Obama Smacks Down Alexander / CNN's Fact Check: Democrat's Health Care Plan Will Lower Premiums

[Turborama]

Run time: 01:35 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MLtqkRNraNk   Posted on YouTube: February 25, 2010 By YouTube Member: Views on YouTube: 0   Posted on DU: February 26, 2010 By DU Member: Turborama Views on DU: 1935

 

CNN Fact Check: Democrat's Health Care Plan Will Lower Premiums: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XK8d8_4gvsc

We've been checking the facts. Ali Velshi is over at the CNN Fact Check for us. Ali, listen to this exchange that the president had earlier with Lamar Alexander, the Republican senator from Tennessee.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

OBAMA: So, Lamar, when you mentioned earlier that you said that premiums go up, that's just not the case, according to the Congressional Budget Office.

SEN. LAMAR ALEXANDER (R-TN), CHAIRMAN, SENATE REPUBLICAN CONFERENCE: Mr. President, if you're going to contradict me, I ought to have a chance to -- the Congressional Budget Office report says that premiums will rise in the individual market --

OBAMA: No.

ALEXANDER: -- as a result of the senate bill. OBAMA: No, no, no. Let me -- and this is an example of where we need to get our facts straight.

ALEXANDER: That's my point.

OBAMA: Well, exactly. So, let me respond to what you just said, Lamar, because it's not factually accurate.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: All right, let's see what is factually accurate. What are you finding out?

ALI VELSHI, CNN CHIEF BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: All right, we've been checking this out on the Fact Check Desk. Get this, Wolf, they are both kind of right, but this one goes to the president. He's more right than Senator Alexander.

Here's why -- the Congressional Budget Office has said that if the Senate's plan -- that's the one we're looking at right now -- if the Senate's plan is implemented, then rates for premiums in the year 2016 will be 10 to 13 percent higher than they are if the plan wasn't implemented. So, that is where Lamar Alexander is right. The CBO, which is an independent -- independent of the political party, says the rates will go up.

But here's the reality, 57 percent of those insured will see a government subsidy, which will bring the average premium down, actually. It would be -- it would drive average premiums down seven to 10 percent. But this is all based on assumptions. What a lot of people will do because they are under-insured is they will take the savings and apply it to other value in health care. They might, most likely, buy insurance that has more coverage.

So, in fact, the premiums will go up because the offerings will be better. That is the assumption by the Congressional Budget Office, which says that premiums will be higher as a result by 10 to 13 percent. But as the president implied, it's going to be because people will have an ability to buy more. So, it's not an apples-to- apples comparison. Premiums may be up in 2016, if the Senate bill gets passed, but people will get more health coverage as a result of it.

It's a -- it's a split decision here, heavily weighted toward the president -- Wolf.

....


VELSHI: Yes, in fact, Lisa Desjardins from CNN and, of course, Dana Bash have done some work on this question. I want to bring a clarification to you. The 57 percent of people who would see their premiums go down dramatically because of government subsidies would be 57 percent of people who are individually insured, not 57 percent of everybody whose insured.

In fact, if you are one of the largely insured by a corporate plan or a work plan, the reality is that the CBO, the Congressional Budget Office, estimates that if the Senate plan goes into place, most people would see their premiums decrease or stay the same. So, the worst off are those 47 percent of the individually insured, people who are not part of a larger plan, who will see their premiums go up.

So, the reality is, the 57/43 is actually a division of people who are insured individually, not people who are part of larger plans. The Congressional Budget Office said that under the plan, most people will see their premiums decrease or stay the same. So I said earlier it was a split decision between the president and Senator Lamar Alexander. This new information brings it puts it further into the president's corner.

http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/1002/25/se.04.html

[ProgressOnTheMove]

1. The Republicans may of done a waffle buster but the power of technology means we can skip it on ...

cspan youtube. Thank goodness!! Even though the GOP took up time Democrats got in some great zingers to the GOPS barage of nonsense. The summit did its job it showed to moderates that these people are wasting our time and people are suffering big time. The opposition had pettiness, "weak sauce", and complaining. Democratic party members came with the facts and won.

[democracy1st]

2. true K & for youtube!

[pundaint]

3. The premiums go down because of subsidies? What, are subsidies paid with - that money from trees?

I see that the insurers get more money. That money can only come from people - premiums and taxes used to subsidize premiums.

Obama has sold us out and thinks we too stupid to understand. We are not, and we do not forget.

[olegramps]

5. You are full of it. Go crawl back under your slimy rock, troll.

[swilton]

8. I agree with pundaint

I fail to see that the Democratic Plan or the Obama plan control costs - it's a give away to corporate health insurance by mandating that the uninsured by their crap. Fail, Fail, Fail.

And I thought Alexander who is one of the more moderate Republicans made a good point.

[humbled_opinion]

11. No I kind of agree with him.

With no public option this Senate Bill is a crap. Forced to purchase from the industry, subsidized with more tax dollars to the industry for those that can't afford a plan. This is a boon for insurance industry and only someone being blindly led can't see that.

Take off your Obama Pollyanna glasses and look at the situation you may see it differently. I hate a large portion of the senate health plan to, yes there are good things in there too it address pre-existing and insurance drops but the bad stuff could mostly be eliminated with a true Government run option.

Now if you were to tell me lets implement this thing which actually takes 2 - 3 years to implement and then we see major problems with young people refusing to buy policies as required by law (what a joke) and insurance industry seriously raising costs crippling the economy the only option would seem to be a govt run solution but that seriously relies on having Democrat control of Congress and at that time a Democrat in the White House and you know based on reality again that simply is not going to be the case. Obama, Pelosi and Reid invested too heavily in this Health Insurance fiasco.

My position is this. If the Democrats are going to use Reconciliation to pass this they are investing serious political capital in this time of the teapeople. Then the Democrats need to pass something that will work and that is a single Payer Health Insurance plan modeled after medicare. Then if you want to keep what you got you would be a fool simply put and the rates would go down because 200 million Americans would be in the risk pool.

[demwing]

4. "That's not factually accurate" is a smack down?

that's the most genteel smack down on record.

[vaberella]

13. It is when your in front of cameras.

Off camera it's more like..."You're fuckin' lying and I'll tell you why."

[ProfessorPlum]

6. god, I'm glad that obama has his facts straight, but after watching the CNN

fact check, I'm just wondering why the hell we just don't go to single payer. It would save everyone a boatload of money - the insured, the uninsured, the government.

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

9. Because it would wipe out an industry.

I say "go ahead" because that industry had its chance and blew it.

[AlbertCat]

10. It would save everyone a boatload of money

Not the all important insurance companies!

It is abundantly clear that the reason this is so complicated is because they are trying to reform things without changing anything.

They say Health Insurance is 6% of our GNP. That may be a huge amount of money, but it's still just 6%. I'm no economist but isn't that a "wound" that could "heal" fast. Like something else won't take its place. Like the paper pushers in Insurance can't find something else to insure? Health Care Insurance providers are not health care providers y'know. They know nothing about medicine. They are number crunchers, paper pushers, middle men.

[Stuart G]

7. Thanks for posting this. K and R. Very important exactly .shows how they lie,

[Cha]

12. KR