Conservative Betsy McCaughey is a Health Care Expert?
McCaughey Claims - On Nov. 2, the Congressional Budget Office estimated what the plans will likely cost. An individual earning $44,000 before taxes who purchases his own insurance will have to pay a $5,300 premium and an estimated $2,000 in out-of-pocket expenses, for a total of $7,300 a year, which is 17% of his pre-tax income. A family earning $102,100 a year before taxes will have to pay a $15,000 premium plus an estimated $5,300 out-of-pocket, for a $20,300 total, or 20% of its pre-tax income. Individuals and families earning less than these amounts will be eligible for subsidies paid directly to their insurer.
• Partly true. As usual, Ms. McCaughey does not tell the whole story. The numbers quoted above are projected costs for the year 2016, which is 9 years away! The CBO piece referenced above actually says the following: • "Under the House bill, the maximum share of income that enrollees would have to pay for the reference plan in 2013 would range from 1.5 percent for those with income less than or equal to 133 percent of the federal poverty level (FPL) to 12 percent for those with income equal to 400 percent of the FPL."
McCaughey Claims - Eviscerating Medicare:
In addition to reducing future Medicare funding by an estimated $500 billion, the bill fundamentally changes how Medicare pays doctors and hospitals, permitting the government to dictate treatment decisions.
• Not true. The bill, sadly, does NOT fundamentally change how Medicare pays doctors and hospitals. Many providers wish it would! This is the type of "throw away "line that is calculated to get people riled up, but in no way educate them. There are "pilots" and "demonstrations" allowed for Medicare that would test payment approaches, but the only way those approaches would be more broadly applied is if they actually turn out to work to lower costs without affecting quality.
• AND, the government does not dictate treatment decisions. This is a flat out lie.
McCaughey Claims - Secs. 1158-1160 (pp. 499-520) initiates programs to reduce payments for patient care to what it costs in the lowest cost regions of the country. This will reduce payments for care (and by implication the standard of care) for hospital patients in higher cost areas such as New York and Florida.
• Not true. This is way more complicated than the sound bite above. What is true is that the Institute of Medicine will study the geographic variations in cost around the country. There is a lot of evidence that paying more for care does not guarantee better care at all, and we need to know more about what those geographic differences mean. See article by Dr. Atul Gawande for more information on this.
McCaughey Claims - Sec. 1402 (p. 756) says that the results of comparative effectiveness research conducted by the government will be delivered to doctors electronically to guide their use of "medical items and services."
• There is nothing on page 756 that says "guide". This is what it actually says on page 756: "The Center shall develop protocols and strategies for the appropriate dissemination of research findings in order to ensure effective communication of findings and the use and incorporation of such findings into relevant activities for the purpose of informing higher quality and more effective and efficient decisions regarding medical items and services." (page 756) And it also says: "Nothing in this section shall be construed-- ''(A) to permit the Center or Commission to mandate coverage, reimbursement, or other policies for any public or private payer" (page 758)
Either McCaughey cannot read or like most of modern conservatives is a serial liar. Betsy McCaughey has in fact made living off Conservative-welfare from right-wing think tanks and astroturf lobbyist front groups.
