political

Affordable Health Care Act-Fact Checking

This post attempts to include most of the statements made by various politicians after the Supreme Court’s ruling on the Affordable Care Act.

This first grouping is from PolitifFact:

Rick Scott – Florida Governor: A company with “20 employees” could go “out of business” because of health care law requirements to buy insurance. Rated blatantly wrong or “pants on fire.”

Rick Scott – Florida Governor:  The Medicaid expansion is “going to cost Florida $1.9 billion a year.”  Rated wrong and wildly overstated.

Rick Scott – Florida Governor: Says the health care law rations care, like systems in Canada and Great Britain. Rated wrong and simply empty rhetoric.

Mitt Romney –Obamacare … means that for up to 20 million Americans, they will lose the insurance they currently have, the insurance that they like and they want to keep.”  Rated incorrect.

Mitt Romney –”Obamacare adds trillions to our deficits and to our national debt.” Rated incorrect

Rush Limbaugh –”Obamacare is . . . the largest tax increase in the history of the world.” Rated, pants on fire; a total lie.

United States Chamber of Commerce: “20 million people could lose their current coverage” … “including our senior citizens who are on Medicare.” Rated pants on fire; a total lie

United States Chamber of Commerce: “Seniors will see $500 billion in Medicare cuts to fund Obamacare.” Rated mostly false.

United States Chamber of Commerce: “Obamacare … will kill jobs across America.”  Rated totally false

 

From factcheck.org

Republican claims the affordable health care act will result in substantial job losses. Rated:  “The exaggerated Republican claim that the new health care law “kills jobs” was high on our list of the “Whoppers of 2011.” But the facts haven’t stopped Republicans and their allies from making the “job-killing” claim a major theme of their campaign 2012 TV ads.” factcheck

The Romney campaign asserts that Obama failed to live up to his promise to reduce health insurance premiums for families by $2500 a year. Factcheck.org rates this statement as four Pinocchios and totally false. They refer to it as a Romney whopper.

A Republican claim that the federal health care law taxes “heart attacks, sick puppies and even new babies” is a dog. Turns out it’s a reference to excise taxes on certain medical devices.

“The National Republican Congressional Committee crams a highlight reel of misleading claims about the health care law into a 90-second video that encourages viewers to sign an “I Want Repeal” petition. We’ve seen most of these before, but the claim about puppies and babies was new to us. And we found it takes more stretching than a puppy with fleas to make those claims hold up. Factcheck.org  Rated false.