•RUSH LIMBAUGH: "There really isn't a crisis in health care in this
country. The crisis in health care that -- if you wanna say, that does
exist -- is the fear that a major illness or catastrophe could wipe
you out, which isn't gonna change. In fact, the odds of you being
wiped out by a catastrophe or accident once the government gets
started running this stuff is greater than if the private sector --
but day-to-day, there's no health care crisis in this country. You can
get it. So, it isn't about health care, per se. This is just about
gaining control, taking money, and controlling people's lives, and
wiping out Republicans -- a nice cherry on top." [Premiere Radio
Networks' The Rush Limbaugh Show, 6/18/09]
•STEVE DOOCY: "Currently, 90 percent of all Americans have got some
sort of health care coverage, which means they are effectively blowing
up the system for 5 percent. Now, the 5 percent, you gotta worry about
them -- you gotta worry about everybody who doesn't have it. But is it
worth all of this for 5 percent?" [Fox News' Fox & Friends, 7/30/09]
REALITY: Roughly 25 million Americans were underinsured in 2007.
According to Cathy Schoen, senior vice president of The Commonwealth
Fund, "From 2003 to 2007, the number of adults who were insured all
year but were underinsured increased by 60 percent. Based on those who
incur high out-of-pocket costs relative to their income not counting
premiums despite having coverage all year, an estimated 25 million
adults under age 65 were underinsured in 2007." [Testimony from Schoen
before the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee,
2/24/09]

The underinsured do not receive adequate care and face financial
hardship. Schoen explained that the "experiences" of the underinsured
were "similar" to those of the uninsured, noting that "over half of
the underinsured and two thirds of the uninsured went without
recommended treatment, follow-up care, medications or did not see a
doctor when sick. Half of both groups faced financial stress,
including medical debt." [Schoen testimony, 2/24/09]

Insurance companies currently rescind policies when their insured
customers need treatment. Insurance companies restrict or deny
coverage by rescinding health insurance policies on the grounds that
customers had undisclosed pre-existing conditions. On June 16, a House
Energy and Commerce subcommittee held a hearing exploring this
practice, with the goal of examining "the practice of 'post-claims
underwriting,' which occurs when insurance companies cancel individual
health insurance policies after providers submit claims for medical
services rendered." The committee also released a memorandum finding
that three major American insurance companies rescinded 19,776
policies for over $300 million in savings over five years and that
even that number "significantly undercounts the total number of
rescissions" by the companies.

Currently, insurance companies deny coverage based on pre-existing
conditions. CNN senior medical correspondent Elizabeth Cohen wrote in
a May 14 CNN.com article, "According to the Kaiser Family Foundation,
21 percent of people who apply for health insurance on their own get
turned down, charged a higher price or offered a plan that excludes
coverage for their pre-existing condition. ... The health insurance
industry doesn't deny that people are rejected or charged higher
premiums because of pre-existing conditions."

MYTH 2: Health care reform will impose rationing
CLAIM: Progressive health care reform proposals will introduce a
system of "rationing" into American medicine.

•SEAN HANNITY: "We're gonna have a government rationing body that
tells women with breast cancer, 'You're dead.' It's a death
sentence." [Fox News' Hannity, 6/19/09]
•MICHELLE MALKIN: "Big Nanny Democrats want to ration health care for
everyone in America -- except those who break our immigration
laws." [Malkin column, 7/22/09]
REALITY: Insurance companies already ration care. Insurance companies
acknowledge that they ration care, restricting coverage of procedures
and tests like MRIs and CAT scans and denying coverage for pre-
existing medical conditions.

