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The Truth about Health Reform

Posted by: Jeff Davis on Aug 25, 2009

It seems that President Obama has been spending a lot of his time these past few weeks responding to ludicrous and deliberately misleading attacks on health reform. It seems like as soon as we finish responding to one, another attack pops up. Unfortunately, a small group of loud radical fringe opponents are trying to scare the public with blatant lies. If there's one truth about these opponents of reform, it's that their childish and disrespectful noise is making it difficult for most of the public to have a serious, adult discussion about the issues.

Families USA recently put out a guide for advocates on how to respond to these attacks. Here are the four most common myths and how to respond:

1. Why are you pushing for a health care system like Canada's? In Canada, people have to wait in lines, or else they come here to get care.

People fear that our system will become like Canada's and that people will be denied care or receive delayed care.  Let's all say this together now: the proposed legislation in Congress doesn't call for us to turn into another country! President Obama and members of Congress have repeatedly stated that they want an American solution that only fixes what is not working in our system. Private insurance will still be the backbone of the American health care system. Everyone will have a choice of private plans in the Exchange. The role of government? To provide many Americans with subsidies to help with the cost of premiums.

2. Is it true that the government will force seniors to decide how they want to die?

This stems from a section of the House Bill that states that optional end-of-life care counseling sessions will be reimbursed by Medicare. For people who want to set up a "living will" - which lets a person tell their family what kinds of care they want if they become terminally ill - help will be available. No one will be required to have a "living will." I personally think it would be very useful to have a discussion with my doctor about this important set of decisions - and have Medicare pay for it. Don't you?

3. Isn't it true that, when health reform passes, seniors on Medicare will be denied treatment?

 Medicare, a government-run program which has been around for over 40 years, provides excellent care to around 45 million Americans. Nothing in health reform cuts services under  Medicare. In fact, health reform will make substantial improvements to Medicare benefits.  For example, current health care reform proposals will eliminate copayments and deductibles for covered preventive benefits in Medicare, and also will either reduce or eliminate the "doughnut hole" in the Medicare Part D prescription drug benefit.

4. Won't the government stand between me and my doctor to decide what care I get?

Currently, insurance companies stand between doctors and patients by denying certain surgeries or capping the amount of money they can spend on procedures. Under health reform, insurance companies will no longer be able to use small-print loopholes to deny you coverage. Fair rules of the insurance marketplace will mean that you will have insurance coverage you can count on when you get sick and need it. Further, health reform will provide both doctors and consumers new ways to share information so that you can work together to chose the best path of care.

These rumors are created by special interests that will stop at nothing to derail health reform. We can't let them win. Americans need health reform and it's up to us to set the record straight.