Washington Post Fact-Checker Gets His Facts Wrong about Medicare Cuts
In a review of her previous claims, the Washington Post fact-checker gave presidential candidate, Michele Bachmann, two Pinocchios for the following statement:
“Senior citizens get this more than any other segment of our population, because they know in Obamacare the president of the United States took away $500 billion — a half-trillion dollars — out of Medicare, shifted it to Obamacare to pay for younger people.”
The Post went on to explain why it thought the statement was inaccurate…
The Medicare savings in the health-care law are aimed at providers, not seniors; meanwhile, seniors stand to benefit from aspects of the health-care law that Republicans want to repeal.
The Medicare chief actuary would seem to agree with Bachmann. In his illustrative alternative report, Richard Foster explained that under the impending cuts to the Medicare program, one in seven hospitals that treat Medicare patients would be insolvent; Medicare reimbursements would fall below Medicaid levels, causing seniors to increasingly have difficulty finding providers who will treat them.
Good post, Devon. This was pretty sloppy work for someone who is supposed to be a “fact checker.”
Ditto Greg’s comment.
I don’t think we, as the public, believe anything that the experts say is a health care “fact” anymore, without a lot of proof.
If you look at the figures from the Department of Health & Human Services, there were about $575 billion in Medicare cuts and $25 billion in new benefits.