Sanjay Gupta: "I can tell you, as a practicing physician ... who deals
with this on a daily basis, rationing does occur all the time." As Dr.
Sanjay Gupta, CNN's chief medical correspondent, explained: "[P]eople
always say, 'Is there going to be rationed care?' And I can tell you,
as a practicing physician, as someone who deals with this on a daily
basis, rationing does occur all the time. I mean, I was in the clinic
this past week. And I -- you know, at the end of clinic, I get all
this paperwork that basically says, 'Justify why you're doing such and
such procedure. Justify why you're ordering such and such test.' And
if the justification is inadequate, the answer comes back, 'Well,
that's not going to be covered.' Which basically is saying that the
patient is going to have to pay for it on their own, which is, in
essence, is what rationing is, in so many ways." [CNN's Anderson
Cooper 360, 8/12/09]

Insurance companies ration care by rescinding coverage. As former
senior executive at CIGNA health insurance company Wendell Potter
explained in June 24 Senate testimony, insurance companies restrict or
deny coverage by rescinding health insurance policies on the grounds
that people had undisclosed pre-existing conditions. President Obama
recently cited one such example, noting that "[a] woman from Texas was
diagnosed with an aggressive form of breast cancer, was scheduled for
a double mastectomy. Three days before surgery ... the insurance
company canceled the policy, in part because she forgot to declare a
case of acne. ... By the time she had her insurance reinstated, the
cancer had more than doubled in size."

MYTH 3: Health care reform provides for euthanasia, "death panel"
CLAIM: House health care reform bill mandates end-of-life counseling
that will pressure seniors to end their lives.

•BETSY McCAUGHEY: "And one of the most shocking things I found in this
bill, and there were many, is on Page 425, where the Congress would
make it mandatory -- absolutely require -- that every five years,
people in Medicare have a required counseling session that will tell
them how to end their life sooner, how to decline nutrition, how to
decline being hydrated, how to go in to hospice care. And by the way,
the bill expressly says that if you get sick somewhere in that five-
year period -- if you get a cancer diagnosis, for example -- you have
to go through that session again. All to do what's in society's best
interest or your family's best interest and cut your life short. These
are such sacred issues of life and death. Government should have
nothing to do with this." [FredThompsonShow.com, interview archives,
7/16/09]
•HANNITY: "Now, she [McCaughey] actually uncovered in this bill a
particularly outrageous provision -- and by the way, there will be
more to come in the Obamacare plan. According to McCaughey, she's
saying under the House provision and the House version, perfectly
healthy senior citizens are going to be forced to undergo, quote, 'end
of life counseling,' apparently to encourage them to check out before
their time is up." [ABC Radio Networks and Premiere Radio Networks'
The Sean Hannity Show, 7/17/09]
REALITY: Advance care planning is not mandatory in the House health
care bill. Section 1233 of America's Affordable Health Choices Act of
2009 -- which includes "Page 425" -- amends the Social Security Act to
ensure that advance care planning will be covered if a patient
requests it from a qualified care provider [America's Affordable
Health Choices Act, Sec. 1233]. According to an analysis of the bill
produced by the three relevant House committees, the section "[p]
rovides coverage for consultation between enrollees and practitioners
to discuss orders for life-sustaining treatment. Instructs CMS to
modify 'Medicare & You' handbook to incorporate information on end-of-
life planning resources and to incorporate measures on advance care
planning into the physician's quality reporting
initiative." [waysandmeans.house.gov, accessed 7/29/09]

PolitiFact: McCaughey's claim that seniors would be encouraged to end
their lives "is an outright distortion." "McCaughey incorrectly states
that the bill would require Medicare patients to have these counseling
sessions and she is suggesting that the government is somehow trying
to interfere with a very personal decision. And her claim that the
sessions would 'tell [seniors] how to end their life sooner' is an
outright distortion. Rather, the sessions are an option for elderly
patients who want to learn more about living wills, health care
proxies and other forms of end-of-life planning. McCaughey isn't just
wrong, she's spreading a ridiculous falsehood." [PolitiFact.com,
7/23/09]

CLAIM: Health care reform would establish a "death panel."

•GLENN BECK: "So, why is there no more discussion than there is on
Sarah Palin and what she said over the weekend that there would be ...
[a] death panel for her son Trig? That's quite a statement. I believe
it to be true, but that's quite a statement." [Premiere Radio
Networks' The Glenn Beck Program, 8/10/09]
•BRIAN KILMEADE: "[E]veryone's talking about seniors, and they're
talking about the middle class and affordable health care. If the
upper class is paying for the next two classes, and are seniors going
to be in front of a death panel? And then just as you think, 'OK,
that's ridiculous,' then you realize there's provisions in there that
seniors in the last lap of their life will be sitting there going to a
panel, possibly discussing what the best thing for them is." [Fox &
Friends, 8/10/09]
REALITY: "Death panel" claims have been conclusively discredited. In
one of more than 40 media reports debunking claims of euthanasia and

MYTH 4: Health care reform legislation will cover undocumented
immigrants
CLAIM: Under health care reform, you will be denied care, and it will
be given to undocumented immigrants instead.

