Monday, November 30, 2009

In which Mike Pence lies about the Democratic reform proposal's effect on families' premiums



Marc Ambinder hi-lites an obvious case of partisan cherry-picking from our very own Representative:


Here's the latest health care reform claim, by Rep. Mike Pence:


"The CBO has confirmed what every American already knows, the Democrats' plan for a government takeover of health care will dramatically raise health care costs on working families. This latest CBO study reveals that the health care bill before the U.S. Senate will raise individual insurance premiums by up to 13 percent. That means every family that refuses the government's one-size-fits-all plan, will be forced to spend an additional $2,100 a year to keep their current health care.

Pence doesn't say, but here's where he gets the figure:


Average premiums per policy in the nongroup market in 2016 would be roughly $5,800 for single policies and $15,200 for family policies under the proposal, compared with roughly $5,500 for single policies and $13,100 for family policies under current law.

Fairly clear, right?  Only if you're suddenly blinded.
The very next sentence in the CBO report is: "Those figures indicate what enrollees would pay, on average, not accounting for the new federal subsidies. The majority of nongroup enrollees (about 57 percent) would receive subsidies via the new insurance exchanges, and those subsidies, on average, would cover nearly two-thirds of the total premium, CBO and JCT."'
For those receiving subsidies -- the people who Pence's statement is targeting because they're the most vulnerable -- the CBO says that "...the amount that subsidized enrollees would pay for nongroup coverage would be roughly 56 percent to 59 percent lower, on average, than the nongroup premiums charged under current law."


Just to re-hash: Pence claimed that the CBO said that the Democratic plan would raise premiums by 13 percent.  In the real world, the CBO said that the Democratic plan would reduce premium costs by somewhere between 50 and 60 percent.  
Opposing liberal policies for legitimate reasons is one thing; lying outright about said policies is another.  Is this the best we can do?

5 comments:

  1. I disagree, especially with your strong wording.

    The premiums will go up, but some families will use subsidies to help cover the cost. Just because the government helps pay for it doesn't mean that a premium has gone down.

    Now, has the cost incurred by many lower-class families gone down? Yes. Perhaps Pence is being slightly misleading..but certainly no more misleading than the Democrats who call this spending increase a "tax cut." Even so, this does not discredit Pence's point that the cost of these policies would be higher than SQ.

    -B

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  2. I would refer you to two things Pence said:

    1) That the plan "will dramatically raise health care costs on working families."

    2) "Every family that refuses the government's one size fits all plan will be forced to spend an extra $2,100 a year to keep their current health care."

    (1) is a lie because most working families will not see a rise in their health care costs. (2) is a lie because families will not have to spend an extra $2,100 to keep their current health care. As is very clearly stated in the CBO report, premiums may go up but the cost to most working families will actually go down. Pence's point was not that "the cost" of these policies would be higher. His point was to tell people that their costs would be higher.

    You may call these things misleading, but they are actually lies, in that they are just not true.

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  3. Again, I'm not impressed. All he was missing was to note that depending on your income level, you may get a subsidy to offset your higher cost. Many working families will not.

    I'm not disagreeing with your point, but find me a politician on either side who doesn't make statements as misleading as this. I don't think this qualifies as "lying" in today's political world.

    A final note - for the complete picture, Pence would have to factor in the effect the additional debt has on working families. What is the appropriate way to do this? (especially since different "working" families would be impacted differently)

    B

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  4. This is quite ridiculous. "All he was missing..."? All he was missing was the truth. He said that the Democrats' plan would raise health care costs on working families. By willfully failing to identify the income bracket of working families whose actual costs would go up and willfully omitting the subsidy effect, he lied. This was all clearly described in THE VERY NEXT LINE OF THE CBO REPORT.

    Sorry, but a lie is a lie. Just because other politicians lie and "mislead" doesn't make it okay. Perhaps we should be more willing to call liars, liars.

    As for the debt effect, Pence should feel free to calculate that or ask CBO to calculate it. After all, this was all based on Pence's lying about what the CBO said about how much this would cost working families.

    I think an interesting question, maybe for your next blog post (when oh when?), could be on what constitutes "lying" in today's political world. That could lead to some interesting debates.

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  5. Whatever happened to Statesmen?

    **Walter**

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