Email from White House: It's time for a reality check‏

White House email | 8/10/2009 | David Axelrod

[koraz]

Dear Friend,

Anyone that's watched the news in the past few days knows that health insurance reform is a hot topic — and that rumors and scare tactics have only increased as more people engage with the issue. Given a lot of the outrageous claims floating around, it’s time to make sure everyone knows the facts about the security and stability you get with health insurance reform.

That’s why we’ve launched a new online resource — WhiteHouse.gov/RealityCheck — to help you separate fact from fiction and share the truth about health insurance reform. Here's a few of the reality check videos you can find on the site:

CEA Chair Christina Romer details how health insurance reform will impact small businesses. Domestic Policy Council Director Melody Barnes tackles a nasty rumor about euthanasia and clearly describes how reform helps families. Matt Flavin, the White House's Director of Veterans and Wounded Warrior Policy, clears the air about Veteran's benefits. Kavita Patel, M.D., a doctor serving in the White House's Office of Public Engagement, explains that health care rationing is happening right now and how reform gives control back to patients and doctors. Bob Kocher, M.D., a doctor serving on the National Economic Council, debunks the myth that health insurance reform will be financed by cutting Medicare benefits. There's more information and a number of online tools you can use to spread the truth among your family, friends and other social networks. Take a look:

We knew going into this effort that accomplishing comprehensive health insurance reform wasn't going to be easy. Achieving real change never is. The entrenched interests that benefit from the status quo always use their influence in Washington to try and keep things just as they are.

But don't be misled. We know the status quo is unsustainable. If we do nothing, millions more Americans will be denied insurance because of pre-existing conditions, or see their coverage suddenly dropped if they become seriously ill. Out-of-pocket expenses will continue to soar, and more and more families and businesses will be forced to deal with health insurance costs they can’t afford.

That's the reality.

Americans deserve better. You deserve a health care system that works as well for you as it does for the status quo; one you can depend on — that won't deny you coverage when you need it most or charge you crippling out-of-pocket co-pays. Health insurance reform means guaranteeing the health care security and stability you deserve.

President Barack Obama promised he'd bring change to Washington and fix our broken, unsustainable health insurance system. You can help deliver that change. Visit WhiteHouse.gov/RealityCheck, get the facts and spread the truth. The stakes are just too high to do nothing.

Thank you, David

David Axelrod Senior Advisor to the President

[koraz]

I just got this email with links to a website. I could use some help from Freepers in verifying their "facts." Here is the link.

http://www.whitehouse.gov/realitycheck/?e=10&ref=text2

[koraz]

try this link.

http://www.whitehouse.gov/realitycheck/?e=10&ref=text2

[yefragetuwrabrumuy]

Obama: “Socialism means more to us than your life.”

[razorback-bert]

I notice they are using the focus group wording health insurance reform not health care reform.

[roses of sharon]

Axelrod and his parents are communists...no facts, just propaganda.

[Dudoight]

Someone said we needed to have this health care plan because of sky rocketing costs of insurance in the past 10 years.

That is kind of dumb as gasoline costs have more than skyrocketed in the past 10 years....

Does that mean that we will need a gasoline rationing plan regulating how much you get depending on your ‘usefulness’ to society? Will those who don’t own cars (like ‘no health insurance’) get their rationed gas also. Or free bus tickets?

I think gas to operate your vehicle is a human right. Lets get busy.

[rarestia]

I don’t know about anybody else, but I just plain don’t want health care reform. I don’t give a rip about what’s in the bill, I just don’t want it.

Here’s the deal, people... we are catering to a very miniscule minority. The deadbeats who don’t want jobs shouldn’t bitch that they can’t get prescription medication to feed their addictions. I don’t want to be paying for some idiot going to the ER for a bee sting or one of these people who are pathological ER visitors. Our tax dollars already go toward paying for indigent care. Why is this hard to understand?

The morning drive host on my AM station this morning was lamenting that he’s paid over $52,000 and put in scads of his own time for paperwork since he’s self-insured. He’s a contractor for the radio station, so they don’t provide insurance. This guy, a self-described Libertarian, was actually browbeaten to the point that he was asking callers to tell him the downside to not having to file paperwork and spend your own time to get health care.

Every caller just spewed the talking points we all hear. He rebutted every one of them with some level of common sense, but that made me think: just because you’re disenchanted by your experiences with the health care establishment doesn’t mean you should hand it over to the government.

We need lawsuit reform in this country... period. Law schools are turning out lawyers like a union-run auto plant turns out sedans. With a dearth of lawyers looking for money, they’re going to do everything they can to find loopholes and sue based on specialty claims. Hell, someone could probably sue me just for posting this under some obscure law in the US Code, but I don’t worry about that.