•DICK MORRIS: "The point about these death panels is that if you
restrict the amount -- the lifesaving surgeries, and you tell someone,
no, you can't have that bypass surgery -- but I'm going to die if I
don't have it. Well, here's the grief counselor. That will happen. And
whether they fund the grief counselor or the end-of-life counselor or
not, the rationing will take place when they tell you, no, you can't
have the surgery because we have to give it to a 40-year-old illegal
immigrant instead." [Hannity, 8/17/09]
REALITY: House bill stipulates that those "not lawfully present" may
not receive subsidies to purchase insurance. Under the "Individual
Affordability Credits" section of the America's Affordable Health
Choices Act of 2009:

SEC. 242. AFFORDABLE CREDIT ELIGIBLE INDIVIDUAL.

(a) DEFINITION. --

(1) IN GENERAL. -- For purposes of this division, the term
''affordable credit eligible individual'' means, subject to subsection
(b), an individual who is lawfully present in a State in the United
States (other than as a nonimmigrant described in a subparagraph
(excluding subparagraphs (K), (T), (U), and (V)) of section 101(a)(15)
of the Immigration and Nationality Act) --

[...]

SEC. 246. NO FEDERAL PAYMENT FOR UNDOCUMENTED ALIENS.

Nothing in this subtitle shall allow Federal payments for
affordability credits on behalf of individuals who are not lawfully
present in the United States.

Senate HELP bill excludes those "not lawfully present" from federal
funding. Under the "Making Coverage Affordable" section of the
Affordable Health Choices Act:

(h) NO FEDERAL FUNDING. -- Nothing in this Act shall allow Federal
payments for individuals who are not lawfully present in the United
States.

MYTH 5: Health care reform will raise your taxes
CLAIM: Health care reform would be funded by broad-based tax
increases.

•  MARA LIASSON: "But the fact is, what have they been hearing? It has
a $1 trillion price tag over 10 years, it's going to raise your taxes.
I think --
CHRIS WALLACE: "Well, aren't those both true?" [Fox Broadcasting Co.'s
Fox News Sunday, 8/2/09]

REALITY: The surtax in House bill applies only to income exceeding
$350,000 per year for joint filers. The House health care legislation
would establish a 1 percent tax on joint income exceeding $350,000 but
not greater than $500,000 per year; a 1.5 percent tax on joint income
exceeding $500,000 but not greater than $1 million per year; and a 5.4
percent tax on joint income exceeding $1 million per year. Single
filers would be subject to the surtax starting at income exceeding
$280,000 per year. In a July 15 Huffington Post piece, Rep. George
Miller (D-CA) stated that "[o]nly the highest earning 1.2 percent of
American households will pay a surcharge."

MYTH 6: Health care reform would tax all small businesses
CLAIM: The House Democrats' bill will raise income taxes on small
businesses.

•Wall Street Journal editorial: "The health-care bill is a jobs
killer, with its 5.4-percentage point income surtax that would hit
small business especially hard." [Wall Street Journal, 8/9/09]
REALITY: Ways and Means committee stated that according to JCT, only
4.1 percent of small-business owners would be affected by surtax. The
legislation would establish a 1 percent tax on joint income exceeding
$350,000 but not greater than $500,000 per year; a 1.5 percent tax on
joint income exceeding $500,000 but not greater than $1 million per
year; and a 5.4 percent tax on joint income exceeding $1 million per
year. Single filers would be subject to the surtax starting at income
exceeding $280,000 per year. The House Ways and Means Committee
stated, "Using the broadest definition of a small business owner
(i.e., any individual with as little as $1 of small business income),
the nonpartisan Joint Committee on Taxation has estimated that only
4.1% of all small business owners would be affected by the health care
surcharge."

