The percentage of Americans on government health insurance programs, such as Medicare and Medicaid, increased from 27.8 percent in 2007 to 29.0 percent in 2008.
Source: Census Bureau
Year: 2009
September 12, 2009
The percentage of Americans with employer-sponsored health coverage declined from 59.3 percent in 2007 to 58.5 percent in 2008.
Source: Census Bureau
Immigrants and Insurance
Several readers have e-mailed us about a report from the Congressional Research Service that they say proves illegal immigrants will have coverage under the proposed House health care plan. In fact, that report says exactly what we concluded yesterday: The bill does not provide coverage for illegal immigrants, but there’s no enforcement mechanism explicitly specified. The newly created Health Choices Commissioner would be responsible for deciding how applicants for the affordability credits would need to prove their eligibility.
TGIF
The last weekend of summer may have knocked a day off of the work week, but the false and misleading claims didn’t take a break. As always, we were on the case.
The highlight of the week, of course, was President Obama’s Sept. 9 address on health care to a joint session of Congress. Contrary to at least one now-notorious critic, the president did not lie about illegal immigrants: The House bill specifically states that no affordability credits will go to anyone in the country illegally.
September 11, 2009
New York City’s Office of Chief Medical Examiner reported early this year that 2,752 death certificates had been issued for those who died in the World Trade Center attack on Sept. 11, 2001.
Source: NYC Office of Chief Medical Examiner
Boustany’s Response
Barack Obama wasn’t the only person misstating health care facts during prime time on Sept. 9. Louisiana Rep. Charles Boustany delivered the Republican response to Obama’s speech. We found a couple of factual flaws.
Bureaucracies vs. Bureaucrats
Boustany exaggerated when he stated that the Democrats’ bill "created 53 new bureaucracies." The claim is based on an analysis of H.R. 3200 conducted by the House Republican Conference. The Republicans’ analysis charges that "the House Democrats’
Obama’s Health Care Speech
President Obama’s prime-time address to Congress and the nation on health care prompted a Republican congressman to shout “you lie!” Did he? Here’s what we’ve found: Obama was correct when he said his plan wouldn’t insure illegal immigrants; the House bill expressly forbids giving subsidies to those who are …
September 10, 2009
More than half – 55 percent – of 3- and 4-year-olds in the U.S. were enrolled in school, as of October 2007.
Source: Census Bureau
Cantor’s Gender Problem
At a press stakeout on Capitol Hill today, House GOP Whip Eric Cantor sounded bullish about his party’s success in pouring cold water on the idea of a "government option," or a federal health insurance plan that would compete with private plans. That’s fine, but he made one statement that puzzled us:
Cantor, 9/9: I think intuitively that most Americans believe that more government in health care means more rationing and more forced discrimination on the basis of gender and age.
FactCheck Mailbag, Week of Sept. 1-Sept. 8
This week, readers sent us comments on Medicare, skepticism and the expansion of FactCheck into other forms of media.
In the FactCheck Mailbag we feature some of the e-mail we receive. Readers can send comments to editor@factcheck.org. Letters may be edited for length.