Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius says “it’s illegal” for her to obtain insurance on the exchanges set up by the Affordable Care Act. Rep. Cory Gardner accused her of lying.
Q: Does the Affordable Care Act restrict my ability to get a mammogram? A: No. In fact, the law requires insurers to cover mammography, with no cost-sharing, every one to two years for women starting at age 40. Medicare fully pays for mammograms once every 12 months with no upper age limit.
House Speaker John Boehner exaggerated when he said the 2.3 percent medical device excise tax in the Affordable Care Act “is costing us tens of thousands of jobs that are being shipped overseas.”
Republicans wrongly claimed in a blog post that the Obama administration went back on its word not to send federal health care “navigators” door to door to enroll Americans in the insurance exchanges.
A week ago, billionaire investor Warren Buffett denied he wants to “scrap” Obamacare, calling such reports “totally false.” But that has done little to stop some Republicans from spreading the rumor.
Q: Does the health care law contain a “hidden” tax on hunting and fishing equipment? A:No. There is a 2.3 percent excise tax on certain medical devices. Cabela’s, a Nebraska sporting goods company, applied the tax to some of its customers’ purchases by mistake.
We’ve been batting down bogus claims about the Affordable Care Act for years, since 2009, when legislation was still in the debate stage. But they’ve been increasing in intensity in recent months as we approach Oct. 1, the date the insurance exchanges will be open for business.
Rep. Robert Pittenger is misleading his constituents by saying that he will decline the health insurance offered to members of Congress next year because it includes a “special subsidy” from the president that “exempted” Congress from the Affordable Care Act.