CLAIM: House Democrats' bill would subject all small businesses to an
8 percent payroll tax as a penalty for not providing insurance to
employees.

•GRETCHEN CARLSON: "[T]he real victim, potentially, of this health
care reform ... is the small business owner. ... [T]hey are going to
be hit potentially with this health care reform if they don't offer
health care to their employees -- an 8 percent penalty on them." [Fox
& Friends, 7/16/09]
REALITY: Companies with annual payrolls of less than $250,000 would
pay no penalty under the House bill. The House bill would establish a
2 percent payroll penalty for employers with combined payroll between
$250,000 to $300,000 that don't offer health insurance to employees; a
4 percent penalty for employers with $300,000 to $350,000 in payroll;
a 6 percent penalty for employers with $350,000 to $400,000 in
payroll; and an 8 percent penalty for companies with annual payrolls
exceeding $400,000. Additionally, the bill establishes tax credits for
small-business employers that do provide health care.

MYTH 7: Health care reform would add $1 trillion-plus to deficit
CLAIM: Health care reform "would add around $1 trillion to the deficit
over the next 10 years."

•AP: "But even the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office says that
none of the health plans pending on Capitol Hill would control long-
term spending, and that ones with the elements Obama wants would add
around $1 trillion to the deficit over the next 10 years." [Associated
Press, 8/3/09]
•Karl Rove claimed that House Democrats are "planning on a 1 trillion,
420 billion -- 420 million dollar price tag of additional spending
over the next 10 years, and what they've done is, today, supposedly --
we haven't seen the details -- but they've trimmed that by 10 percent.
So we're only going to beggar ourselves by $900 billion over the next
decade and that's assuming they get all of the tax increases and all
of the Medicare cuts that are built into this." [Hannity, 7/29/09]
REALITY: CBO found that House bill would increase the federal budget
deficit by $239 billion over 10 years -- not $1 trillion. In a July 17
cost estimate of the bill as introduced, the CBO explained that its
"estimate reflects a projected 10-year cost of the bill's insurance
coverage provisions of $1,042 billion, partly offset by net spending
changes that CBO estimates would save $219 billion over the same
period, and by revenue provisions that JCT estimates would increase
federal revenues by about $583 billion over those 10 years." CBO thus
concluded the legislation "would result in a net increase in the
federal budget deficit of $239 billion over the 2010-2019 period." The
CBO has not released full cost estimates of the health care reform
proposals being considered by the Senate.

MYTH 8: House bill would ban private individual insurance
CLAIM: House health care reform bill would "outlaw individual private
coverage."

•An Investor's Business Daily editorial falsely claimed that the House
bill includes "a provision making individual private medical insurance
illegal." The editorial later stated that the "provision would indeed
outlaw individual private coverage." [IBD, 7/15/09]
•HANNITY: "The one thing that we do know in the health care bill is
that it's gonna literally -- the bill says -- Investor's Business
Daily had an article today -- and the bill says that if you don't have
your insurance the year this legislation is implemented, you can't
have a private insurance company. So that will end -- hang on -- that
will end private insurance." [Hannity, 7/16/09]
REALITY: The bill does not "outlaw" private individual insurance. The
provision to which the IBD editorial referred establishes the
conditions under which existing private plans would be exempted from
the requirement that they participate in the Health Insurance
Exchange. Individual private health insurance plans that do not meet
the "grandfather" conditions would still be available for purchase,
but only through the exchange and subject to those regulations. As
Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius noted, the
assertion "that individuals would no longer be able to keep their
personal coverage" is "just not accurate. It's not in any version of
the House bill; it's not in the Senate bill." [MSNBC's Morning Joe,
7/22/09]

MYTH 9: Obama said he didn't read House bill
CLAIM: Obama "admitted" that he has not read the House health care
reform bill.

