Political Hay
The Fear We Need
Barack Obama scares up votes with health care horror stories.
Arguably, the most consistently successful stratagem ever devised by the Democrats is their perennial campaign to frighten the elderly into voting for them by loudly accusing the GOP of plotting the demise of Social Security. Every election cycle, with the grim inevitability of Greek tragedy, they promulgate this hoary fable. This year is no different, of course, except that the Democrat standard bearer has expanded the usual narrative of Republican perfidy to include scary chapters intended to exacerbate unease among seniors about the future of Medicare and make younger voters nervous about their employer-based health plans.
The latest addition to Obama’s oeuvre of horror fiction is his claim that John McCain plans to cut Medicare benefits. In a recent speech in Roanoke, Virginia, he made the following assertion about how the Arizona senator would pay for his health care reform proposals: “Senator McCain would pay for part of his plan by making drastic cuts in Medicare… $882 billion in Medicare cuts to pay for an ill-conceived health care plan, even as Medicare already faces a looming shortfall.” According to this tale from the crypt, McCain is to Medicare as Freddie Krueger is to sleeping children.
Like Nightmare on Elm Street, however, Obama’s Medicare story lacks verisimilitude. Indeed, it is so preposterous that CBS News, not exactly a charter member of the “vast right-wing conspiracy,” characterized it as one of the most egregious lies of the presidential race:
“Senator Barack Obama’s newest claim (also made in a television ad) that Senator John McCain’s health care plan will cut $882 billion in Medicare health care benefits for seniors, has to rank among the biggest whoppers of the whole campaign.” CBS goes on to say, “It’s a poorly calculated estimate drawn from a suspect report, and the disputed figures in question don’t represent benefit cuts.”
McCain’s health care plan does include Medicare reform, as any responsible proposal must. It envisions initiatives involving payment reform, making sure that Part-D premiums for wealthy seniors are not subsidized by the middle class, reducing drug costs by allowing greater use of generics, promoting treatment models that better manage chronic conditions, encouraging the adoption of health care IT, and cracking down on Medicare fraud. Obama’s spooky yarns notwithstanding, the McCain plan contains no provision that would reduce benefits or restrict eligibility.
Mere facts have, however, proven no impediment to Obama’s creativity. In fact, he provides an additional frisson to Medicare beneficiaries by charging McCain with repeatedly voting against legislation intended to shore up Medicare: “Senator McCain has voted against protecting Medicare 40 times.” CNN, another news organization hard to characterize as pro-Republican, checked into this claim and found it to be misleading: “Several of the votes Obama’s campaign cites are ‘sense of the Senate’ resolutions…. Several would have had no practical impact, and some were votes on large spending bills that had Medicare as one component of them.” CNN nervously adds that a few of the votes “can be construed” as voting against Medicare, but offers no data to support that assertion.
In addition to scaring the pants off the elderly with scary stories of reduced Medicare benefits, the Obama campaign is trying to frighten younger voters by telling them McCain wants to take away everyone’s employer-based health insurance. We heard this tale from Joe Biden in the Vice Presidential debate: “You’re going to have to pay — replace a $12,000 plan, because 20 million of you are going to be dropped.” And Senator Government himself repeated it in the final presidential debate: “For about 20 million people, you may find yourselves no longer having employer-based health insurance.”
AS HE DOES with his Medicare yarns, Obama takes considerable license with the truth in his “millions will be dropped” narrative. Some estimates do suggest that as many as 21 million people would voluntarily opt, during the next ten years, to purchase insurance in the revitalized non-group market that McCain’s regulatory reforms would create. Millions of consumers may well trade in their gold-plated employer-based coverage for cheaper, stripped-down plans. There is absolutely no factual basis, however, for the claim that 20 million people would suddenly be dropped from their employer-based health insurance.
The ostensible source of the “20 million” figure is a “study” published in Health Affairs, that has been widely criticized for its problematic methodology and outright bias. Thomas Miller of the American Enterprise Institute writes that the study’s methodology was based on “questionable, embedded assumptions about how markets might work at least in theory, if not in practice, and that then failed to deal with the actual structure of the McCain plan.” As to its objectivity, John Goodman of the National Center for Policy Analysis issued the following indictment: “Somewhat unusual for an article in Health Affairs, this piece is incredibly biased.”
This kind of bias has not been restricted to the pages of Health Affairs. Many members of the establishment media have followed suit. The New Republic’s Jonathan Cohn, for example, parroted the story about how McCain will finance his health plan: “He’s going to pay for it by cutting Medicare and Medicaid — which, at the levels he’s discussing, might seriously weaken the program.” Repeating the “millions will be dropped” tale in the New York Times, Bob Herbert wrote that “20 million Americans who have employment-based health insurance would lose it under the McCain plan.” Cohn and Herbert are by no means alone in their willingness to promulgate Obama’s health care horror fiction.
