Rick Santorum, one of the Republican presidential candidates, was recently talking to seniors in Florida. He told them several pieces of insurance related misinformation that appear to have been designed to frighten them into voting for him.
We have all heard the Republican presidential candidates talk about how much they want to repeal the Affordable Care Act, (which they have renamed as “Obamacare”). This confuses me because many of the Republican candidates have, in the past, supported or helped to create health reform laws that are very similar to what the Affordable Care Act is doing.
CNN’s Dr. Sanjay Gupta has been taking a close look these candidates positions on health care, both today, and in the past. Mitt Romney is taking criticism for how he handled health care as the Governor of Massachusetts.
Newt Gingrich has called this “Romneycare”, (perhaps hoping that that if he could make it sound like “Obamacare”, perhaps people won’t vote for Romney). Dr. Gupta’s video shows that Gingrich was, originally, very supportive of the health bill that Romney created. Gingrich also has expressed his opinion that people should either have health insurance or post a bond. He insists this isn’t the same as the individual mandate, (but really, it is).
In Florida, Rick Santorum has been telling senior citizens some untruths about the Affordable Care Act, and how they would be affected by it. Santorum told seniors that the Affordable Care Act would limit their access to doctors. He also implied that the individual mandate would somehow remove their access to Medicare.
In reality, the individual mandate would not affect seniors who are currently using Medicare. If they have Medicare, then they have health insurance. The individual mandate requires people who do not have health insurance to purchase it. It will not take away their Medicare.
Santorum also told seniors in Florida that the Independent Payment Advisory Board would have too much power over senior’s care. He said that the panel is going to control payments to health care providers because they are intending to curb Medicare spending. He said it would cut rates paid to doctors, and implied that this would leave seniors upset because their doctors would no longer see them as a result. He called this “health care rationing”.
In reality, the Independent Payment Advisory Board has not even been set up yet. The Affordable Care Act has laws within it that explicitly forbid the panel from rationing care, from shifting costs to retirees, from restricting people’s benefits, and from raising the Medicare eligibility age.
Image by Gage Skidmore on Flickr