Americans For Prosperity Keeps Its "Hands Off" The Truth In New Anti-Health Care Ad
The sheer number of lies in Americans for Prosperity's new anti-health care reform ad is astounding. Apparently unaware that it is March 2010, AFP has reverted to repeatedly debunked and obviously false talking points from fall of 2009.
AFP's "Hands Off My Healthcare"
Tracy Walsh: I was diagnosed with breast cancer when I was 43. My mother died of cancer, but early detection saved my life. Now a government panel that didn't include cancer specialists says women shouldn't receive mammograms until age 50. That saves money but could cost your life. If I had followed the new government guidelines on mammograms, my cancer would have spread undetected and my chances of survival would have been reduced. If government takes over health care, recommendations like these could become the law for all kinds of diseases. If you find a lump, you could wait months for treatment and lifesaving drugs can be restricted. Europe already has government run health care. Their 5 year survival rate is just 79%. In the U.S., it's 90%. My odds of surviving cancer were high because my care was the best. What are your odds if the government takes over your health care?
Narrator: Tell Congress to start over and get health care right. [AFP ad via POLITICO, 3/12/10]
AFP To Spend $750,000 Running Ad In 10 States. Ben Smith of POLITICO reported that Americans for Prosperity "says it's spending $750,000 airing the ad in these districts:
Arizona: Rep. Ann Kirkpatrick, Rep. Harry Mitchell, Rep.
Gabrielle Giffords
Indiana: Rep. Joe Donnelly, Rep. Baron Hill, Rep. Brad Ellsworth
Nevada: Rep. Dina Titus
New York: Rep. Michael Arcuri
North Carolina: Rep. Bob Etheridge
North Dakota: Rep. Earl Pomeroy
Ohio: Rep. Betty Sutton, Rep. Charlie Wilson, Rep. Steve Driehaus
Pennsylvania: Rep. Chris Carney, Rep. Kathy Dahlkemper
Wisconsin: Rep. Steve Kagen
West Virginia: Rep. Alan Mollohan, Rep. Nick Rahall" [POLITICO, 3/12/10]
Senate Passed An Amendment Ensuring "Women Would Never Be Forced To Forgo A Mammogram Based On" Recommendations
Senate Passed Amendment To Ensure Women's Care Would Be Determined By The Patient And Doctor. NPR reported: "The 61-39 in favor of the Mikulski amendment would expand coverage of women's health care, allowing the government to require insurers to cover preventive care and screenings for women at little or not cost to them...Mikulski said that under her amendment, women would never be forced to forgo a mammogram based on a task force recommendations. Instead, they would make a decision with their doctors and would have 'universal access' to the service, she said." [NPR.org, 12/3/09, emphasis added]
Government Has Not Created Restrictions Upon Care Patients Receive. According to FactCheck.org: "Conservative politicians have claimed that the stimulus bill requires that doctors follow government orders on what medical treatments can and can't be prescribed. But the bill doesn't say that...Critics of comparative effectiveness research, which the government has been funding for decades, claim that it will lead to treatment being approved or denied based on costs. Proponents say it will improve the quality of care and can, in some cases, show that more costly treatments aren't as effective as less expensive alternatives. We can't predict what will happen in the future, but we can say that several claims being made about the impact of the bill are simply opinions being passed off as facts." [FactCheck.org, 2/27/09]
Still Not Government-Run Health Care
"None Of The Bills Being Debated In Congress" Will Create Government-Run Health Care. FactCheck.org reported: "For several months, we've been debunking assertions that Democratic health care bills call for a Canadian or British-type system in which everyone is insured, or insured and cared for, through the government. None of the bills being debated in Congress call for such a single-payer system. Conservative groups have also claimed that a federal health insurance plan would be the death knell for private insurance, offering a much cheaper alternative and eventually leading to 'a government-run system.'" [FactCheck.org, 11/6/09]
Under The Current System, Americans Suffer What AFP Fear Mongers About
Rather Than Waiting In Line, Americans Simply Do Not Get Care. As Ezra Klein argued in the Los Angeles Times, "although Britain and Canada have decided that no one will go without, even if some must occasionally wait, the U.S. has decided that most of us who can't afford care simply won't get it." [Los Angeles Times, 4/7/09, emphasis added]
Americans Face Denials For Coverage From Insurance Companies Every Day. Americans are already facing the denial of treatments from their private insurance companies, according to the Wall Street Journal. As Diane Archer, director of the Health Care Project at Institute for America's Future wrote in the New York Times: "As any doctor will tell you, when a private health insurance plan delays or denies a physician-recommended service, it is deciding who gets care and what kind of care people get." [Wall Street Journal, 9/25/08; New York Times, 5/8/09]