That such people are willing to abet Obama in this project is ironic in the extreme. These are the same people who have repeatedly denounced the Bush Administration for maintaining power through “fear-mongering.” And their support of Obama is based on his claim to be a new kind of politician. But his frequent lies about John McCain’s proposals and his willingness to deploy shopworn Democrat scare tactics make it abundantly clear that he is just another cynical pol hoping to frighten voters into supporting him. If the voters are foolish enough to elect this man, they will soon discover that his policies constitute the real horror story.
About the Author
David Catron is a health care revenue cycle expert who has spent more than twenty years working for and consulting with hospitals and medical practices. He has an MBA from the University of Georgia and blogs at Health Care BS.
Letter to the Editor View all comments (15) | Leave a comment
Related Articles
More Articles by David Catron
More Articles From Political Hay
http://spectator.org/archives/2008/10/21/the-fear-we-need
Follow us:
ADVERTISEMENT
Current Issue
- The (Real) Great Divide
- The Great Train Robbery
- Self-Righteous Republic
SPONSORED LINKS
FLASHBACK TO: 1995
-
Pope Culture
A man of faith in a godless age is hitting Americans where it hurts.
-
Why the GOP Does Not, Like, Totally Suck
Mr. and Mrs. American Spectator Reader, let P.J. O’Rourke talk sense to your kids.
-
Dames at Sea
-
In the Absence of Guns
In Britain, defending your property can get you life.
-
The Metaphysical Martini
-
Counting the Costs of Clintonism
The debacle of this president’s administration is both a cause and a symptom of the decline of American values. Unless Congress impeaches him, that decline will go on unchecked. An eminent jurist surveys the damage and assesses the chances for the recovery of our culture.
-
Chuck McHagel
It won’t take long for conservatives to scratch this presidential wannabe off their 2008 scorecard.
-
The Legacy of Old John and Mother Fresh-Roasted
-
It’s the Best Time of the Year
The American Christmas, like the songs that celebrate it, makes room for everybody under the rainbow. Is that why so many people seem to be hostile to it?
-
The Bush Crack-Up
Was the President done in by the economy, or by the politics of the economy?
Clip of the Day
H/T to National Review Online
ADVERTISEMENT
Heather| 10.21.08 @ 3:10PM
For anyone who thinks that "universal healthcare" is is a good idea, here are a couple examples of why it is not.
1. First of all, if I understand correctly, such plans have been scrapped in Mr. Obama's "home" state of Hawaii, as those who were having to bear the burden paying for those who were not decided to opt out of paying. In other words, they decided that they would take advantage of the offer as well, and stopped contributing to their private health care plans. After all, why pay if you don't have to? And why pay for someone else and yourself at the same time?
2. My sister married a nice Canadian gentleman a few years back and subsequently she and her children moved to Canada. She became ill a year or so later, having tumors on her liver as a result of a childhood illness. She could not be seen in emergency rooms when necessary - they close at set times, like all government offices. She waited over a year for treatment (which is much shorter a wait than usual, apparently), most of which is still pending. She is unsure of her condition as she has trouble getting access to testing. She has been shunted from doctor to doctor, none of whom seems to really care about her condition. One of them was actually rather snide, making a remark to her that she'd just have to deal with it. Another canceled an appointment she waited two months for to attend a social event of little consequence.
She is considering paying American facilities to give her the treatment she needs, as she cannot be turned away from an emergency room here in the States if she can get here. She and her husband are saving money (out of his already over-taxed paychecks) to use in an effort to try to find adequate medical care elsewhere. The care she has received is on par with what most people receive when seeking help from a government office - inefficiency and disregard, this time at a 40+% tax rate. They pay a lot of money to be treated poorly in Canada, in other words.
Acquaintances of myself and my husband from France who work in the US remarked with wonder at the fact that they got in to see a doctor the same week they requested a visit. The usual wait in Canada and France is months - at least. My husband and I were shocked that it took a week for them to be seen.
The socializing of health care will be the downfall of medicine in the US as we know it.
GovernmentDoc| 10.21.08 @ 4:20PM
Heather is correct. I am a physician in the Air Force (paying back a scholarship) and have trained/worked for the VA in the past. We have our own version of socialized medicine in the military/VA. I see all of the problems attributed to socialized medicine here in my government clinic every day.
Our patients rarely see the same doc, there is high turnover of providers, and there is rationing of care. Our current wait time for an MRI is 4 weeks, which is not bad compared to Canada, but awful compared to downtown where same or next day service is offered. The bureaucrat to doctor ratio is greater than 5 to 1 and climbing at my facility.
