Aug 16, 2012

Fact Check: Jason Plummer’s False Claims About Medicare

In tonight's first debate, millionaire Jason Plummer is guilty of spewing false Washington talking points that when he claimed he wanted to repeal health care reform because it "cut $700 billion from Medicare and… put bureaucrats in charge of healthcare decisions that should be made at the local level."

In reality, Jason Plummer supports the Ryan budget that would end Medicare and force seniors to pay thousands more for their health care according to the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office. On the other hand, both Politfact and Factcheck.org found that the Affordable Care Act would not cut Medicare benefits nor would it empower a board of bureaucrats to make your health care decisions.

FALSE CLAIM: Jason Plummer Claimed the Affordable Care Act Would Cut Medicare

FACT CHECK

Medicare Trustees Claim The Affordable Care Act Stabilized Medicare. "Projected Medicare costs over 75 years are about 25% lower because of the Affordable Care Act. Medicare’s long-run deficit continues to be much lower than it has been in recent years due to the Affordable Care Act. Overall, the Affordable Care Act stabilized and improved this important program that serves nearly 50 million seniors and individuals with disabilities.” [Medicare Board of Trustees 2011 Annual Report]

Bloomberg: The Affordable Care Act Does Not Cut Medicare Benefits. “The 2010 Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act that Obama pushed for doesn’t cut Medicare; it simply reduces projected future increases in costs by $700 billion over 10 years.” [Bloomberg, 8/13/12]

PolitiFact: The Affordable Care Act Does Not Cut Current Medicare Benefits. As PolitFact noted, “The bill doesn't take money out of the current Medicare budget but, rather, it attempts to slow the program's future growth, curtailing just over $500 billion in anticipated spending increases over the next 10 years.” [PolitiFact.com, 9/12/11]

FactCheck.Org: The Affordable Care Act Does Not Cut Current Medicare Benefits. FactCheck.org has written “time and again” how “misleading” the charge is. “The law calls for $555 billion in cuts in future growth of the program – over 10 years. The total projected cost of Medicare over that time, according to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, is $7.1 trillion, even with the cuts.” [FactCheck.org, 9/17/10]

FALSE CLAIM: Jason Plummer Claimed the Affordable Care Act Would Empower Unelected Board to Make Health Care Decisions

FACT CHECK

IPAB Is Specifically Prohibited From Making “Any Recommendations To Ration Health Care.” [42 U.S.C. § 3403(c)(2)(A)(ii)]

FactCheck.org: “Wrong” to Say there is Rationing in Health Care Reform. “But it’s wrong to say that the advisory board will ration care or that it will be run by bureaucrats…” [FactCheck.org, 5/06/11]

FactCheck.org: The Affordable Care Act Expressly Prohibited Rationing or Denying Care. FactCheck.org, a project of the Annenberg Public Policy Center, noted that the health care reform legislation actually banned rationing of care. “The House Energy and Commerce Committee adopted an amendment to the House health care bill expressly prohibiting the comparative effectiveness research from being used to ‘deny or ration’ care.” [FactCheck.org, 8/26/09]

Politifact Called the Claim a “Pants on Fire” Lie. According to PolitiFact, “Actually, the law specifically states that the board cannot ration care. The board doesn’t look at individual patients or deny individual treatments. Instead, it makes system-wide recommendations to rein in the future growth of Medicare spending, and it makes those recommendations within limited parameters. It also was created to stop runaway spending growth within the Medicare program itself, not to divert money to other budget items.” [PolitiFact, 3/15/12]

AARP Wrote That Rationing Of Care In The Health Care Bill Was A “Myth.” AARP wrote that rationing of care in the health care bill was a “myth.” They stated flatly: “None of the health reform proposals being considered would stand between individuals and their doctors or prevent any American from choosing the best possible care.”  [AARP, accessed 4/5/12]

FACT CHECK:

Jason Plummer Thinks “The Benefits Of The Ryan Plan Are Pretty Obvious.”  At a June 2012 town hall, Plummer was asked if he supported the Ryan plan.  He answered “The specifics of it are pretty simple. I think that the Ryan plan aggressively addresses basically every entitlement program that we have. […] I think the benefits of the Ryan plan are pretty obvious.  They aggressively put Social Security in a situation where it will actually be there for people that are retiring.  It puts Medicare in a situation that it will actually be there to fund the healthcare needs of the people that it’s there for.  The negatives of the Ryan care are very political to be frank.” [Alton Town Hall, 6/12/12, 2:07]

Ryan’s Budgets End Medicare. House Republicans voted for two budgets authored by Congressman Paul Ryan. These budgets that would end Medicare’s guaranteed benefit while providing people earning more than $1 million a year with an average tax cut of $265,000. Additionally, the Congressional Budget Office estimated it will increase health care costs by an extra $6,359 by 2022 for future Medicare beneficiaries, while the Center for American progress has claimed that it is likely that that a middle-class family with two kids making about $70,000 a year would pay about $1,150 more in income tax. [H Con. Res. 34, Vote #277, 4/15/11; H Con Res 112, Vote #151, 3/29/12; Center for American Progress, 3/20/12; Center for American Progress, 3/20/12; Center for Budget and Policy Priorities, 3/27/12; Tax Policy Center, Table T12-0078 and T10-0132; Citizens for Tax Justice, 3/22/12; CBO, 4/5/11; CNN, 3/23/12]

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