PolitiFact has been doing fact checking about Obamacare since 2009. Here are their top 16 myths and lies about the law (full explanations at the link).
- The law rations health care, like systems in Canada and Great Britain. False. (Florida Governor Rick Scott on Fox News.)
- It has “death panels.” Pants on Fire. (Sarah Palin of course.)
- Muslims are exempt from the health care law. Pants on Fire.
- The IRS is going to be “in charge” of “a huge national database” on health care that will include Americans’ “personal, intimate, most close-to-the-vest-secrets.” Pants on Fire. (Congresswoman Michele Bachmann on Fox News.)
- Congress is exempt from Obamacare. False.
- Under Obamacare, people who “have a doctor they’ve been seeing for the last 15 or 20 years, they won’t be able to keep going to that doctor.” Mostly False. (Senator Marco Rubio on Fox News, but this is no more true than before Obamacare.)
- The health care law is a “government takeover” of health care. Pants on Fire. (Congressman Bill Young.)
- “All non-US citizens, illegal or not, will be provided with free health care services.” Pants on Fire.
- Because of Obamacare, health care premiums have “gone up slower than any time in the last 50 years.” False. (Barack Obama. They are going up slower, but that may not be because of Obamacare. There was also this recession.)
- Under Obamacare, “75 percent of small businesses now say they are going to be forced to either fire workers or cut their hours.” Pants on Fire. (Marco Rubio again on Fox News. This one has been repeated so often even some liberals believe it.)
- “At age 76 when you most need it, you are not eligible for cancer treatment” under the health law. Pants on Fire.
- The health care law includes “a 3.8% sales tax” on “all real estate transactions.” Pants on Fire.
- “Obamacare is … the largest tax increase in the history of the world.” Pants on Fire. (Rush Limbaugh on his show.)
- A “hidden” provision in the health care law taxes sporting goods as medical devices. Pants on Fire.
- Obamacare will question your sex life. Pants on Fire. (This one was said by Betsy McCaughey just a week ago! It wasn’t her first Pants on Fire rating for lies about Obamacare.)
- An Obamacare provision will allow “forced home inspections” by government agents. Pants on Fire.
2 Comments
I have question, how is ACA/Obamacare can be enforced on people who do not pay file for taxes (citizens/residents/illegals). One of the fundamental point of ACA is that it is all or nothing in terms of enrollment, so if there are people who can still burden the healthcare services by not having insurance, who ends up paying for that?
I think they’d be burdens on the system, same way they are now. In theory, the burden would be slightly lighter on those who do pay for health insurance because this is bringing more people in. But I’m not entirely sure.