The propaganda that the rightwing media, with the help of politifact is catapulting is that the so-called "lie of the year" was actually, in fact, 98.4% accurate and-----and it was not 100% accurate because of actions taken by private insurance companies.
jellicle: "So
Politifact notes that nothing in the new law prevents insurance companies from offering the same old plans indefinitely - that it was entirely their choice to cancel any plans they cancelled - and then calls Obama's statement a lie, as if he, and not insurers, was in any way responsible for the cancellation of plans."
<snip>
Tasty_Yams: "As we have previously noted, many Americans already lose their current health plan for reasons that have nothing to do with the new law. Your employer may change insurance carriers, for instance, or your insurance carrier may unilaterally modify the terms of your plan.
How common is this? The Medical Expenditure Panel Survey, sponsored by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, found that
in 2007, just over 14 percent of the entire U.S. population "switched" health insurance. However, this underestimates the rate of switching...
So, accepting Politifact's numbers, 4 million out of 250 million people "lost" their insurance by insurers who claim the ACA was the cause.
That's 1.6% of insured people.
If you make a statement, that at one time both Obama and
Politifact believed to be true...
Can a statement that is:
- believed to be true
- and actually turns out to be true for 98.4% of people
- and is dependent on a decision at least partially controlled insurers
- and it's not unusual for 14+% of people to "lose" their insurance in any given year
can this really be the "lie of the year"?
Sounds like hyperbole to me."
<snip>
Starmedia11: "When Medicare was introduced, people were told signing up would cause them to lose their Social Security. This was not true. So, imagine an American politician saying,
"You can keep your Social Security even after the rollout of Medicare."
"Ok, sounds fine. Same thing with Obama. If you had insurance when he made that statement, the government would not force you to drop it. True.
Then, let's say I commit a crime, go to jail, and lose my Social Security. "It's a lie because he said passing Medicare wouldn't effect my Social Security, but now I have!"
Same thing with the healthcare law. Insurance companies chose to cancel peoples plans. There was no regulation stating they couldn't. So, even though what Obama said was 100% truthful, the fears were brought about by actions taken by other groups.
Can you call something a lie if it's truthful when I say it, and it gets contradicted by actions of others that I had no control over and who I didn't force to take those actions? I don't think so."
Another example; This summer I called Harbor Pointe GC, I asked them how it looked for two buddies and me to walk on. The scheduler said the course was wide open. I told my golf buddies the course is wide open, my buddies and I arrived at Harbor Pointe GC about an hour later but 7 walk on groups had arrived within 30 minutes ahead of us - we had to wait for close to an hour before we could tee off.
My questions are:
Did the scheduler lie to me?
Did I lie to my buddies?
.
