Wednesday, October 16, 2013

The marathon of lies continues

Yet one more example of outright lies spread by those on the right re: "Obamacare"
This is Politifacts' (conservative fact checker, remember) analysis of a Republican Congressman's (Jeb Hsarling, R - Texas) litany of lies contained in a speech made October 1, 2013:
The quotes are what he said, VERBATIM. What follows in each paragraph is analysis of the claim by this conservative thruth seeker.

I post this because some who have engaged in this debate have made similar claims, basing their distaste for the law in some regard on these and similar totally fraudulent claims:

Will members of Congress be
"the only people in America to get subsidies in the Obamacare exchanges"?
Hardly -- the tax credits commonly known as subsidies under Obamacare were being put into place starting Oct. 1, the same day the shutdown began. Anyone within a specified income range who purchases insurance on the Obamacare marketplace will be eligible for subsidies in the form of tax credits. The Congressional Budget Office has estimated that by 2017, about 24 million Americans will be buying insurance on the Obamacare marketplaces, many of them with federal subsidies. Only time will tell how many Americans eventually sign up, but it’s almost certainly going to be more than the roughly 30,000 people who work in the legislative branch.

Will Members of Congress even get "subsidies"? (He claimed they would)

Not really. All lawmakers and many staffers won’t qualify for the subsidies we discussed above because their income is too high. Instead, what lawmakers and staff will qualify for is better described as employer cost-sharing -- an allotment of money that works exactly the same way as it does for the majority of Americans who get employer-based health care, and that long predated the beginning of the Obamacare exchanges. For Americans who have employer-sponsored health insurance, the employer pays a share of the premiums. In this case, that "employer" is the federal government.

Is this a "sweetheart deal"? (He called it that)

Quite the opposite. Under the law as enacted, lawmakers and congressional aides are actually treated more harshly than any other American.
Obama and his allies created a system in which most Americans -- at least three quarters -- who have insurance will remain on their existing plans and see few if any disruptions. The marketplaces were created for Americans who lacked insurance entirely or had to buy insurance on their own, without employer assistance.
By contrast, the law revokes the longstanding congressional health insurance arrangement and forces them into a new system, something not done for any other class of employee.

Even the National Review, the conservative magazine that is none too fond of Obamacare, recently wrote that the provision treats lawmakers and staff "particularly badly." The situation "isn’t a ‘special handout’ for congressional employees. … People who happen to be paid by the federal treasury don’t deserve to have the entire value of their existing coverage stripped away, as almost no Americans will experience."
An added irony is that the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program is widely considered a key model for the exchanges themselves. Under the program, federal employees under the age of 65 can choose among a variety of health insurance offerings, just as people will be able to do under the exchanges. In 2003, the conservative Heritage Foundation published a paper touting the program as a model for market-based health care reform.
In short, the ability for congressional employees to keep their employer cost-share merely returns them to the already harsh provision that severs them from their existing health care plan. . We don’t think this qualifies as a "sweetheart deal."

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