So we all know politicians lie. Sometimes its about Argentinian women and sometimes its about death panels but, no matter their level of creativity, they still need to be held accountable. That’s why here at the Song we are committed to interrogating the truth.
This time the perpetrator is Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.). In his latest attempt to kill health care reform, he’s been running around the airwaves trying to convince America that the Senate health care bill would mean “higher premiums, higher taxes, and massive cuts to Medicare.” His office drafted a press release to this effect which can be found here.
If you read my recent post “Can Somebody Paint Me a Decent Picture? Part 1: Health Care Reform” you might be thinking to yourself right about now that McConnell has succeeded perpetrating this hoax on the American people but, thanks to a new analysis released by MIT, we can once again counter fiction with fact and start setting the record straight. HEALTH CARE REFORM MEANS LOWER PREMIUMS AND BETTER COVERAGE. Period. End of story.
More specifically, the MIT analysis found that individuals would save “over $2500 at low incomes (175% of poverty), and would save $200 even at higher incomes (425% of poverty or higher).”
For families, the savings are even more substantial: approximately $7500 for low income families (at 175% of poverty) and $500 for higher incomes (425% of poverty or higher).
And don’t forget…these cost savings are in addition to increased insurance benefits and strict consumer protections against being denied coverage when you get sick.
Nice try Mitch. End of try.
HECK YEAH, MIT ROCKS.
We need more non-partisan analysis with free and easy paths of distribution to the public goin’ on.
Indeed. People working, without any anterior motives, to help problem solvers better determine the best path forward is a rarity nowadays.
A side note, but I also find it quite amusing when people disagreeing with an argument always attack the source of that argument before the argument’s actual merits.
For example, I could have attacked this McConnell guy by saying: We can’t trust him: In 2009, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) named McConnell one of the 15 most corrupt members of Congress, stating that “Sen. McConnell’s ethics issues stem primarily from (1) earmarks he inserted into legislation for clients of his former chief of staff in exchange for campaign contributions and (2) the misuse of his nonprofit McConnell Center for Political Leadership at the University of Louisville.”
By contrast, people would probably say that MIT is just saying this because it is just another liberal center of higher education, located in the heartland of socialism: Massachusetts.
- Matt Horowitz