Tuesday, July 27, 2010

“Educating” Seniors about the Health Care Law

Yesterday the National Council on Aging released a poll highlighting seniors’ views on the health care law.  The poll was funded by a grant from the Atlantic Philanthropies, a liberal foundation headed by a Huffington Post blogger and focused on “enduring social change.”  Perhaps unsurprisingly given the poll’s sponsor, the survey contained a number of “objective” questions where the facts, as categorized by non-partisan experts, vary significantly from the “correct” answers asserted by the pollsters:

  • The survey says that the law will not “result in future cuts to your basic Medicare benefits,” but the Medicare actuaries concluded that about 15 percent of hospitals and related Medicare providers could become unprofitable within ten years, “possibly jeopardizing access to care for beneficiaries.”
  • The survey says that the law will not “increase the federal budget deficit over the next ten years and beyond,” but the Medicare actuaries found that the Medicare savings provisions “are unlikely to be sustainable on a permanent annual basis,” and the Congressional Budget Office concluded that many of the law’s major savings provisions “might be difficult to sustain for a long period,” and should not be expected actually to occur.
  • The survey says that the law will extend the solvency of the Medicare trust fund, but the Congressional Budget Office found that the provisions “would not enhance the ability of the government to pay for future Medicare benefits.”
  • The survey says that the law “will improve the availability of long-term care at home for seniors with disabilities,” but the Medicare actuaries found the law’s new long-term care entitlement, the CLASS Act, “faces a significant risk of failure;” even one leading Democrat called the CLASS Act “a Ponzi scheme of the first order, the kind of thing Bernie Madoff would have been proud of.”
  • The survey says that the law may or may not lead Medicare Advantage plans to “cut benefits and increase premiums,” but the Congressional Budget Office found that extra benefits for seniors would fall by an average of more than $800 per year by 2019 – and millions more seniors will lose their Medicare Advantage plan entirely.

Given the vast inconsistencies between the survey’s supposed “facts” and the assessments of independent observers, some may be encouraged to know that not a single person got all the “correct” answers defined by the poll’s sponsors.  But others may question the implications of announcing a “Straight Talk for Seniors” campaign that, based on the questions above, relies on incomplete, inaccurate, or misleading assertions – and fails to consider the impartial statements of the non-partisan Medicare actuaries and CBO.  Liberal groups supporting the law are entitled to their opinions, but not their own facts.