[Vision2020] The Romney/Ryan Reign of Error, Part II: Health Care

[Nicholas Gier]

Dear Visionaries,

I'm dividing up a 3600-word column into three parts.  The full version is
attached and the column on health is appended.

Both RealClear Politics (290-248) and FiveThirtyEight (296.6-241.4) agree
that Obama will win the Electoral College, and both predict a 52-48 Demo
majority in the Senate.

 Read all my columns on the 2012 election at www.NickGier.com/2012.pdf.

Even though the candidate exercise on the web put me in Jill's camp, I will
vote Green only if we had a parliamentary system where other parties have a
much better chance.

I'll be glad when this election is over,

Nick

*THE ROMNEY/RYAN REIGN OF ERROR:*

*False Claims on Obamacare and Medicare*

*
*

Out of 513 statements tested by PolitiFact, Obama and Biden have a total of
147 mostly false, false, and pants on fire.  That is a record of 71 percent
truth-telling.  Out of 231 statements Romney and Ryan have 100 mostly
false, false, and pants on fire.  They were telling the truth only 57
percent of the time.  Here are the major errors on health care.

·         *In his debate with Biden, Ryan claimed that his Medicare
proposals were bipartisan*.  The truth is that Democratic Senator Ron Wyden
withdrew as co-sponsor of Ryan’s bill because it “pulls the safety net out
from under the poorest and most vulnerable seniors.” **

Earlier Clinton’s top economic adviser Alice Rivlin, after working with
Ryan on Medicare reform, reported that she could not support his new plan.
Under it seniors would have to pay much more because the growth rate for
his vouchers would not keep up with rising medical costs.  The
Congressional Budget Office estimates that Medicare recipients would be
paying 40 percent more by 2022.**

* *

·         *Romney, Ryan, and the Republicans have distorted the $716
billion in savings (not cuts) in Medicare spending over 10 years**. *First,
it must be noted that this same amount, on Ryan’s recommendation, has been
taken completely out of health care by the GOP House.  Second, there is no
reduction in benefits to seniors.  **

Third, $216 billion will be saved by phasing out subsidies to Medicare
Advantage, a cadillac, but sometimes highly restrictive, private insurance
option that costs 14 percent more than Medicare.  A Harvard study has found
that over 8 years Medicare Advantage has overpaid providers by $282.6
billion.

·         *In the first debate Romney assured that seniors over 60 did not
need to listen to his plans for Medicare reform**.* If Romney repeals the
Affordable Care Act, then (1) seniors will pay more for drugs (the
“doughnut hole” will remain); (2) they would pay on average of $347 more
per year in Medicare premiums (Obamacare reins them in); (3) seniors would
be responsible for their own preventative care (from which 26 million
Americans benefited saving an average $614 each due to the Affordable Care
Act); and (4) Medicare would go broke six years earlier.**

* *·     *Romney, Ryan, and the GOP keep scaring Americans that Obamacare
is a government take-over of health care.*  PolitiFact declared this as
“Lie of the Year 2010.”  The principle of the individual mandate was
originally a Republican idea, which many Democrats—even those in the
Massachusetts Legislature—rejected but Romney promoted.  Obama and the
Democratic Congress rejected the tried and true principle of single payer
option in favor of a much less efficient system of free choice among
private insurance options.

 ·    *Even though it is not true, Romney keeps saying that **Independent
Payment Advisory Board of the Affordable Care Act will put “the government
between you and your doctor” and Ryan says that “it will deny care to
seniors.” * The board’s task is to monitor Medicare payments and to propose
reductions, upon the approval of Congress, to those payments.

 The Affordable Care Act is explicit in excluding the board from doing
these alleged actions: it cannot “include any recommendation to ration
health care, raise revenues or Medicare beneficiary premiums, or otherwise
restrict benefits or modify eligibility criteria” (Section 3403
<http://housedocs.house.gov/energycommerce/ppacacon.pdf>).  Sarah Palin
called this board a “death panel” and she won the 2009 Lie of the Year.

·         *Romney said recently that** “we don’t have people who die
because they don’t have health insurance.”* A 2009 Harvard Medical School
study estimated that 45,000 American die each year because they are
uninsured. * *

To put a personal face on this tragedy—unique in the industrial world—there
is the sad story of Republican activist Beth Rickey, who died alone in a
motel room in Santa Fe on September 12, 2009.  She was seriously ill, had
no health insurance, and had spent her life savings on what little medical
care she could afford.**
·         *In the first debate Romney said that he would keep Obamacare’s
ban on preexisting conditions.* Immediately after the debate Romney
spokesman Eric Fehrnstrom said that Romney misspoke, and that Romney “will
give the states initiatives and money so that they can manage these
decisions on their own.” Romney’s “plan” was later corrected to apply only
to “continuous coverage,” which of course leaves out those uninsured or
periodically insured. ·         *In the first debate Romney said under
Obamacare “up to 20 million might lose health insurance.*”* *Romney cited a
CBO study which instead concluded that employer-sponsored coverage would
most likely decrease by 3-5 million.  These people would not be forced out
of these plans, many of which have become very expensive; rather, they
would choose better deals in Obama’s free-market insurance exchanges.

Cynics say that all politicians lie, but I say choose the ticket with the
most truth telling and a credible record for governing during the worst
recession since the Great Depression.


Nick Gier taught philosophy at the University of Idaho for 31 years.
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