It makes for a pretty easy day of fact-checking when the very authors of a less-than-thorough analysis of a bill come out and say, you know, that study wasn’t exactly thorough.
And we didn’t pay them to say that.
America’s Health Insurance Plans, the main insurance industry lobby, however, did pay PricewaterhouseCoopers to take a look at certain aspects of the Senate Finance Committee health care bill – certain aspects AHIP doesn’t really like. PwC concluded that the bill would increase health care premiums substantially more than they would rise otherwise.
Year: 2009
Malpractice: Savings Reconsidered
In 2004 we accused President Bush of using “dubious statistics” to support his claim that limiting malpractice awards to injured patients could save the economy between $60 billion and $108 billion per year. Ever since, we’ve said most independent research indicated little if any savings from limiting malpractice liability, and just a few weeks ago …
October 13, 2009
Mammography detects about 80 percent to 90 percent of breast cancers in women without symptoms, on average. The testing is somewhat more accurate for postmenopausal than premenopausal women.
Source: American Cancer Society
McDonnell’s Distorted Attack
Virginia Republican gubernatorial candidate Bob McDonnell’s new ad claims that Democrat Creigh Deeds’ policies would bring $7,800 in higher taxes over four years for Virginia households. The ad would be devastating, if it were true.
Fuel for Frustration
Deeds has never proposed a "billion dollar gas tax increase," as the ad claims. It’s true that many transportation experts and legislators in Virginia have said that an additional $1 billion per year is needed to widen highways,
1,120 Days – and Counting – Till Election 2012!
In what could be an early preview of the 2012 campaign, Mitt Romney – a once and perhaps future Republican presidential hopeful – has released a new video on his political action committee’s Web site attacking President Barack Obama on climate change legislation.
Romney says that any cap-and-trade proposal "wouldn’t do a thing" because it would simply move "greenhouse gas emitters from America, to other nations like China and India that don’t participate in our program."
October 12, 2009
The tomb of Christopher Columbus is in the Cathedral of Sevilla in Spain.
Source: CatedralSevilla.es
October 11, 2009
While white women have a higher incidence rate of breast cancer than African American women at age 45 and older, African American women have a higher incidence rate before that age and are more likely to die from the disease at every age.
Source: American Cancer Society
October 10, 2009
Women aged 20-24 in the U.S. had the lowest incidence rate of breast cancer from 2002-2006, at 1.4 cases per 100,000 women. The 75-79 age group had the highest incidence rate, 441.9 cases per 100,000 women.
Source: American Cancer Society
TGIF
President Obama’s unexpected Nobel Peace Prize may end up being the story of the week, but it was the third-party groups that occupied most of our attention here at FactCheck.org. Once again, health care dominated the discussion, though we also saw some new ads on taxes and on climate change.
We’ve seen both sides making false claims about Medicare. This week it was the conservative group Americans for Prosperity leading with the alarming claim that "Medicare will be bankrupt in 8 years."
77-Cent Increase Per Gallon of Gas?
Q: Will the House cap-and-trade bill raise the cost of a gallon of gasoline by 77 cents?
A: That extreme estimate comes from the oil and gas industry’s lobby. Nonpartisan government experts project a lower increase, most likely between 12 and 67 cents per gallon in 2020.