Our health care fact-checks

Statements about Health Care

Chris Van Hollen

Profits soared

Between 2000 and 2006,  "health insurance company profits quadrupled."  

 

 

Chris Van Hollen

Pretty close to double

"Between the year 2000 and 2006, (insurance) premiums in this country doubled."

 

 

Dennis Kucinich

30 percent plus is the bitter corporate pill

Says that before health care reform, one of every three health care dollars spent -- more than $800 billion a year -- didn't go for health care.

 

Ohio Alliance for Retired Americans

Last we checked, “voluntary” didn't mean "required"

Says Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine is hypocritical for challenging the constitutionality of the new health care law.

 

 

 

Eric Cantor

Some benefits as well as some taxes come early

The health care reform law "offset[s] 6 years of benefits with 10 years of tax increases."

 

 

Jeff Fitzgerald

The number has not been set, though he may end up in the ballpark

Says 15,000 IRS employees "have to be added to administer ‘ObamaCare’ and look at the tax implications."

 

 

Robert Hagan

Precise figure doesn't exist

Ohio taxpayers spent more than $67 million "for the year" on food stamps and Medicaid for Wal-Mart workers

 

Allen West

Student loan reform doesn't equal a "takeover"

"We had an amendment in the health care law that said the federal government is going to take over education."  

 

Pat Mullins

He's the Bayer of bad news

New provisions of the health care law bar the use of flexible spending accounts and health savings accounts to pay for aspirin and other non-prescription health needs. 

Rick Perry

It was False once. Repeating claim sets meter aflame

Says the state's Medicaid waiver proposal "has languished in a file cabinet at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services for more than two years."

Marie Ghazal

Compared to U.S., we're not so bad

"Rhode Island has the highest percentage of uninsured adults of any state in New England."

 

Bobby Scott

He's right on two, close on the third

The tax-cut deal "adds more than $800 billion to the deficit over two years -- more than the cost of TARP and more than the cost of the Recovery Act" and about the same as health care reform.

Bob Marshall

No one is going to the Big House

Those who fail to buy health insurance under "Obamacare" face the threat of jail time

 

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Robert Hurt

Saying it doesn't make it true

The Democrats' health care reform law is a "government takeover of health care."

 

 

George W. Bush

A lasting surge

Says that in his first 17 months as president, the United States doubled its world-leading $500 million a year commitment to fighting global AIDS.

 

Barack Obama

Some striking similarities

"When Social Security was passed, there were all kinds of lawsuits," just as there have been in the legal battle over the new health care law.

 

Donna Garner

The state and local governments control sex ed

Says Joe Straus "was co-author of a bill that would have allowed Planned Parenthood to control public school sex education."

 

Rick Perry

Governor rounding up 10-year figure that doesn't start until 2014

Says federal health care overhaul will cost Texas state government "upwards of $30 billion over the next 10 years."

 

Scott Walker

Would it benefit consumers? Sure. But little evidence it will help businesses provide coverage

Eliminating the state tax on health savings accounts will "make it easier for small business owners to provide health insurance to their employees."

 

The Walking Dead

New Zombie Apocalypse myth earns a pickaxe to the head

In the case of a catastrophic event, the Atlanta-area offices of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will self-destruct.

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Statements about Health Care

Rick Scott

Scott cites data about employer costs and called that inflation

"The cost-saving measures we put into place at Columbia/HCA drove down national health care inflation from 18% to 8% in seven years."  

Tom Coburn

There are at least 25 times as many

There are "10 or 20 deaths a year from foodborne illness" in the United States.

 

 

Barack Obama

A grain of truth in the big picture, far off on the details

When President Franklin D. Roosevelt started Social Security, "it only affected widows and orphans," and when Medicare began, "it was a small program."

 

Bobby Scott

He's close on the cost for the next decade

Republicans "created a trillion dollar prescription drug entitlement program without paying for it." 

 

Dennis Kucinich

Dollar number short changes accuracy

"We are giving almost $2 billion of taxpayer money to the junk food and fast food industries every year to make the (childhood obesity) epidemic worse."

 

Howard Dean

Something Rick Perry and Howard Dean agree on

"Barack Obama's health care bill is nothing new. Mitt Romney signed one just like it four years before."

 

Oregon Healthy Kids

You’ll qualify, but it might cost you

"No family earns too much to qualify" for Oregon Healthy Kids program.

 

 

Bobby Scott

But his projections get dicey after 10 years

The health care reform law "reduces the deficit by nearly $1.2 trillion over the next two decades." 

 

Mike Villarreal

Budget cut proposal estimated to affect 56,000 kids

Says Gov. Rick Perry's administration has proposed ending immunizations for 113,000 kids.

 

Paul Krugman

Actually, it does have some ideas.

A recent report from the president's deficit commission was "completely empty" on controlling health care costs.

 

Pam Bondi

Oldest, but far from only

"We're the only system of federalism in the world."

 

 

Scott Rigell

Nye's vote was on a minor procedural motion, not a bill

"Congressman Nye voted against a bill which would have defunded the $5-10 billion" the IRS needed to implement  health care legislation.

Mike Prendergast

Grant was selected by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, under Bush administration

"Congresswoman Kathy Castor voted to spend $2.6 million to teach prostitutes in China to drink responsibly."

 

 

Matt Wand

Just a drop in the bucket

Says Nick Kahl made it harder for many families to cover basic health care expenses.

 

 

Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce

Workers wouldn't have picked up the full tab, but plan did propose free benefits to the unemployed

Says four Democratic state senators voted to "raise taxes on Wisconsin workers by another $510 a month so freeloaders can get free state-run health care."

 

 

National Republican Congressional Committee

Let's see, Wisconsin proposal had no single payer, relied on private insurance ... need we go on?

Democratic U.S. House candidate Julie Lassa pushed for a "Canadian-style government takeover of health care."

 

 

Elizabeth Roberts

Narration is correct. Printed words, not so much.

She "led the fight to stop health insurance rate hikes and saved Rhode Island families over $150 million."

 

Barack Obama

States get money to combat rate hikes

"We have empowered state insurance commissioners to review the rate hikes that are taking place in states. And in some states like North Carolina, they have already used it and rolled back premium increases by 25 percent."

Barack Obama

Yes, but even this takes time.

"Before we even passed health care, 4 millions kids got health insurance that didn't have it before, through the Children's Health Insurance Program."

 

Barack Obama

Highly speculative

The health care bill "cuts the deficit by over $1 trillion dollars."

 

 

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