Published: 2009-09-28 23:06:25
Author: DAVID M. HERSZENHORN | New York Times | September 9, 2009
WASHINGTON — In what may become the most talked-about moment of President Obama’s speech to Congress on health care, Representative Joe Wilson, Republican of South Carolina, pointed his finger and shouted, “You lie!”
It was an angry retort to Mr. Obama’s statement that illegal immigrants would not benefit from proposed health care legislation. And while other points in Mr. Obama’s speech were debatable, this one was not.
The legislation approved by three House committees clearly states that only lawful residents will qualify for new health insurance subsidies. “Nothing in this subtitle,” it says, “shall allow federal payments for affordability credits on behalf of individuals who are not lawfully present in the United States.”
But Mr. Obama did repeat some assertions he had made about the proposed health care overhaul that are not so easily defended.
For instance, the president said that “if you are among the hundreds of millions of Americans who already have health insurance” through an employer or the government “nothing in our plan requires you to change what you have.”
That is technically true. But there is a real possibility that existing policies could change as a result of the legislation. The government, for instance, would set new standards, and employers that already offer insurance would have to bring their plans into compliance.
Some existing policies might not be sustainable given the new requirements. Doctors, for example, could end up refusing to accept insurance plans patients now use.
The Congressional Budget Office predicts that far more people will obtain health insurance as a result of the legislation, but whether existing benefits will remain the same for everyone who is now covered is far from certain.
Mr. Obama also seemed to stretch things a bit when he declared: “Not a dollar of the Medicare trust fund will be used to pay for this plan. The only thing this plan would eliminate is the hundreds of billions of dollars in waste and fraud as well as unwarranted subsidies in Medicare that go to insurance companies.”
Critics of the president’s plan have said Americans ages 65 and over could find their Medicare benefits reduced as a result of the health care overhaul. Congressional Democrats certainly do not intend to cut benefits, but they are proposing big cuts in government spending on Medicare and not all of it would come from eliminating waste.
The legislation seeks to trim Medicare payments for most services, as an incentive for hospitals and other health care providers to become more efficient. Other cuts would come from reduced payments to drug makers. Such cutbacks could inadvertently reduce access to some types of care.Full story