Dick Armey Puts Words In The CBO's Mouth

Dick Armey Made False Claims About The CBO

FreedomWorks' Dick Armey Falsely Claimed The CBO Said Health Insurance Reform Would Cause 100 Million American To Lose Coverage.  During an appearance on PBS's NewsHour, FreedomWorks chairman Dick Armey said:

There's nothing wrong with his story as he tells it, but the fact of the matter is even the Congressional Budget Office says 100,000, or 100 million Americans will their employer provided [coverage]." [PBS, NewsHour, 8/13/09]

In Reality, That Figure Came From The Lewin Group

The Lewin Group Is Owned By Ingenix.  NPR reported that "the Lewin Group, [is] a number-crunching consulting group owned by Ingenix, which is a subsidiary of UnitedHealth Group." [NPR, All Things Considered, 6/10/09]

• The Lewin Group Is Owned By "One Of The Nation's Largest Insurers."  The Washington Post reported that "the Lewin Group is wholly owned by UnitedHealth Group, one of the nation's largest insurers." [Washington Post, 7/22/09]

Lewin Group Accused Of "Distributing Skewed Data." According to the Washington Post, "the Lewin Group is part of Ingenix, a UnitedHealth subsidiary that was accused by the New York attorney general and the American Medical Association, a physician's group, of helping insurers shift medical expenses to consumers by distributing skewed data. Ingenix supplied its parent company and other insurers with data that allegedly understated the 'usual and customary' doctor fees that insurers use to determine how much they will reimburse consumers for out-of-network care." [Washington Post, 7/22/09]

Lewin Group Studies Buried If Insurance Industry Clients Are Not Happy With Findings.  According to the Washington Post, "not all of the firm's reports see the light of day. For example, a study for the Blue Cross Blue Shield Association was never released, Sheils said. 'Let's just say, sometimes studies come out that don't show exactly what the client wants to see. And in those instances, they have [the] option to bury the study -- to not release it, rather,' Sheils said. Asked to comment, Blue Cross Blue Shield Association spokesman Brett Lieberman said, 'We're still working with Lewin on a study, and, you know, we don't talk about our studies until they're done.'" [Washington Post, 7/22/09]

Armey's Interpretation Of Lewin's Study Is Seriously Flawed

NPR: Lewin Number Quoted "Hardly Represents The Entirety Of The Report."  According to NPR, the 119 million figure "hardly represents the entirety of the report [Lewin Group Vice President John] Sheils and colleague Randy Haught put out in April. The point of the study was to show that the number of people who would eventually join a government-sponsored public insurance plan would vary - dramatically - depending on how that plan is designed." [NPR, All Things Considered, 6/10/09]

Lewin Study Shows That If The Public Option Is Run Like Medicare, More Americans Will Opt Into It.  According to NPR: "If the public plan is open to everyone and pays health care providers rates similar to those paid by the government-run Medicare program, which are lower than most private insurers pay, 'you'd have a lower premium level and thus [more] people go into it,' says [Lewin Vice President] Sheils." [NPR, All Things Considered, 6/10/09]

Five Of The Six Options Lewin Studied "Are Less Aggressively" Priced And Would Cause Fewer Americans To Switch To The Public Plan.  NPR reported: "The study looked at six options, says [Lewin Vice President] Sheils. 'And five of those options are less aggressively priced than the Medicare payment level option,' meaning they would attract fewer enrollees to switch from private insurance coverage. Sheils stops short of saying that opponents of a public plan were misusing his statistics, because while 'this is the extreme case, I don't think it has been stricken from everyone's agenda, as far as I can tell.'" [NPR, All Things Considered, 6/10/09]

Lewin VP: Sen. Schumer's Plan Would Result In Only 10-12 Million People Moving To The Public Option.  According to NPR, Lewin Vice President Shiels "did add that in general, the mood in Congress seems to be moving toward a more constrained sort of public insurance program; most likely one that would pay somewhat more than Medicare and limit enrollment. For example, Sheils says, Democratic Sen. Charles Schumer of New York 'has a plan which would require the public program to pay private payer rates - the same rates that other private insurers have to pay - and under that scenario we get only between 10 and 12 million people dropping private coverage.'" [NPR, All Things Considered, 6/10/09]