As is their custom, Democrats and fake news media are intentionally distorting the facts about the Senate Obamacare repeal.

While Democrat lawmakers and media news reporters are busy telling Americans that the Senate health care replacement bill, H.R. 1628, will result in 22 million more people being denied health care coverage, the truth is not exactly what is being stated.  Called the “Better Care Reconciliation Act of 2017,” the Senate Bill will save taxpayers an estimated $321 billion over ten years. 

The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) report claims that the Senate’s reconciliation bill would increase the number of uninsured “people” by 22 million by 2026.  It’s unclear from the summary, how many of these are illegal aliens, legal non-citizens or foreign refugees as opposed to taxpaying U.S. citizens. 

Furthermore, it must be understood that the CBO report states that many of the estimated 22 million people who will choose healthcare coverage, will be considered uninsured if they do not maintain what the Affordable Care Act (ACA) or Obamacare, considers “essential health benefit” minimum coverage. 

The report acknowledges that by 2018, 15 million people would become uninsured because Obamacare penalties will be abolished.  Many younger, healthy working taxpayers may choose not to purchase the same level of health care coverage (or none at all) once the ACA penalties are eliminated.  That will be their right to do so once again.

The CBO admits that by 2020, premiums for single adults are expected to be 30% lower than they are today.  The actual costs and deductible amounts do not account for decreases resulting from increased competition among insurers.  Currently, there are many areas of the country in which customers have only one or two companies from which to select the health care plans they want and can afford. 

Eliminating unnecessary riders such as mandatory vision and dental care for customers who do not have children, and coverage for mammograms and pap tests for men or prostate exams for women, will also be cost-savers.  Insurers presently price plans based upon packages of covered procedures dictated by the ACA and the Secretary of Health and Human Services.  Returning to the citizens, the freedom to choose the plans that best suit their individual needs is the only right way to go. 

Under current law, most individual health care plans that meet the requirements of the Silver Plan standard, are 200% to 300% more expensive than were comparable individual plans prior to the imposition of the ACA.  For reasonably healthy customers, these plans are virtually worthless for non-catastrophic non-emergency treatment because the deductibles are $6500 or more per year. 

Obamacare is a Democrat dream because it gives liberals a great deal of leverage over the voting public in perpetuity.  But that is also why is should be repealed.  Congressional Democrats and fake news media reporters will continue to tell only the facts of the CBO report that suit their purpose of defeating the repeal.  The complete CBO report can be found at www.cbo.gov/publication/52849. 

Democrats and the media will, no doubt, persist in non-stop demagoguery and fear-mongering, accusing Senate Republicans and President Trump of trying to “kill people” by “taking away their health care coverage.”  But the truth is that through Obamacare, Democrats stole--not only adequate effective health care coverage from individuals, but put the United States trillions of dollars in debt and compelled middle class taxpayers to fund individual plans for those who chose not to purchase their own.  The ACA further forced all Americans to subsidize coverage costs for the seriously-ill with “pre-existing conditions.” 

There are two levels of distortion at work in the debate over repeal of Obamacare.  First, there is misleading summary of the CBO report.  The facts are in the report, but readers must cull them out.  The second level is the media’s mischaracterization of the report’s contents without explanation. 

Contrary to the media and Democrat talking points memos, the wealthy are not those who will benefit the most from the total repeal of Obamacare.  The middle class will benefit the most.  Republicans must become more effective at messaging and skilled at combating media deception and Democrat lies.  Meanwhile, citizens need to research the facts for themselves, and learn to discern the difference between fact and fiction in CBO reports and distorted news coverage.