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"The health care fight has turned ugly, fast. Right-wing mobs are crashing congressional town halls,1 lies are spreading via anonymous email chains,2 and Sarah Palin bizarrely said that President Obama was going to set up a "death panel," whatever that is.3 Many of these claims are just incredible—but if we don't fight back with the truth, the right will continue to poison the health care debate." 1. "More 'Town Halls
Gone Wild': Angry Far Right Protesters Disrupt Events With 'Incomprehensible'
Yelling," Think Progress, August
4, 2009. 2. "Fight the
smears," Health Care for America NOW, accessed August 10, 2009. 3. "Palin Paints
Picture of 'Obama Death Panel' Giving Thumbs Down to Trig," ABC
News, August 7, 2009.
MYTH: Grassroots
Protestors are
Disrupting Town Halls
House Republican Leader John Boehner’s Office:
“Back home for the August recess, rank-and-file Democratic Members of the House are facing a backlash from their constituents.”
FACT: Lobbyist-Run
Groups Are
Orchestrating Extremist Mobs
Republicans and well-funded special interest
groups are sending far-right extremists to local town halls to stop any meaningful discussion of Health Insurance Reform. Some of these mob scenes have turned especially ugly -- including the hanging of Members of Congress in effigy and use of Nazi SS symbols. 
MYTH: “Government-Encouraged
Euthanasia”
House Republican Leader John Boehner
claimed
the House bill “may start us down a treacherous path toward government-encouraged euthanasia.”
FACT:
The claim is “nonsense.”
The bill never requires anyone to discuss
end-of-life care. Rather, the bill ensures medical professionals who do offer this type of counseling … are reimbursed for their time, just as … for other types of counseling or medical services. 
Health Insurance Whistleblower
Wendell Potter Details How Insurers Screw Insureds
"I am speaking out about how big
for-profit insurers have hijacked our health care system and turned it
into a giant ATM for Wall Street investors, and how the industry is using
its massive wealth and influence to determine what is (and is not)
included in the health care reform legislation members of Congress are now
writing. I was in a unique position to see not only how Wall Street
analysts and investors influence decisions insurance company executives
make but also how the industry has carried out behind-the-scenes PR and
lobbying campaigns to kill or weaken any health care reform efforts that
threatened insurers' profitability."
Complete article: http://prwatch.org/node/8453
MYTH: Private
Plans Outlawed
Rep. Doc Hastings (R-Wash.) claimed on his
website that individual private health insurance plans will be outlawed in 2013 under the Democratic health care plan.
FACT: Private
health insurance not banned
Individual policies will continue to be available,
but people will buy those policies through the national health insurance exchange, which will ensure that people with pre-existing conditions will be able to get coverage. The House bill also allows for existing policies to be grandfathered in, so individual purchasers who like their coverage will be able to keep it. 
MYTH:
President Obama wants to implement Soviet-style
rationing!!! FACT: Health care reform will expand access to high-quality health insurance, and give individuals, families, and businesses more choices for coverage. Right now, big
corporations decide whether to give you coverage, what doctors you get to
see, and whether a particular procedure or medicine is covered—that
is rationed care. And a big part of reform is to stop that. 9.
"Reality Check FAQs," WhiteHouse.gov, accessed August 10, 2009. 
Jon Stewart ripped into the insane, Ron Paul, teabaggers
disrupting the health care town halls
Watch VIDEO:
"Right
now, we spend more than $2 trillion dollars a year on health care.12
The average family premium is projected to rise to over $22,000 in the
next decade13—and each year, nearly a million people face
bankruptcy because of medical expenses.14 Reform,
with an affordable, high-quality public option that can spur competition,
is necessary to bring down skyrocketing costs. Also, President
Obama's reform plans would be fully paid for over 10 years and not add a
penny to the deficit.15"
12. "Reality Check FAQs," WhiteHouse.gov, accessed
August 10, 2009.
http://www.whitehouse.gov/realitycheck/faq#c1 13. "Premiums Run Amok,"
Center for American Progress, July 24, 2009. 14. "Medical bills prompt more
than 60 percent of U.S. bankruptcies," CNN,
June 5, 2009. 15. "Reality Check FAQs,"
WhiteHouse.gov, accessed August 10, 2009.
Want more? Check out this great new White House "Reality Check" website: http://www.whitehouse.gov/realitycheck/ or this excellent piece from Health Care for America Now on some of the most outrageous lies: http://www.moveon.org/r?r=51729&id=16782-3392905-AHPB9Fx&t=1
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