•Limbaugh asserted that Obama "doesn't know what's in the bill! He
admits he doesn't know." [The Rush Limbaugh Show, 7/21/09]
•"Obama Admits He's 'Not Familiar' With House Bill" [Heritage
Foundation, 7/21/09]
•HANNITY: "The president even admitted before the press conference --
the day before -- he hadn't read the bill." [Hannity, 7/24/09]
REALITY: Obama actually said he was "not familiar" with opponents'
false talking point that bill would ban private individual insurance.
During a July 20 conference call, a blogger asked Obama to comment on
the claim made in the July 15 IBD editorial -- which is false -- that
the bill, in the blogger's words, "will make individual private
medical insurance illegal." Obama responded, "You know, I have to say
that I am not familiar with the provision you're talking about."

MYTH 10: Co-ops are an adequate substitute for a public option
CLAIM: The co-op "compromise" eliminates the need for the public
option.

REALITY: Progressive experts argue public plan is necessary for
successful reform. Numerous media figures and outlets have
characterized Sen. Kent Conrad's (D-ND) cooperative health insurance
proposal as a "compromise," "hybrid," or bipartisan "alternative" to a
public insurance option without noting the view by progressive experts
that a public option is necessary for health care reform to be
successful and that any departure from that will result in the failure
of reform efforts. These experts dispute suggestions that Conrad's co-
op proposal is a plausible midway point between competing methods of
addressing health care reform, because, they say, it precludes a
fundamental component of effective reform: bargaining power against
the health care industry. For example, former Clinton Labor Secretary
Robert Reich described the co-op proposal as a "bamboozle" and said
that "[n]onprofit health-care cooperatives won't have any real
bargaining leverage to get lower prices because they'll be too small
and too numerous. Pharma and Insurance know they can roll them. That's
why the Conrad compromise is getting a good reception from across the
aisle." And University of California-Berkeley professor Jacob Hacker
argued that Conrad "has offered no reason to think that the
cooperatives he envisions could do any of the crucial things that a
competing public plan must do." Additionally, ABC's Charles Gibson
reported that "several health care experts" have said, in Gibson's
words, "[I]f you take out the public option in terms of insurance,
there's going to be no restraints on the cost of insurance." [ABC's
World News with Charles Gibson, 8/17/09]

MYTH 11: Obama is pushing a system like the U.K. and Canada
CLAIM: Obama is pushing a single-payer system like Canada's or a
nationalized health care system like the United Kingdom's.

•BRET BAIER: "President Obama spent a good deal of time at that news
conference [on June 23] talking about health care reform, and Canada's
medical system has been cited as a possible model." [Fox News' Special
Report with Bret Baier, 6/29/09]
•Hannity said, "I think Obama certainly" wants a Canadian-style
"single-payer system." [Hannity, 7/20/09]
•CHARLES KRAUTHAMMER: "[Obama]'s a man who's expressed ... a radical
domestic agenda, which involves, as he puts it every time, a holy
trinity of health care reform, by which he means nationalizing health
care. ... And this is all in the service of leveling the differences
between rich and poor and leveling the differences between
classes." [Special Report, 4/29/09]
•JOE SCARBOROUGH: "Of course -- of course it's -- not only is it
naïve, it's reckless to suggest that in the midst of a banking crisis
that may have a $2 trillion price tag that you are going to choose
this time to nationalize health care with a $635 billion down
payment." [Morning Joe, 3/9/09]
REALITY: Obama has rejected Canadian-style single-payer system and
U.K.-style nationalized health care. During a March 26 online town
hall discussion, Obama was asked: "Why can we not have a universal
health care system, like many European countries, where people are
treated based on needs rather than financial resources?" He replied,
in part, "I actually want a universal health care system," adding that
rather than adopting a "single-payer system" like Canada's, "what I
think we should do is to build on the system that we have and fill
some of these gaps." Indeed, Obama has embraced the creation of a
federally funded "public plan" as one of many insurance options
available in the health care market, not the sole option, as in
"single payer" systems such as Canada. And as PolitiFact.com noted in
a March 5 post, "Obama's plan leaves in place the private health care
system, but seeks to expand it to the uninsured" and "the plan is very
different from some European-style health systems where the government
owns health clinics and employs doctors," as in the United Kingdom.

MYTH 12: Obama, Dems pushing "socialized medicine"
CLAIM: Health care reform proposals are socialist and will lead to
socialized medicine.

