One of our favorite discredited spokespeople, Betsy McCaughey, was on CNN today, beating her now 20-year-old drum against health reform. Media Matters has the fact check, which CNN failed to deliver:

On June 24, CNN’s American Morning co-host John Roberts did not challenge former New York Lt. Gov. Betsy McCaughey’s assertions that the Affordable Health Choices Act “basically” “pushes everyone into an HMO-style plan” and that most Americans will have to “go through what they call a ‘medical home,’ which is this decade’s term for an HMO gatekeeper.” However, under the proposed legislation, individuals already enrolled in a health care plan or receiving health insurance coverage are able to keep their coverage and are not “pushed” into “an HMO-style plan.”

McCaughey later stated that “most Americans will have no options. When they file their taxes, they’re going to have to staple a proof, like a W-2, that they’ve enrolled in one of these qualified health plans, with the limits of choice: limits of choices of doctors, limits of choices of when you can see a specialist, when you can have a diagnostic test.” In fact, individuals do not have to enroll in “qualified health plans.” Indeed, the legislation contains a provision explicitly stating that “[n]o individual shall be compelled to enroll in a qualified health plan or to participate in a Gateway.” In the bill, “qualified health plans” are plans that must meet certain criteria in order to be offered under a “Gateway.” A gateway is defined as a state-run mechanism that “facilitates the purchase of health insurance coverage and related insurance products through the Gateway at an affordable price by qualified individuals and qualified employer groups.”

For those who haven’t been following along, McCaughey is the serial liar who pretty much everyone has dismissed as laughable. She’s a right-wing hack, and she should be treated as such.

Onto the next conservative lie…

The Republicans on the Ways and Means committee are parading around a false “fact” about the House health care bill - that it would cost $3.5 trillion dollars.

The study they point to for that “fact” is written byt eh HSI network. Here’s a couple of real facts on the HSI network [pdf]:

• HSI’s model of the Obama campaign plan predicted a Federal cost more than 4 times than that predicted by the independent Tax Policy Center.
• HSI’s cost estimate of the Senate Health, Education, Labor & Pensions (HELP) bill was 4 times greater than the estimate of the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO).
• The HSI analysis assumes substantial erosion of private coverage that rests on two likely false assumptions: (1) that private plans sit idly by and fail to offer products at lower prices to compete with the public option for business; and (2) that an employer shared responsibility requirement is ineffective and leads to massive dropping of ESI, despite contrary experience in Massachusetts and in today’s market where the majority of employers already offer coverage on a voluntary basis.
• The analysis says there are no offsets in the discussion draft, yet the bulk of the text consists of payment and delivery system reforms in Medicare and Medicaid that will yield hundreds of billions of dollars in savings.

So, let’s get this straight. Republicans are relying on a study by a group that chronically inflates cost estimates, assumes unrealistic things about the plan that have no basis in reality, and doesn’t factor in 500 pages of legislation aimed at offsetting costs.

The Republican “fact” that the House bill would cost trillions is false. Period.

That’s your conservative misinformation for the day. Expect much more as the debate moves forward.

(also posted at the NOW! blog)

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