Hope and Fail

Still lying: You can keep your doctor

President Obama brought his health care pitch to the State of the Union, and he repeated a lie that has become his mantra: That Americans would be able to keep their current health insurance and their doctor if his health reform package passes.

Here’s what he said:

Our approach would preserve the right of Americans who have insurance to keep their doctor and their plan. It would reduce costs and premiums for millions of families and businesses. And according to the Congressional Budget Office -– the independent organization that both parties have cited as the official scorekeeper for Congress –- our approach would bring down the deficit by as much as $1 trillion over the next two decades. (Applause.)

The president said this throughout summer 2009 — it wasn’t true then and it isn’t true now. The CBO — you know, “the independent organization that both parties have cited as the official scorekeeper for Congress” — said in August that the Senate bill, then known as the Bacchus or HELP bill, would force 10 million Americans out of their insurance.

Independent studies at the time also showed that the House bill would push some 88 billion Americans out of their insurance.

But that was way back then. What about the final bills that passed?

The CBO said on Dec. 7, 2009, that the final Senate bill would still drop millions from their current insurance:

We estimate that between 9 million and 10 million other people who would be covered by an employment-based plan under current law would not have an offer of such coverage under the proposal. Firms that would choose not to offer coverage as a result of the proposal would tend to be smaller employers and employers that predominantly employ lower-wage workers—people who would be eligible for subsidies through the exchanges—although some workers who would not have employment-based coverage because of the proposal would not be eligible for such subsidies. Whether those changes in coverage would represent the dropping of existing coverage or a lack of new offers of coverage is difficult to determine.

So, no, the president’s approach would not, and will not, allow Americans to keep their current coverage — no matter how many times he says it.

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