By: Jenny Gold
Source: kaiserhealthnews.org
The conservative lobbying group says health reform with a government option will “squeeze” Americans from all directions: higher taxes, an inflated deficit, skyrocketing premiums and lousy public health coverage. But the numbers don’t add up.
“Squeeze” is the latest in a series of ads from Conservatives for Patients’ Rights, a multimillion dollar, non-profit lobbying group founded and funded by former hospital executive Rick Scott. Scott was ousted as chief executive officer of the Columbia/Hospital Corporation of America in 1997, after the hospital chain was investigated for fraud. In a plea agreement, the company paid $1.7 billion to settle the charges.
The ad plays off of declining public support for health overhaul legislation, as reflected in recent polls. A Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll released last week, for example, found that 36% of respondents called Obama’s approach to health reform a good idea, while 42% said it was a bad idea. Respondents were evenly divided on the question in mid-June.
ACCURACY: Although CPR lists individual sources for each statement in the ad, the facts are largely taken out of context, come from biased industry groups or have been discredited. “There’s absolutely nothing here that’s right. It’s unbelievable,” says John Holahan, director of the Health Policy Research Center at the Urban Institute, a nonpartisan think tank.
Fact #1: Health reform “could raise taxes by $600 billion—even taxing soda.” The ad cites a July 10 Associated Press article in Newsday reporting that House Ways and Means Chairman Charles Rangel, D-NY., “has said his committee needs to come up with $600 billion in new taxes to deliver on Obama’s goal of sweeping changes to bring down costs and cover the 50 million uninsured.” The ad doesn’t note that the $600 billion is a figure over 10 years. Holahan says that number could turn out to be right, but it likely will be less. “There are all kinds of proposals out there, and [the cost] depends on the design choices, including how generous it is in terms of benefits and subsidies, what savings they can get out of Medicare and Medicaid and whether there’s a public plan.” And, a soda tax is just one of many proposed revenue-raisers, including a cap on the tax deductibility of insurance premiums, a tax on the wealthy and an alcohol tax.
Fact #2: Health reform “could add a trillion to the federal deficit.” For this one, the CPR cites a commentary from Fortune. The Congressional Budget Office did score the House tri-committee bill as having a total cost of around $1 trillion, but doesn’t mention that could accumulate over a ten year period, not in a single year. Holahan points out that an increase in the federal deficit means spending money without raising taxes. “It’s almost impossible to both say that you’re going to raise taxes by $600 billion and increase the deficit by $1 trillion—that means there’s no savings at all anywhere. That can’t be right.”
Ad Audit: Conservatives For Patients’ Rights “Squeezes” The Truth