•GLENN BECK: "President Obama has his massive $1.5 trillion health
care plan. It's hogging up the news cycle. The Republicans and, you
know, a lot of people are starting to say, 'Isn't this socialist here?
I mean, this is pretty crazy.' The answer to me on that one is really
easy: Yep, it's good old socialism. You know, pretty much raping the
pocketbooks of the rich to give to the poor. I think that's
socialism." [Fox News' Glenn Beck, 7/21/09]
•LIMBAUGH: "The Obama budget also funds the relentless drive toward
socialized medicine. And all that is just the beginning. The way to
look at this budget is not with an economic lens, it is with a
philosophical one. Liberals want to make America -- remake it in their
image. And this is how you will pay for it." ["Rush's Morning Update,"
2/27/09]
•Guest-hosting The O'Reilly Factor, Laura Ingraham stated: "Powerful
arguments against socialized medicine have been around not for months,
but for decades. Ronald Reagan was saying this back in 1961." After
playing a clip from Reagan's recording, Ingraham added, "I have to
believe that Ronald Reagan is smiling down on these town hall forums
where law abiding and hard-working Americans are standing up for
freedom." [Fox News' The O'Reilly Factor, 8/14/09]
REALITY: Conservatives have trotted out "socialized medicine" smear
for 75 years -- and it's never been true. Numerous conservative media
figures have revived the "socialized medicine" smear to undermine the
efforts of Obama and congressional Democrats, most recently by
promoting Ronald Reagan's 1961 attacks on a legislative precursor to
Medicare. But as the Urban Institute wrote in an April 2008 analysis,
"socialized medicine involves government financing and direct
provision of health care services," and therefore, recent progressive
health-care reform proposals do not "fit this description." The
analysis also noted: "Similar rhetoric was used to defeat national
health care reform proposals in the 1990s and, with less success, to
argue against the creation of Medicare in the 1960s." Indeed, a Media
Matters for America analysis found that dating as far back as the
1930s -- with respect to at least 16 different reform initiatives
including President Franklin D. Roosevelt's consideration of
government health insurance when crafting the 1935 Social Security
bill; President Lyndon Johnson's 1965 legislation establishing
Medicare; and the health-care initiative by President Bill Clinton and
first lady Hillary Clinton in 1993 and 1994 -- conservatives have
attempted to smear those proposals by calling them "socialized
medicine" or a step toward that purportedly inevitable result.

MYTH 13: Prominent opponents of health care reform are credible
CLAIM: Betsy McCaughey is a credible health care expert.

•JOHN ROBERTS: "Former New York Lieutenant Governor Betsy McCaughey is
a long-time expert in public health and is currently the chairwoman of
an advocacy group for patient safety." [CNN's American Morning,
6/24/09]
•ELIZABETH MacDONALD: "I want to go to my next guest. She's terrific.
We're going to go fair and balanced now. She's Betsy McCaughey. She
says that cutting health-care costs will only lead to worse care not
better. Betsy is founder and chairman of the Committee to Reduce
Infectious Deaths." [Fox Business' Cavuto, 5/11/09]
REALITY: Betsy McCaughey is a serial misinformer who has perpetuated
numerous falsehoods about health care reform. The Atlantic's James
Fallows has pointed to McCaughey as an example of someone for whom
there "seems to be almost no extremity of being proven wrong which
disqualifies" her from being given a platform in the media. Most
recently, McCaughey falsely claimed that the House health care reform
bill would "absolutely require" end-of-life counseling for seniors on
Medicare "that will tell them how to end their life sooner" -- a claim
that many in the media repeated. McCaughey repeatedly falsely claimed
that the Senate HELP committee's bill "basically" "pushes everyone
into an HMO-style plan." Additionally, McCaughey concocted the false
claim, which was nonetheless widely repeated in the media, that a
health IT provision in the economic recovery act enabled government
bureaucrats to "monitor treatments" or restrict what "your doctor is
doing" with regard to patient care. On multiple occasions, after being
challenged on her false claims about health care legislation,
McCaughey reportedly insisted that she was right about the ultimate
effect of a bill despite misrepresenting what it actually said.
McCaughey's influence over the health care debate is not new. As
Fallows has written, "In the early 1990s McCaughey single-handedly did
a phenomenal amount to distort discussion of health-care policy and
derail the Clinton health bill. She did so through an entirely
fictitious argument about what the bill would do."

