything, a public option will bring costs down);
Not for taxpayers it won’t! The public cost of Obamacare is set at well over a trillion dollars. Thus, even if overall spending on health care went down—a ridiculous notion since the goal is to add tens of millions of people—public spending will soar.
A public option will put private insurance companies out of business (myth);
Not according to Rep. Barney Frank. He says the public option is the first step toward getting a single payer system—which would put private insurance companies out of business.
The overhaul will cover more people by making cuts to Medicare (debatable; there are no cuts in Medicare benefits but the administration proposes to squeeze “waste” from the program).
Debatable!? The plans would explicitly cut $500 billion from Medicare and would reduce payments to physicians and hospitals. That, in turn, will adversely impact the treatment seniors receive under Medicare.
The real myth is that our mainstream media objectively seek to report facts and discern truth any more. And the American people know it, which is one reason why the newspaper business is dying.
