The health care fight has turned ugly, fast. Right-wing mobs are crashing congressional town halls,¹ lies are spreading via anonymous email chains,² and Sarah Palin bizarrely said that President Obama was going to set up a "death panel," whatever that is.³ 

Many of these claims are just incredible—but if we don't fight back with the truth, the right will continue to poison the health care debate. So as part of our Real Voices for Change campaign this August, we're working to set the record straight.

Check out the list below: "Top Five Health Care Lies—and How to Fight Back." 

Top Five Health Care Reform Lies—and How to Fight Back

Lie #1: President Obama wants to euthanize your grandma!!!

The truth: These accusations—of "death panels" and forced euthanasia—are, of course, flatly untrue. As an article from the Associated Press puts it: "No 'death panel' in health care bill."⁴ What's the real deal? Reform legislation includes a provision, supported by the AARP, to offer senior citizens access to a professional medical counselor who will provide them with information on preparing a living will and other issues facing older Americans.⁵

Lie #2: Democrats are going to outlaw private insurance and force you into a government plan!!!

The truth: With reform, choices will increase, not decrease. Obama's reform plans will create a health insurance exchange, a one-stop shopping marketplace for affordable, high-quality insurance options.⁶ Included in the exchange is the public health insurance option—a nationwide plan with a broad network of providers—that will operate alongside private insurance companies, injecting competition into the market to drive quality up and costs down.⁷

If you're happy with your coverage and doctors, you can keep them.⁸ But the new public plan will expand choices to millions of businesses or individuals who choose to opt into it, including many who simply can't afford health care now.

Lie #3: President Obama wants to implement Soviet-style rationing!!!

The truth: Health care reform will expand access to high-quality health insurance, and give individuals, families, and businesses more choices for coverage. Right now, big corporations decide whether to give you coverage, what doctors you get to see, and whether a particular procedure or medicine is covered—that is rationed care. And a big part of reform is to stop that.

Health care reform will do away with some of the most nefarious aspects of this rationing: discrimination for pre-existing conditions, insurers that cancel coverage when you get sick, gender discrimination, and lifetime and yearly limits on coverage.⁹ And outside of that, as noted above, reform will increase insurance options, not force anyone into a rationed situation. 

Lie #4: Obama is secretly plotting to cut senior citizens' Medicare benefits!!!

The truth: Health care reform plans will not reduce Medicare benefits.¹⁰ Reform includes savings from Medicare that are unrelated to patient care—in fact, the savings comes from cutting billions of dollars in overpayments to insurance companies and eliminating waste, fraud, and abuse.¹¹

Lie #5: Obama's health care plan will bankrupt America!!!

The truth: We need health care reform now in order to prevent bankruptcy—to control spiraling costs that affect individuals, families, small businesses, and the American economy.

Right now, we spend more than $2 trillion dollars a year on health care.¹² The average family premium is projected to rise to over $22,000 in the next decade¹³—and each year, nearly a million people face bankruptcy because of medical expenses.¹⁴ Reform, with an affordable, high-quality public option that can spur competition, is necessary to bring down skyrocketing costs. Also, President Obama's reform plans would be fully paid for over 10 years and not add a penny to the deficit.¹⁵

We're closer to real health care reform than we've ever been—and the next few weeks will decide whether it happens. We need to make sure the truth about health care reform is spread far and wide to combat right wing lies.

In his editorial Sunday “In the Land of the Free, Health Care is not a Given”, Garrison Keillor asks why should any one in America have to “pass the hat” to pay for health care? Mr. Keillor was concerned about a singer who chose a $10,000 deductible on his plan. We must assume the singer did this so he could afford to actually have health insurance in case of a serious illness or accident. He took the risk of a higher deductible, planning, as one must assume, to save enough money over time to cover the deductible if he ever needs medical care. But enough money wasn’t saved; the gentleman couldn’t meet the deductible and had to ask others to help him out. Mr. Keillor thinks it’s horrible that this individual is a charity case.

My question for you, Mr. Keillor -  if you think I should pay for this man’s health care, without any choice in the matter, through a nationalized health care system, is that not still “passing the hat” but now with a gun to my head? Is this man not a charity case just because now there is a government bureaucrat between him and me, taking my money against my will and handing it over to him? Will this man gain some measure of pride in the fact that instead of asking fans and friends to help him, people who know and care about him, he can enslave the rest of us and not have to look us in the eye when he does so? If you think that is a better system than charity, Mr. Keillor, I think you have very little understanding of the meaning of charity (helping others out of kindness and concern) and very little respect for you cowboy friend.

Mary Anne Weninger

Maple Grove

Dear Senator Klobuchar:

I am very concerned that the government plans to become more involved in health care.  The fact that the government is interfering  in medicine is the reason that we have problems with rising costs and uninsured individuals.  We did not have a significant problem in the United States with health care until the government became involved.  Doctors and hospitals frequently, voluntarily absorbed costs to treat those who could not afford the care they received. 

The government now pays around half of all health care expenses and has heavy controls on the remainder.  The culprit here it is the government.  The practical result of giving the government these controls is that costs spiral out of control because they appear free to those who get to use them, and the controls force many unnecessary and onerous costs on the entire medical community.  In terms of health insurance, if you want to see more people able to afford health insurance, remove the mandates and controls that make it so expensive. Do not mandate universal health insurance—just look at what has happened in Massachusetts.  Allow people to buy insurance across state lines.

While these are the practical considerations, this is primarily a moral issue.  As Ayn Rand identified, the proper role of government is to protect the lives and property of the citizens  through police, courts and the military.  In the context of medicine, this means that the government should practice a hands off role in medicine and should only enforce objective laws where the prosecution of actual wrongdoing is needed. 

There is no right to medical care.  To assume that there is, is to assume that there is a right to force someone else to pay for it.  To continue moving toward more and more government involvement and to continue to add more and more people on government paid health care will only serve to increase costs, lower quality and require rationing.  In the end we will have higher taxes with more government dictates as to what tests, medicines and surgeries we can have.

Sincerely yours,