National Review Online posted an article on Friday about the current campaign to portray Obamacare as a good thing. One of the targets of this campaign is senior citizens, who generally disapprove of the plan.
The article reports:
“The National Council on Aging, for example, just released a survey that’s astonishingly misrepresentative. The NCOA asked 636 seniors true-or-false questions about “the top twelve facts” they should know about Obamacare. Only 17 percent knew the “right” answers to half of the questions; not a single person got a perfect score. The news release read: “Most Seniors Misinformed, Unaware of Key Provisions of the Affordable Care Act.””
Even on the surface that seems a little odd, because generally speaking, senior citizens vote and stay informed. So, what is going on here? Well, it depends on who wrote the questions and who determines the answers.
The article lists a few of the questions:
• “The new law will result in future cuts to your basic Medicare benefits.” By more than two to one, seniors said the statement was true; the survey said that was wrong.
• “The new law is projected to increase the federal budget deficit over the next ten years and beyond.” By more than three to one, seniors said that was true; the survey said that was wrong.
• “The health care reform law will cut Medicare payments to doctors.” Seniors said true by three to one; wrong answer, according to the survey.
The facts actually show that the seniors were right, the survey was wrong! According to the article:
• The health-care law takes $575 billion out of Medicare over the next ten years to pay for massive new entitlement programs.
• The Medicare actuary says that at least one in six Medicare providers, including hospitals, nursing homes, and physicians, could be operating at a loss by 2019 and could end their participation in the program, which could “possibly jeopardize access to care for beneficiaries.”
• More than 7 million seniors will lose their Medicare Advantage coverage, and millions more will find access to care restricted. The Congressional Budget Office found that seniors enrolled in Medicare Advantage will lose an average of $800 a year in benefits.
• As Rep. Paul Ryan explained at the Blair House summit in February, “When you strip out the double-counting and . . . gimmicks, the full ten-year cost of the bill has a $460 billion deficit. The second ten-year cost of this bill has a $1.4 trillion deficit.”
• The legislation keeps scheduled cuts in payments to doctors, which is why the Congress passed a separate “doc fix” bill in June to keep doctor payments from being cut by 21 percent.
The article concludes:
Pollster.com compiled an average of all of the polls, and they found 45 percent oppose and 42 percent favor the health-care law. Rasmussen, which polls likely voters, shows that 58 percent want it repealed. And that’s before people start to feel any of the impact of higher health costs, cuts to Medicare Advantage, higher taxes, and onerous and expensive mandates on individuals and businesses.
But the reeducation campaign nonetheless continues.
This law can be stopped before it does major damage. The way to stop it is to elect people to Congress in November who pledge to “REPEAL AND REPLACE.” If your Congressional candidate is unwilling to make that pledge, vote for his opponent.