Wednesday, July 25, 2012

More Liberal Scare Tactics on Pre-Existing Conditions

The liberal group Families USA released another report that supposedly makes the case for Obamacare – but in reality just demonstrates the lengths liberals will go to in order to gin up support for their flawed law.  The report claims that “64.8 million non-elderly Americans have been diagnosed with pre-existing conditions that could lead to denials of coverage, absent health reform.”

There are several problems with this claim.  First, the Administration released a report last year claiming that 129 million individuals have pre-existing conditions and “could be denied affordable coverage.”  In other words, the Families USA study also claims that the number of individuals with pre-existing conditions has just been cut in half when compared to the prior HHS report.  Which is another way of saying the Families USA report implicitly admits that the HHS study is flawed, biased, and should not be considered reputable.  (But hey, what does a difference of a mere 65 million people make among friends?)

Second, enrollment in pools for people with pre-existing conditions is nowhere near as high as the Families USA report would suggest.  According to the most recent data released by the Administration, 73,333 individuals with pre-existing conditions are enrolled in the federal high-risk pool program established under Obamacare.  These enrollment data do not come anywhere close to earlier projections – the Medicare actuary originally projected enrollment at 375,000 individuals in 2010, and Congressional Budget Office estimated up to 700,000 individuals would attempt to enroll in the program by next year.  To put it another way, the number of enrollees in pre-existing condition pools under Obamacare is .11% of the 64.8 million people Families USA claims have pre-existing conditions.

Finally, it’s worth pointing out that today’s report was conducted for Families USA by the Lewin Group.  The Huffington Post and other liberal allies called Lewin a front group for insurers back in 2009, when it released studies showing how a government-run health plan could cause millions to lose their health insurance.  Surprisingly, we have yet to see HuffPo and other liberal groups similarly criticizing today’s Families USA/Lewin study as being biased by a tainted insurer front group, when it helps trumpet the talking points of Obamacare supporters.

It’s true that the problem of individuals with pre-existing conditions is real – but nowhere near as pervasive as the types of reports produced by HHS and Families USA would have you believe.  That’s why Republicans have offered and supported targeted solutions that would solve this problem WITHOUT a 2700-page law intruding into every corner of the American health sector.  The trumped-up claims in this latest Families USA report once again illustrate that while pre-existing conditions are a problem for some Americans,  Obamacare is far from the right solution.