What Obama Says On Health Care

WNCN Raleigh

Soap Box Ravings says there are a lot of people out there talking health care. Every one of them has an agenda. Each side puts out information that may be true or not.

As a retired police officer, Soap Box ravings understands that eye witnesses to an incident do not always witness every part of the incident in the same way, even when they really want to provide the correct information.

Then there are other citizens who may invent stories or just outright lie. Sometimes for personal gain and other times perhaps for their 15 minutes of fame.

With this in mind, I went to the factcheck.org website and looked at what the President of the United States, Barack Hussein Obama, is saying about "his" health care effort.

With the health care debate on Capitol Hill raging on, President Barack Obama held a prime-time news conference July 22, 2009 to make his pitch for a health care bill once again to the American public. Among his facts and figures, we found some false and questionable statements.

On Paying For Health Care

Among other things, the president promised that a health care overhaul “will be paid for.”

The Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, a bipartisan group, said:

More access and broader coverage do not save money. However, greater coverage will increase health spending. Unless major changes are successfully implemented in health care delivery and payment systems, costs will continue to rise from a larger base at a rapid pace.

Moreover, potential savings are speculative, while costs are far more certain. That imbalance suggests that unless there is broad popular support for the measures that will be required to achieve savings, the nation’s health care bill could become that much more unaffordable.

On Near-Universal Coverage

The president also exaggerated the number of persons who would be covered by his health care plan.

The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimated that the bill working its way through the House would result in 97 percent of Americans (excluding illegal immigrants) having insurance by 2015. The figure would be only 94 percent of those in the U.S., if you count "illegals."

On Uncompensated Care

Obama said: in fact, there’s going to be a whole lot of savings that we obtain from that because, for example, the average American family is paying thousands of dollars in hidden costs in their insurance premiums to pay for what’s called uncompensated care – people who show up at the emergency room because they don’t have a primary care physician.

In June, 2009, factcheck.org previously pointed out that President Obama was wrong in this area.

On A $5 Trillion Whopper

The president claimed he has cut federal spending by more than $2 trillion.
The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) specifically estimated the "total effect on outlays" of Obama’s budget as an increase of $2.7 trillion compared with what’s called for in current law. So by CBO’s figuring, spending would go up $2.7 trillion, not down $2.2 trillion. That would make Obama’s claim a nearly $5 trillion whopper.

On the U.S. vs. The Rest of the World

Obama exaggerated the discrepancy between U.S. and foreign health care costs:

In fact, the U.S. spends nearly $7,000 per person total, or nearly $2,500 more than the next highest-spending country, according to the most recent completed data from the Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Development.

In Soap Box Ravings opinion the President of The United States needs to get his crap in one sock. Soap Box Ravings can not see why anyone would vote for a plan the man promoting it does not understand. Disregarding all of the talking heads, of either side, the presidents performance is to quote a term, "Piss Poor."

The full story may be found at:
http://www.factcheck.org/2009/07/obamas-health-care-news-conference/