Likewise, I think it’s disgraceful that doctors have to worry about being sued for not issuing a test or misdiagnosing. C’mon people... cutting off the wrong leg in surgery is malpractice. Being misdiagnosed with a wart when it’s a pimple doesn’t mean that you go running to sue for all the money.

This country has grown to the point where everyone wants to get rich quick. No one wants to work for anything anymore. No one wants to save. Everyone wants everybody else’s money. Until the American mindset changes, we’re going to be stuck in this rut where doctors are being sued for anything. 8 years of schools and countless years of residencies and internships hardly seem worth it when the doctor needs to have millions of dollars of insurance.

Get government out of healthcare altogether. That’d be a good start.

[downtownconservative]

If Axelrod was in on this website, “FactCheck” means this is what we want you to believe is true; these are the half-truths that won’t scare you; the blantant lies will be disquised in vague statements of what the program isn’t; the given “facts” will be general statements of broad goals that no one can nail down. Yeah, pure socialist propaganda just about sums it up.

[Republic]

Who is paying for this propaganda for a policy program uhbama wants enacted? Who pays for this? Is our White House being PIMPED out again like the clintons did for power and the big 'win'?

Is it legal to use tax dollars and White House resources for partisan purposes? I do NOT WANT THE MONEY THIS FAMILY SENDS TO WASHINGTON TO BE USED FOR ANYTHING OTHER THAN DEFENSE IN INFRASTRUCTURE NEEDS, MEDICARE, MEDICAID and FEDERAL SALARIES. PERIOD.

[Republic]

make above ‘defense AND infrastructure’

[all the best]

Please don’t give them any ideas. Not that they need any help.

[kcvl]

But don't be misled.

That means we need to stop reading David "Astroturf" Axelrod's 'note'.

[Vendome]

I just zipped through the FAQ’s and they are a total fabrication of the facts.

I am getting ready for a trip so I can’t elaborate but I recommend reading www.WhiteHouse.gov/RealityCheck

[loungeSerf]

I’m reporting this to flag@whitehouse.gov. Seems fishy.

[Vendome]

I spent in the last month $1,500 for a medical problem and I don’t have “health insurance”.

By my reckoning with my trusty abacuse I am still $6,000 aheaad.

“health insurance” comes with deductibles, DOES NOT cover everything, cover only 50-80 of costs, and you need a permission slip from the insurance company to even get treatment.

I told the doctors in the last month I will Pay Cash just give me a reasonable cost. They gave me a small break and didn’t ask for more.

I know they do not get full payment from the Insurance company but I am willing to pay them now and in cash. I did.

I too do not care what is in the plan proposed. I absolutely just don’t want it and no one is going tell me what to do.

[Danae]

Anyone buying Dave’s BS here?

Anyone?

(((((((CRICKETS)))))))))

Yea Dave... we can READ, and we have read the bill, and we are NOT interested!!!

[paulycy]

[koraz]

Here is some of my research to rebut each point made in the email.

CEA Chair Christina Romer details how health insurance reform will impact small businesses.

see http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970203517304574306303720472842.html

Small Businesses. Employers who don’t provide coverage will have to pay a tax up to 8% of their payroll. Yet those who do provide coverage also have to pay the tax—if the law says their coverage is not “adequate.” Amazingly, even if a small business provides adequate insurance but its employees choose coverage in another plan offered through the government, the employer still must pay.

[koraz]

Domestic Policy Council Director Melody Barnes tackles a nasty rumor about euthanasia and clearly describes how reform helps families.

http://www.defendyourhealthcare.us/images/website_rebuttal.pdf

[koraz]

There have been flawed criticisms of my reading of a section of H.R. 3200. The critics have hastily read page 425 of the HR 3200, rather than reading the full relevant text (425‐443) or considering the reality of being a frail elderly patient. Here are four facts frequently overlooked: The counseling includes not only living wills and durable powers of attorney, but specific methods to end life. On page 430, the bill prescribes counseling on whether or not to forego nutrition, hydration, and antibiotics, in states where such counseling is permitted. There is an inherent conflict of interest in this counseling. Medicare funding is going to be cut 10% over the next decade ($500 billion in cuts) to pay for the health reform legislation, at the same time that Medicare enrollment is projected to increase 30%. More people to care for and fewer dollars will necessitate rationing. It is understandable that the government wants to curtail spending on end of life care. But the use of specific “patient decision aids” (p.443) discussed in the legislation such as scripts, videos, and brochures is problematic. If United Healthcare provided end of life counseling with a script prepared by the insurance company, there would be up uproar over the obvious conflict of interest. The author of “Pants on Fire” should read on to pages 443 to see that patients will participate in “shared decision making.” Shared with whom? The government certified counselors. No where is it stated that the patient unilaterally has the final say. The bill merely says the patient’s views will be “incorporated” into the decision making. The author ignores how unlikely it is that elderly patients will instruct a doctor or other authority figure who offers end of life counseling to stop the presentation