SPECIAL MYTHBUSTER: Responding to Rally Speeches

Health insurance reform opponents continue to spread myths – now about the recently introduced Affordable Health Care for America Act. Below is a response to many of the myths repeated today at the U.S. Capitol.

MYTH: The Affordable Health Care for America Act will lead to a "government takeover" of the health care system.

FACT: America´s Affordable Health Choices Act builds on the current private, employer-provided health care system – and, according to the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office, will expand enrollment in private insurance by an estimated 6 million Americans.

Rather than creating a "government takeover of health care," the bill is designed to help make the health insurance market work better – improving competition and choice for consumers through the creation of a one-stop shopping marketplace called a Health Insurance Exchange.

In the Exchange, a public health insurance option would compete with private plans to put downward pressure on premiums and increase quality of coverage. The competition is needed–many areas of our country are dominated by just one or two private insurers today. The public option will operate on a level playing field. It will be subject to the same market reforms and consumer protections as other private plans in the Exchange and it will be self-sustaining – financed only by its premiums.

While some critics claim that Americans will be "forced into" a new public health insurance option, the fact is that no one can be forced into the public plan. All those choosing plans in the Health Exchange will have a range of options – various private plans and the public plan. If an employer is providing their employees´ health insurance through the Exchange, it is the employee – not the employer – choosing the plan. The only way someone would be in the public plan is as a result of their own individual choice.

Finally, many of the same voices spreading this myth most loudly are also defending from ´government takeover´ America´s largest government-run health care program: Medicare.

Even former Republican Senate Majority Leader and heart surgeon Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) disputes the claim:

"…what the Obama Administration is doing is not socialized medicine. You hear a lot of people on the extreme say that socialized medicine is going to come in and control everything. Socialized medicine is where the government owns the hospitals. They own the doctors and they decide how much people are getting paid. And that´s not what´s in these bills." [CSPAN Washington Journal, 10/15/09]

MYTH: The House bill would increase the federal deficit.

FACT: Health insurance reform will not add to the deficit. According to the CBO, the House bill will reduce the deficit by $104 billion over the first ten years (2010-2019). Furthermore, the legislation will continue to reduce the deficit over the second ten year period (2020-2029). In fact, the House Republican substitute bill does almost nothing to expand coverage of the uninsured –which costs us all—but only reduces the deficit by $68 billion over the same period.

MYTH: "Health insurance reform could be unconstitutional…or violate the 10th amendment."

FACT: As with Medicare and Medicaid, the federal government has the Constitutional power to reform our health care system.

The 10th amendment to the U.S. Constitution states that the powers not delegated to the federal government by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the states, are reserved to the states … or to the people. But the Constitution gives Congress broad power to regulate activities that have an effect on interstate commerce. Congress has used this authority to regulate many aspects, from labor relations to education to health care to agricultural production. Since virtually every aspect of the heath care system has an effect on interstate commerce, the power of Congress to regulate health care is essentially unlimited.

The 10th amendment does not authorize states to constrict Congress´ power under the commerce clause. As the Supreme Court has held, Congress can for example bar racial discrimination in Ollie´s Barbeque in Alabama (Katzenbach v. McClung), even in the face of state laws permitting such behavior.

The 10th amendment does place one significant limit on Congress and the federal government: Congress cannot "commandeer" state officials to administer programs. It must get the consent of state officials who are asked, e.g., to run health programs for the poor or to help build highways. Typically, Congress obtains that consent by providing financial support to the states. A state is free to refuse the support and refuse to assist the federal government in administering the program, but Congress can authorize the federal government to administer the program on its own. Thus, Congress cannot force a state to administer a health insurance exchange, but it can authorize the federal government to administer such an exchange in any state that declines to do so.

MYTH: The legislation does not require Members of Congress to enroll in the public option.

FACT: It is true that the bill does not require Members of Congress to enroll in the public health insurance option. However, the bill does not require ANYONE to enroll in the public health insurance option. Providing affordable CHOICES to Americans is the whole point of reform. Under the bill, all those using the Health Insurance Exchange will have the choice of several private insurance plans, along with the public option. The only way anyone enters the public option is by their own individual choice. The bill simply includes a provision that provides Members of Congress the option of choosing the public health insurance plan, or keeping their private insurance group plan that is fully subject to all the reforms in the bill.

For more health insurance reform myth busting, please click here.

For more information on America´s Affordable Health Choices Act, please click here.