The health care reform lies begin; and are debunked

As Congress goes into recess, the prospects for health care reform look decent. That has spurred the opponents of reform -- who apparently just love the current system -- to use every means at their disposal to fight it. That includes thuggish behavior at Senator's and Representative's town halls (there's even a manual of how to behave badly being distributed by an insurance lobbyist).

The tactics also include a long chain email that purports to go through many portions of the House reform bill, and tells you what is in the bill, with scary detail of what a hellish thing reform will be.

Almost everything in the email is a lie.

If and when you get a copy of the email (or its inevitable mutations) from a well-meaning relative, colleague, or friend, be prepared with the facts, and be ready to send them to the debunking analyses below. In fact, I'll just give you something you can copy and paste into a reply:

Hi,

It turns out that most of the "facts" in this email about the health care reform bill in the Congress just aren't true, and the source of the email is a vociferous right-wing opponent of health care reform.

Politifact did their fact-checking thing on the email, and rated many of its falsehoods in their "Pants on Fire!" category, the most egregious category. See their analysis here.

Shorter link for the above: http://bit.ly/ABtWJ

There is an even more detailed debunking by a health policy expert, writing in the Huffington Post. You can find that here.

Shorter link for the above: http://bit.ly/Ud1iN

I hope this clears things up. It's obvious that America can't go on with the current broken health care system; insurance companies have too much control over our people's health care, and are driven by what will make them the most profit, not by what will provide the best care for us. Most of us, even if we have insurance, are just one serious illness away from medical bankruptcy. If you do get sick and lose your job, you may never be able to get affordable health insurance ever again. And too many people aren't covered at all. That's just not right.

There's plenty of room for people to disagree on what should be in health care reform, but poisoning honest debate with lies isn't the way.

Best,

That should do it. Copy it, sign it, and send it.

You're welcome.