16 Health Care Myths

(These facts are derived from The Firedoglake health care team which has been covering the debate in Congress since it began last year.)If the American public is going to be mandated to pay almost as much to private insurance companies as they do in federal taxes, they ought to know what they're getting. So, we've also taken a detailed look at the bill, and have come up with 16 often-stated myths about this health care reform bill.

Myth 1: Insurance companies hate this bill.

Fact: This bill is almost identical to the plan written by AHIP, the insurance company trade association, in 2009. The original Senate Finance Committee bill was authored by a former WellPoint vice president. Since Congress released the first of its health care bills on Oct. 30, health care stocks have risen 28.35 percent.

Myth 2: The bill will significantly bring down insurance premiums for most Americans.

Fact: The bill will not bring down premiums significantly, and certainly not the $2,500 per year that President Barack Obama promised during his campaign.

Annual premiums in 2016: status quo / with bill:Small group market, single: $7,800 / $7,800Small group market, family: $19,300 / $19,200Large group market, single: $7,400 / $7,300Large group market, family: $21,100 / $21,300Individual market, single: $5,500 / $5,800Individual market, family: $13,100 / $15,200
(The cost of premiums in the individual market goes up somewhat due to subsidies and mandates of better coverage. The CBO assumes that cost of individual policies goes down 7 to 10 percent, and that people will buy more generous policies.)

Myth 3: The bill will make health care affordable for middle class Americans.

Fact: The bill will impose a financial hardship on middle class Americans who will be forced to buy a product they can't afford to use. A family of four making $66,370 will be forced to pay $5,243 per year for insurance. After taxes and basic necessities, this leaves them with $8,307 in discretionary income -- out of which they would have to cover clothing, credit card and other debt, child care and education costs, in addition to up to $5,882 in annual out-of-pocket medical expenses for which families will be responsible.

Myth 4: This plan is similar to the Massachusetts plan, which makes health care affordable.

Fact: Many Massachusetts residents forgo health care because they can't afford it. A 2009 study by the state of Massachusetts found that:

21 percent of residents forgo medical treatment because they can't afford it, including 12 percent of children
18 percent have health insurance but can't afford to use it

Myth 5: This bill provides health care to 31 million people who are currently uninsured.

Fact: This bill will mandate that millions of people who are currently uninsured purchase insurance from private companies, or the IRS will collect up to 2 percent of their annual income in penalties. Some will be assisted with government subsidies. This does not mean 31 million poor people. The figure comprises mostly middle-class people, since the poor are already covered under Medicare.

Myth 6: You can keep the insurance you have if you like it.

Fact: The excise tax will result in employers switching to plans with higher co-pays and fewer covered services. Older, less healthy employees with employer-based health care will be forced to pay much more in out-of-pocket expenses than they do now. Also, if employers can save money by ending insurance coverage and forcing employees to take the government plan, eventually most, if not all people will lose their current insurance.

Myth 7: The "excise tax" will encourage employers to reduce the scope of health care benefits, and they will pass the savings on to employees in the form of higher wages.

Fact: There is no evidence that employers will pass savings from reduced benefits on to employees.

Myth 8: This bill employs nearly every cost control idea available to bring down costs.

Fact: This bill does not bring down costs and leaves out nearly every key cost control measure, including:

Tort Reform
Buying Insurance across state lines
Drug re-importation ($19 billion)
Medicare drug price negotiation ($300 billion)
Shorter pathway to generic biologics ($71 billion)

Myth 9: The bill will require big companies like Wal-Mart to provide insurance for their employees.

Fact: The bill was written so that most Wal-Mart employees will qualify for subsidies, and taxpayers will pick up a large portion of the cost of their coverage. Big companies may opt to pay fines rather than provide insurance.

Myth 10: The bill "bends the cost curve" on health care. Fact: "Bends the cost curve" is a misleading and trivial claim, as the U.S. would still spend far more for care than other advanced countries.

In 2009, health care costs were 17.3 percent of GDP
Annual cost of health care in 2019, status quo: $4,670.6 billion (20.8 percent of GDP)
Annual cost of health care in 2019, Senate bill: $4,693.5 billion (20.9 percent of GDP)

Myth 11: The bill will provide immediate access to insurance for Americans who are uninsured because of a pre-existing condition.

Fact: Access to the "high-risk pool" is limited, and the pool is underfunded. Only those who have been uninsured for more than six months will qualify for the high-risk pool. Only 0.7 percent of those without insurance now will get coverage, and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services report estimates it will run out of funding by 2011 or 2012.

Myth 12: The bill prohibits dropping people in individual plans from coverage when they get sick.

Fact: The bill does not empower a regulatory body to keep people from being dropped when they're sick. There are already many states that have laws on the books prohibiting people from being dropped when they're sick, but without an enforcement mechanism, there is little to hold the insurance companies in check.

Myth 13: The bill ensures consumers have access to an effective internal and external appeals process to challenge new insurance plan decisions.

Fact: The "internal appeals process" is in the hands of the insurance companies themselves, and the "external" one is up to each state.Ensuring that consumers have access to "internal appeals" simply means the insurance companies have to review their own decisions. And it is the responsibility of each state to provide an "external appeals process," as there is neither funding nor a regulatory mechanism for enforcement at the federal level.

Myth 14: This bill will stop insurance companies from hiking rates 30 to 40 percent per year.

Fact: This bill does not limit insurance company rate hikes. Private insurers continue to be exempt from anti-trust laws and are free to raise rates without fear of competition in many areas of the country.

Myth 15: When the bill passes, people will begin receiving benefits under this bill immediately.

Fact: Most provisions in this bill, such as an end to the ban on pre-existing conditions for adults, do not take effect until 2014. Six months from the date of passage, children could not be excluded from coverage due to pre-existing conditions, though insurance companies could charge more to cover them. Children would also be allowed to stay on their parents' plans until age 26. There will be an elimination of lifetime coverage limits, a high-risk pool for those who have been uninsured for more than six months, and community health centers will start receiving money.

Myth 16: The bill will end medical bankruptcy and provide all Americans with peace of mind.

Fact: Most people with medical bankruptcies already have insurance, and out-of-pocket expenses will continue to be a burden on the middle class.

In 2009, 1.5 million Americans declared bankruptcy.
Of those, 62 percent were medically related.
Three-quarters of those had health insurance.
The Obama bill leaves 24 million without insurance.
The maximum yearly out-of-pocket limit for a family will be $11,900 on top of premiums.
A family with serious medical problems that last for a few years could easily be financially crushed by medical costs.

Real health care reform is needed. But this bill falls short of that on many levels.

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