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A Project of The Annenberg Public Policy Center

Issues: health care

Thirty Million Uninsured

September 16, 2009

One of the items we noted in our Sept. 10 wrap-up of President Barack Obama’s televised prime-time address to Congress was his carefully worded estimate of the number of uninsured citizens.

Obama, Sept. 9: There are now more than 30 million American citizens who cannot get coverage.

We said that Obama appeared to be underestimating the number of uninsured, even if we subtract the estimated 10 million uninsured who are not U.S. citizens. With the Census Bureau now reporting 46.3 million people without insurance,

Sweet: Another Stretch by Obama

September 13, 2009

The Chicago Sun-Times’ columnist and Washington Bureau Chief Lynn Sweet reports on an Obama exaggeration that we missed.
Sweet said Obama "went too far" when he said, in his health care speech to Congress and the nation Sept. 9:

Obama, Sept. 9: One man from Illinois lost his coverage in the middle of chemotherapy because his insurer found that he hadn’t reported gallstones that he didn’t even know about. They delayed his treatment, and he died because of it.

TGIF

September 11, 2009

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.

Boustany’s Response

September 10, 2009

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

September 10, 2009

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 …

Cantor’s Gender Problem

September 9, 2009

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.

‘No Guarantee’ — With Plan, or Without

September 9, 2009

Conservatives for Patients’ Rights, whose ads we have faulted in the past, is airing a new spot that calls for dropping any federal insurance option from the health care overhaul bills.
"Despite what the president or Congress say," the narrator tells us, "their health care proposals do not guarantee you can keep your own doctor." And there’s no guarantee you won’t "wait longer for care," face "rationing," or "lose your insurance," either, she says.
Why not?

Senior Scare, Yet Again

September 8, 2009

The Democratic National Committee says in a TV ad that “Republicans voted to abolish Medicare.” Not true. The ad refers to a proposal endorsed by most House Republicans as part of the alternative budget they presented earlier this year. In fact, the GOP plan actually called for …

A False Appeal to Women’s Fears

September 4, 2009

A conservative group with Republican ties called the Independent Women’s Forum is airing an ad that says “300,000 American women with breast cancer might have died” if our health care were “government run” like England’s, citing the American Cancer Society as a source …

Hitting Grassley With Inflated Numbers

September 2, 2009

Two liberal groups, the Progressive Change Campaign Committee and Democracy for America are airing an ad that faults Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassley for not supporting a "public option" as part of any proposed health care legislation. But their ad uses inflated figures.

Grassley has spoken out against including a "public option" as part of a health care bill. The ad implies that he’s done so because he’s "taken over $2 million dollars from the big health and insurance industries that oppose reform."