Subject: [big campaign] NEW: Debunking Conservative Health Reform Myths
From: Adam Jentleson <[email-masked]>
To: big campaign <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 8 Jan 2009 10:52:30 -0500
List-Id: <bigcampaign.googlegroups.com>

This might come in handy as the Daschle hearings kick off -- our debunking of the top 10 conservative myths about health care reform.

http://wonkroom.thinkprogress.org/2009/01/08/health-myths/

Debunking Conservative Health Reform Myths<http://wonkroom.thinkprogress.org/2009/01/08/health-myths/>

Today, the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions will hold confirmation hearings<http://help.senate.gov/Hearings/2009_01_08/2009_01_08.html> for former Sen. Tom Daschle (D-SD)<http://wonkroom.thinkprogress.org/2008/11/19/daschle-hhs/>, President-elect Barack Obama's nominee to head the Department of Health and Human Services.

In advance of the confirmation, conservatives have been actively<http://wonkroom.thinkprogress.org/2008/12/05/heritage-rip/> filling<http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2008/nov/26/obamas-health-care-czar/> the nation's leading newspapers<http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2008/nov/26/the-coming-health-care-tsunami/> with editorials attacking<http://thinkprogress.org/2008/11/28/rove-health-insurance/> Daschle<http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123128781030459191.html?mod=googlenews_wsj> and misrepresenting the consequences and implications of expanding access to affordable health care coverage.

In a recent op-ed in the Wall Street Journal, for instance, Karl Rove warned that Obama's health care appointments suggested that he would "run to the extremes<http://thinkprogress.org/2008/11/28/rove-health-insurance/> with government-run health care." Other conservatives have falsely suggested<http://wonkroom.thinkprogress.org/2008/12/31/wsj-mass-attack/> that Obama's health reforms would "build more federal bureaucracy, impose price controls, restrict medicines and technology, boost taxes, mandate the purchase of health insurance, and expand government health care."

In a new report released today, the Wonk Room identifies and debunks the right-wing's most widely circulated myths about reform. Here is a sampling<http://wonkroom.thinkprogress.org/health-myths/>:

- MYTH: "The Left's idea of limiting Medicare spending is to have bureaucrats tell Mom she cannot have the cancer treatment she wants." [Washington Times, 12/28/2008]

REALITY: Research into the comparative effectiveness of treatments can identify the procedures that provide the best results at the lowest cost. Currently, at least one-third of medical procedures have questionable benefits, according to the Rand Corporation. [Rand Corporation, 1998]

- MYTH: Affordable health reform would "cancel private coverage and care." [Heritage Foundation, 12/04/2008]

REALITY: According to the Urban Institute, private insurers who "offer a superior product through high levels of efficiency, satisfaction in consumer preferences and ease of access to quality medical services" will thrive in a reformed market. The presence of a well-run and effective public plan will incentivize innovation in cost containment and service delivery. [Urban Institute, 10/03/2008]

Read the full report here<http://wonkroom.thinkprogress.org/health-myths/>.

http://wonkroom.thinkprogress.org/health-myths/

-----
Adam Jentleson
Communications Director
The Hyde Park Project, Center for American Progress Action Fund
[email-masked]<mailto:[email-masked]>
ajentleson (AIM)
202-247-8614 (cell)

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