Congressman-elect Robert Hurt recently called ObamaCare a “government takeover of health care,” a claim that PolitiFact.com deemed FALSE:
In summary, yes, government regulation of the existing system increases under the new legislation. More people will be insured. The government will create exchanges to provide coverage for Americans who have trouble getting it now. Medicaid, the government-run health insurance program for the poor, will be expanded.
But it is not, as Hurt says, a government-run plan. The public option, which would have added a government-run plan to the mix, was dropped from the bill. Coverage would be paid for the same way it is now, by private employers and individual premiums.
The claim is False.
Really?
Not so, says Richmond Tea Party’s own Susan Lascolette, who wrote an excellent letter to the editor in response:
Dear Editor:
I disagree with your PolitiFact Virginia assessment of Republican-elect Robert Hurt’s statement that the Patient Protection and Affordability Care Act (health care law) is a “government takeover of health care”. Republican-elect Hurt is not the first person, nor will he be the last, to categorize the health care law as a “government takeover”.
This bill requires that all Americans purchase health care insurance. This is the insurance mandate that has brought almost half of the states into court to argue against this provision.
AND many companies have already announced that their employees will see an increase in group health care insurance premiums in 2011. This increase has been attributed the new health care law. More benefits required by this law are causing health insurance premiums to rise.
AND at the same time, per Fox News, “The Obama administration has allowed 222 employers, insurers, and unions to opt out of a key mandate in the new health care law – a number that has grown exponentially in the past two months.
Employers like McDonald’s, Waffle House and Universal Orlando are among the companies that have received a one-year waiver, allowing them to maintain minimal coverage below the new law’s standards.”
(http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2010/12/08/big-companies-unions-win-health-care-waivers/)
AND the new law also mandates changes in Medicare taxes and payments to doctors. Per AARP, “[the] government [is] establishing payment policies that restrict how they can treat you and what medicines they can prescribe. Even the American Medical Association acknowledges that without significant changes to Medicare payments, many doctors will no longer participate in the program.”
(http://www.aarp.org/health/health-care-reform/info-07-2010/health_law_impact_.html)
AND the new law is administered by hundreds of new agencies and with thousands of newly authorized IRS agents to enforce it. Many provisions of the law are still unknown because they are to be developed by the Secretary of Health & Human Services.
This law affects coverage and premiums; mandates who has to buy insurance; allows the government to decide who is subject to the provisions of this legislation and who is not; determines how Medicare is administered; and establishes so many new agencies and government employees to enact and enforce the provisions that it is difficult to count them.
According to my version of the Webster’s Dictionary, a take over is defined as “to begin controlling, managing, etc.” I submit to you that by definition and by practice the federal government is both controlling and managing the health care insurance industry and how medical care is administered in America.
I believe that Hurt’s statement is TRUE.
