A Comparison: What They Say & The Reality

Bryan Riley does an excellent job tearing down the lies & misinformation in the Washington Post op-ed piece by Human Services (HHS) Secretary Kathleen Sebelius. Here are 2 of my favorite points, but the rest are just as interesting and illuminating.

Whopper Number 2: Americans can't get coverage for preexisting conditions.

SEBELIUS: The current health-care system gives insurance companies all the power. They get to pick and choose who gets a policy. They can deny coverage because of a preexisting condition.


FACT: That's not true for the 177 million Americans who have group health insurance, where it's illegal to deny coverage to someone who has a preexisting condition. It's true that someone who waits until after they're sick to apply for an individual policy can be denied coverage or charged a higher premium, but once they're approved their coverage can never be dropped or their premium increased due to a change in their health.

And this one:

Whopper Number 5: Americans shouldn't waste their time trying to understand the details of Obama's proposal.

SEBELIUS: [W]e can't let the details distract us from the huge benefits that reform will bring. Nor should we let ourselves be distracted by attacks that try to use the complexity of health reform to freeze Americans in inaction.


FACT: An insurance agent who advised his clients to ignore the fine print in a proposed policy could wind up in jail. Anyone who says "don't worry about the details, this is too complex for you to understand anyway," probably has something to hide.