Because of a lack of board certified physicians, the military and VA hire other providers such as PAs and nurse practitioners as substitutes. While well intentioned and hard working, these providers are not as well trained at board certified internists, family practioners, or pediatricians. This results in more missed or delayed diagnosis and treatment, and botched procedures. The standard of care in the military is significantly less than the surrounding civilian community.
The public complains about our current health care system (although this is likely amplified by the media) and we do have some problems (mostly government related). This is no excuse to increase the role of government in health care.
Major X, MD
kenneth bond| 10.21.08 @ 10:54PM
Having worked for American corporations for 3o years and spent many months in the USA I really enjoy reading your articles. They are without doubt the most entertaining bits of ill informed rubbish. Let me remind you 1) You still haven't found Bin laden. 2) your army is still running around like headless chickens in Iraq and Afganistan and ruined the lives of thousands of your young soldiers. 3) You have been responsible for the deaths of hundreds of thousands of innocent civilians. 4) You have been responsible for the creation of a million refuigees from Iraq.5) Your reputation in the world has fallen so low because of your ill treatment of prisoners in Iraq and in Guantanamo and finally 6) your enemies are winning unfortunately because you are heading into recession and your financial institutions are now no longer capitalist but socialist and owned by the government and the real trouble hasn't bottomed out yet.
ruth| 10.22.08 @ 2:11AM
Kenneth, please, do us both a favor--GO HOME! (and don't let the door hit your a** on the way out).
mike coler| 10.23.08 @ 5:44AM
Winning Words (What McCain should’ve asked Obama at the last debate):
On health care:
“Senator, please tell folks how the same government that gave us $400 hammers and $800 toilet seats is going to give us cheap blood tests and x-rays?”
Joe Ruyle| 10.25.08 @ 11:33PM
Much more than the outright lies and Bill Clinton style word parsing of his campaign is the total and complete lack of interest displayed by the media. They have plenty of time to conduct pointless witch hunts against private citizens (Joe the plumber's media anal exam) and dig up equally pointless "facts" about Sarah Palin (She worded contract orders so as to limit bidders).
Let's see. Joe asked a simple question. Damn! If ever there was a crime against a politician... asking a question has got to rank up there with murder. Especially if the answer makes the politician look like a Marxist. And bid rigging? You bet! Nothing better than trying to make sure the bidders for a major project actually have a track record of being able to DO the job. Otherwise you end up with "Mike and Ed's Fitting Company" somewhere in the tundra with a gin-pole truck and a half worn out Lincoln welder wondering two things.... 1) who's driving the 375 miles back to the nearest town to get the next piece of pipe and 2) "Ed? How long you reckon it'll take us to finish this 3000 mile long sucker?"
Meanwhile what does the media NOT have either the time or the inclination to investigate? How about the missing certified copy (gold copy) of Mr' Obama's birth certificate? Don't you think if McCain refused to produce one they'd be in a lather?
How about Mr. Obama's medical records? Even the well seasoned McCain has released all of his (over 1500 pages) and still we have ZIP from the Obama side.
How about Obama's college transcripts or his term papers? Nope..... can't release those to the public. In fairness McCain refuses to release his transcripts from the Naval Academy... but it doesn't matter because it's public record he finished either at or near the bottom of his class. What is Obama hiding? Darn sure the media doesn't care.
The media howls that Sarah Palin "Lacks the necessary experience to be Vice President." Last time I checked Governor was an Executive position with Executive responsibilities. Obama and Bidden combined have exactly ZERO executive experience but they ARE qualified? Damn interesting.
IF the democrats "win" this election in 2012 all the citizens of what's left of America will have to do is call up CBS/ABC/NBC/CNN etc and ask who our next "President" is going to be. By then we will no longer have a voice and will not matter at all beyond being another source of income for the Government.
Kristina Erickson| 10.27.08 @ 10:37AM
Kenneth - Welcome back to the country and bringing back your ill-informed rubbish with you. I love the fact that we actually have the freedom to be miserable in this country.
Ken Tuttle| 10.27.08 @ 4:31PM
Obama's medical records might show he does not have a white American mother, except maybe by adoption. He looks Kenyan.
Ms. Know| 10.30.08 @ 12:37AM
We should fear turning into socialism. This liberal illuminati administration wants to take our money and help those who don't want to pay taxes, or work for that matter. Sounds pretty scary to me.
Pingback| 8.21.09 @ 5:49AM
Health Care BS - MAGGIE MAHAR JOINS THE FEAR MONGERS links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:
Pingback| 8.21.09 @ 5:51AM
Health Care BS - OBAMA’S LATEST HEALTH CARE LIE links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:
Pingback| 8.21.09 @ 5:53AM
Health Care BS - THE FEAR WE NEED links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:
Pingback| 8.23.09 @ 4:04AM
Twitter Trackbacks for The American Spectator : The Fear We Need [spectator.org] on links to this page. Here’s an excerpt: