The Election Fact-Checking Lie of the Year

“…When PolitiFact described a blatantly deceptive Obama campaign ad on Mitt Romney’s Medicare reform as “Mostly True.” The ad claimed that the Romney-Ryan plan “could raise future retirees’ costs more than $6,000,” when in fact the Romney-Ryan plan would increase future retiree’s costs by exactly zero, and in fact give them the opportunity to lower their out-of-pocket costs…”

Read the article on Forbes.com

In Swing States, Obamacare to Raise Private Insurance Premiums and Drive Doctors out of Medicare

“In Ohio, a study by the actuarial firm Milliman found that Obamacare will increase individual-market premiums by 55 to 85 percent in 2017, relative to what they would have been under prior law. A survey by the Physicians Foundation found that, if Medicare cuts physician fees by another 10 percent, as Obamacare’s Independent Payment Advisory Board effectively requires, 30 percent of doctors will place “new or additional limits on Medicare acceptance,” with 24 percent accepting no new Medicare patients altogether.”

- Avik Roy, NRO’s The Corner

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In First Debate, Mitt Told the Truth on Health Care and Obama Tried Not To

Avik Roy on Forbes.com today:

The first presidential debate between Mitt Romney and President Obama was easily the wonkiest such debate I can recall in my lifetime. That’s great for the country. But even better was the fact Mitt Romney was able to correct a number of the misleading statements that President Obama has been making about Romney’s plans for health care and entitlement reform. Let’s review the details…

DEBATE REACTION: HEALTHCARE

Paul Howard:

Romney made the critical point that Obamacare takes $716 billion from Medicare - not to make it more effective or sustainable, but to pay for new health insurance subisidies for the uninsured on state health insurance exchanges.  The Medicare cuts will also make 15% of Medicare providers unprofitable in the short term, and 40% unprofitable in the long term.  This will translate into reduced health care access for seniors as providers stop accepting Medicare coverage. 

On other side of the ledger, which Romney did not mention, the CBO estimates that the exchange subsidies and Medicaid expansion will cost $200 bilion annually by 2020, and grow at 8% annually.  This is hardly “bending the curve” of health care costs that President Obama initially promised.  Furthermore, states’ ability to invest in critical infrastructure projects and education is being strangled by the rising state share of Medicaid costs. Obamacare does nothing to reverse this trend, and in fact is set to make it much worse.

Correcting Clinton’s Arithmetic and (Bad) Memory

On MedicalProgressToday.com, Yevgeniy Feyman writes:

” In his speech to the Democratic National Convention, former president Clinton spent a significant portion of his 48 minutes defending the Obama administration’s fight for health care reform…

…However, something that President Clinton clearly fails to address is that health care cost growth has slowed (somewhat) only because the economy has been so sluggish - hardly a point of pride for the Obama Administration.

As the graph above shows, the economic downturn of 2008-09 sunk the economy, pulling inflation down with it.  Even though health care costs continued to rise, the weakened economy slowed the rate of this growth by around 0.5 percent…”

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Paul Ryan’s Health Care Solutions

“Chairman Ryan has been one of the most articulate voices in Congress on reforming Medicare and Medicaid, and how we can make those programs sustainable for future generations without bankrupting the nation.  Governor Romney’s choice of Congressman Ryan as his running mate will give the nation an opporunity to have a real conversation about health care reform, and discuss how we can use the principles of competition and consumer choice to make health care truly patient- and family-centered.  The contrast with President Obama’s vision - which is dependent on handing more control over to bureaucrats and increasing taxes on the rest of the economy - could not be more profound…” - Paul Howard, Manhattan Institute senior fellow

Avik Roy: Are House Republicans Caving in on Repealing Obamacare? Doubtful.

Politico is reporting that House Republicans are preparing for the possibility that the Supreme Court upholds the law by drafting new legislation. “When the court rules,we’ll be ready,” House Speaker John Boehner (R., Ohio) told the House Republican Conference on Wednesday. But what’s surprising about alleged GOP plans is that they involve preserving significant—and damaging—aspects of the Affordable Care Act, for what appear to be political reasons. I’m not convinced that the story is accurate…

Read more on Forbes