Here is just a short list of the ways that the Obama administration has mislead voters just relative to Medicare in propagandizing about the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA). And Medicare is a relatively small part of PPACA's 2000 pages:
- No mention of the tax on Medicare Advantage policies that began this year, precursor to the Gruber tax on employee sponsored insurance to begin in 2017 or 2018 with the goal of ending employee retiree insurance (and employee insurance for those still working)
- Claims 25,000,000 have received "free flu shots" when flu shots have been free under Medicare since 1992
- Claims 5,000,000 have received "free cholesterol testing" when such testing has been free under Medicare since 2003
- Claims of seniors saving billions in the Part D "donut hole" when less than 1% of people on Medicare are fully affected by the donut hole and less than 10% are at all affected by the donut hole AND that relatively small group (it is never any low income people) can get state assistance, coverage from a former employer, or can buy donut hole insurance (I am not defending the donut hole but it is what allows the 95% of us who come no where near the donut hole to get cheap prescriptions)
- Claims public Part C Medicare Advantage policies are private although -- when the US Census counts people's insurance statust -- it correctly counts people on Medicare Advantage as having public insurance
- Claims most of the money cut from Medicare by PPACA is taken away from private insurers when most is taken away from acute care hospitals, skilled nursing facilities and home health care agencies
- Claims most people on Medicare Advantage are rich when in fact Medicare Advantage is used disproportionately by the poor but at least many of them will keep getting it for free even under PPACA because of George Bush's Social Security Extra Help program
- Claims Part D of Medicare is unfunded
- Claims PPACA has held Part C and Part D premiums flat (in this claim, the Obama administration complicit with the insurance industry talks about policies offered, not policies taken; not many people sign up for the crappy low cost C and D policies that keep the averages low)
- Claims Medicare as we know it" is good insurance when it is so bad that 95% or more of the people forced to use it -- because they paid taxes for 50 years -- get usually private additional insurance (see image above, which shows most of those on Original Medicare only are covered by employer sponsored insurance because they still work or a spouse still works or because they are in the VA system)
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