Sunday, December 15, 2013

Jonah Goldberg: "Obamacare Disinformation Runs Deep"

‘Obamacare was sold on a trinity of lies.”

"That ornate phrase, more suitable for the Book of Revelations or perhaps the next installment of Game of Thrones, comes from my National Review colleague Rich Lowry. But I like it. Most people know the first deception in the triumvirate of deceit: “If you like your health insurance you can keep it, period.” The second leg in the tripod of deception was “If you like your doctor, you can keep your doctor.”

"But the third plank in the triad of disinformation hasn’t gotten much attention: Obamacare will save you, me, and the country a lot of money."

For the rest of the article click at this link

20 comments:

The Dude said...

RACIST!!!

Aridog said...

As Obama put it ...

...all insurance plans are required to cover preventive care at no cost. That means free check-ups, free mammograms, immunizations, and other basic services.

The ability to conflate "no co-pay" with "free" certainly says Obama does not grasp the concepts of "insurance."

And, yes, I actually believe he is that stupid.

Actually he has been provided a lot in his life at no cost to him, so "free" is a concept he likes.

john said...

Not mentioned by Goldberg are the kickbacks to the insurance industry in the form of "subsidies" paid on behalf of low income enrollees, at a rate determined by the companies themselves based on their own risk tables. The essentially can write their own check.

What on its face is illegal under anti-kickback laws, was removed by HHS from "federal health care programs" so it wouldn't look like some quid pro quo nor would it show up as another Obamacare expense. So the kickbacks will be paid for under some other program, evidently.

If my math makes any sense ($7500 actual - $2500 subsidized) times 3 million low income subsidized enrollees equals $15 billion a year. That won't show up as an ACA expense.

This is a welfare payment that goes straight to the insurance industry bottomline. If there was any real interest in improving the health of lower income people, that amount could have been in the form of direct subsidy to the consumer. Instead, these backdoor kickbacks keep the insurance industry in line as Obamacare's biggest supporters.

Shouting Thomas said...

The biggest lie was the one liberals sold to themselves, which was that they were interested in "doing good" in making the healthcare industry an arm of the state.

Unknown said...

Potemkin village Care.

It takes a Potemkin Village.

John - excellent points. Obama vilifies the Insurance industry in front of the camera (so his blind faith supporters think he's cool) but in reality - Obama and the democrats climbed into bed with these large health care corporations with promises of riches and profits... and yes, all at expense of tax payers and the young.

Unknown said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Unknown said...

When you see the word "Harvard" and the word "Economist" next to each other - start laughing.

Just like when you see the words "Paul" and "Krugman".

Unknown said...

But the third plank in the triad of disinformation hasn’t gotten much attention: Obamacare will save you, me, and the country a lot of money. This lie took several forms.

First, Obama promised on numerous occasions that the average family of four will save $2,500 a year in premiums. Where did that number come from? Three Harvard economists wrote a memo in 2007 in which they claimed that then-Senator Obama’s health-care plan would reduce national health-care spending by $200 billion. Then, according to the New York Times, the authors “divided [$200 billion] by the country’s population, multiplied for a family of four, and rounded down slightly to a number that was easy to grasp: $2,500.”

In September, the Obama administration’s Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services used far more rigorous methods to predict that Obamacare would increase national health-care spending by $621 billion. Using Obama’s own math, that would mean — according to Chris Conover, an economist at the American Enterprise Institute and Duke University — each family of four in America will spend an additional $7,450 thanks to Obamacare.


No mention of this fact in the lap dog party-loyalty uncurious unprofessional state run alphabet prime time "news".
That's odd. /

edutcher said...

Shout, what you said.

And the idea, unsaid but there, that it was "free" was the other (remember a certain troll bragging about her free, high-quality health care?).

PS Ari, he may or may not be that stupid, but he has been that sheltered.

Eric the Fruit Bat said...

I thought the Father, Son and the Holy Ghost were all just one thing, not three, but there I go again.

KCFleming said...

Obamacare was the McGuffin for installing US fascism.

Unknown said...

What we need are more bureaucrats dictating diktats.

Thou shalt have free stuff for free. It's free and no one will ever pay! Meanies. Never mind the higher prices, fees and taxes on other things that are not free that must be used to pay for the free stuff that is not really free.

--The Paul Krugman Independent Payment Advisory Board, a panel with the power to impose cost-saving measures and clip coupons for Obama.

KCFleming said...

McGuffinCare, PotemkinCare, MugabeCare.

BullshitCare.

Unknown said...

HillaryCare ObamaCare MobCare. The plan: Price controls. Collapse. Single Payer.
The government-as-mob avalanche is just beginning.

virgil xenophon said...

And here you foolish people thought the terms charlatan and buffoon were mutually exclusive..

Amartel said...

Too bad nobody* questioned authority.

*who matters

Amartel said...

God forbid any of these rubes should watch Faux News.

Aridog said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Aridog said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
rcocean said...

Jonah Goldberg - who gives a fuck.

Unread.