"Hillary Care" and "Socialized Medicine" - WaPo Busts The Liars At The GOP Debate...

[wyldwolf]

...but watch, at the end of the post, how they still try to excuse Rudy...

MITT ROMNEY:

"We solved the problem of health care in our state not by having government take it over, the way Hillary Clinton would but with private, free-enterprise approaches...Hillary says the federal government's going to tell you what kind of insurance, and it's all government insurance."

RUDY GIULIANI:

"We only have 17 million people in America who buy their own health insurance. If we have 50 million or 60 million people who bought their own health insurance, the price of health insurance would be cut in more than half."

Republican candidates have been vying among themselves to denounce "Hillary Care" as tantamount to the introduction of "socialized medicine," and a government-run health system, similar to the British National Health system. The Clinton campaign argues that the senator's federal health care plan is very similar to a Massachusetts plan signed into law in April 2006 by then Governor Romney.

So who is right?

The Facts

According to MIT economics professor Jonathan Gruber, who advised Romney on his health care reform law and has also advised Clinton, the Massachusetts law has a lot in common with the Clinton plan. Both plans mandate universal health care coverage and subsidize health care for people on low incomes. The main difference is that Clinton's proposal permits people to switch to a Medicare-type plan and increases taxes at higher income levels.

Contrary to claims by Romney and other Republicans, the Clinton plan does not force Americans to accept "government insurance." It offers people a choice. If they are happy with their present health plan, they can keep it. Otherwise, they can switch to the plans offered to members of Congress, or a government-run plan similar to Medicare.

"The only way this will lead to government health care is if Americans prefer government health care," said Gruber.

The Romney camp appears to be backing off the claim that Clinton's plan is tantamount to "all government insurance." According to his spokesman, Kevin Madden, Romney was "alluding to the belief that this is an eventual outcome of Hillary Clinton's plan." Clinton may appear to offer a choice, Madden said, but "the reality of the marketplace is that everyone will end up in government-run coverage over time." He said in an e-mail that employers would lose the incentive to offer private plans to their workers.

Rudy Giuliani, meanwhile, argued in Sunday's debate that the way to solve the health care mess is to encourage Americans to take out their own private insurance. He claimed on Sunday that the "price of health insurance would be cut in more than half" if the numbers of people buying their own insurance increased from 17 million people at present to "50 or 60 million people."

The Giuliani campaign was unable to provide factual support for the mayor's assertion. Instead, they pointed to the "basic tenets of free market economics" and a Heritage Foundation study showing that the cost of laser eye surgery fell 47 percent in real terms between 1998 and 2004 as more and more people purchased the procedure.

The Pinocchio Test

The claim that "Hillary care" is tantamount to "socialized medicine" does not stand up to serious examination. The Clinton health care plan has more in common with the Massachusetts plan signed into law by Governor Mitt Romney than the British National Health system. We award three Pinocchios to Romney.



Giuliani, meanwhile, plucked a figure out of thin air when he claimed that the price of health insurance would be cut by more than half if more people bought their own policies. His only basis for the statement was faith in the power of free market economics. Since it is impossible to prove him wrong, we award him only one Pinocchio on this occasion.

He pulled a figure out of his ass and it's impossible to prove him wrong??? Yeah...

http://blog.washingtonpost.com/fact-checker/2007/10/hillary_care_and_socialized_me.html

[Yael]

1. How appropriate for my 1,000th post

To comment on what lying, toe-jam-sucking, diseased leeches these men are. They won't be happy until all of the elderly (and poor) in this country are owned lock, stock and oxygen tube by the MBAs at the insurance companies, whose sole role it is to override medical decisions of "necessity" while raising rates to "ensure continued Customer Service".

Blah.

[bigwillq]

5. Congrats on 1000!

:toast: :bounce:

[Yael]

7. Thanks!

:hi:

[katmondoo]

2. Can Bush's Iraq war be classified as socialized war

possibly to include Iran.

[bluestateguy]

3. Hillary's plan is Romney lite

Hillarycare is inadequate and complicit in the existing system.

[BootinUp]

4. You obviously missed a fact or two. n/t

[killbotfactory]

6. Socialized health care would be a big improvement than our current system

or any of the plans introduced by the major contenders in either party.