CLAIM: Rick Scott is a credible health care expert.

REALITY: Rick Scott was chairman of a scandal-plagued hospital firm.
Scott has repeatedly been quoted by CNN, Fox News, and The Wall Street
Journal opposing Democrats' health care reform efforts. Frequently,
media outlets that have hosted or quoted Scott have failed to note
that he resigned as chairman of the nation's largest for-profit health
care company in 1997 amid a federal Medicare fraud investigation.
According to a July 26, 1997, Los Angeles Times article, Scott
resigned from his former position as chairman of Columbia/HCA
Healthcare Corp. "amid a massive federal investigation into the
Medicare billing, physician recruiting and home-care practices of"
Columbia/HCA, "the nation's largest for-profit health care company."
According to a December 18, 2002, Justice Department press release
describing a tentative settlement with HCA to resolve civil
litigation, "When added to the prior civil and criminal settlements
reached in 2000, this settlement would bring the government's total
recoveries from HCA to approximately $1.7 billion." Media Matters has
also documented repeated instances in which media outlets and figures
have uncritically repeated or aired Scott's health care
misinformation, including that of his advocacy organization,
Conservatives for Patients' Rights.

CLAIM: Newt Gingrich is a credible health care expert.

REALITY: Newt Gingrich has a financial stake in opposing Democrats'
reform proposals. Gingrich has been quoted by Politico opposing the
public plan, but Politico did not explain that his Center for Health
Transformation is a for-profit entity that receives annual membership
fees from several major health insurance companies, which have a
direct interest in whether a public insurance plan is part of health
care reform. Moreover, Gingrich himself reportedly profits from his
involvement with the group. Indeed, the group's website notes that the
"Center for Health Transformation and The Gingrich Group are corporate
for-profit organizations not affiliated with any other corporation or
organization" [emphasis added]. Gingrich has also repeatedly spread
misinformation about health care reform.

MYTH 14: Government can't run a health care program
CLAIM: Medicare has failed, and so the government can't be trusted to
"run health care."

•HANNITY: "But why would you have so much faith, trust, hope, and
confidence? Are you happy when you go to the DMV? Are you happy with
the Postal Service? Social Security is bankrupt. Medicare is bankrupt.
Why do people have faith that the government can run health
care?" [Hannity, 7/20/09, from the Nexis database]
REALITY: Medicare costs have risen more slowly than private insurance.
As Nobel Prize-winning economist Paul Krugman noted, "since 1970
Medicare costs per beneficiary have risen at an annual rate of 8.8% --
but insurance premiums have risen at an annual rate of 9.9%. The rise
in Medicare costs is just part of the overall rise in health care
spending. And in fact Medicare spending has lagged private spending:
if insurance premiums had risen 'only' as much as Medicare spending,
they'd be 1/3 lower than they are."

Medicare is extremely popular. A May 2009 Commonwealth Fund study
concluded that "elderly Medicare beneficiaries reported greater
overall satisfaction with their health coverage, better access to
care, and fewer problems paying medical bills than people covered by
employer-sponsored plans." And as Mark Blumenthal wrote for National
Journal, a survey by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services
found that in 2007, "56 percent of enrollees in traditional fee-for-
service Medicare give their 'health plan' a rating of 9 or 10 on a
0-10 scale. Similarly, 60 percent of seniors enrolled in Medicare
Managed Care rated their plans a 9 or 10. But according to the CAHPS
[Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems ] surveys
compiled by HHS, only 40 percent of Americans enrolled in private
health insurance gave their plans a 9 or 10 rating." Blumenthal added,
"More importantly, the higher scores for Medicare are based on
perceptions of better access to care. More than two thirds (70
percent) of traditional Medicare enrollees say they 'always' get
access to needed care (appointments with specialists or other
necessary tests and treatment), compared with 63 percent in Medicare
managed care plans and only 51 percent of those with private
insurance."