The White House might be banking on pure fatigue to push the health care bill into law. The public is tired of listening to all the blathering about corrupt provisions and competing analysis, and trying to separate fact from fiction. At the same time, the health care bill proponents seem to think that if they keep repeating the claim-kind of like a catchy commercial jingle-that their bill “bends the curve” and helps control the nation’s health care spending, people might begin to believe it.
But no matter how many times they say it or what tune it’s set to, the claim is simply not true. The chief actuary of the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services has another new report repeating this finding. As the New York Times health care blog summarizes: “the chief actuary of the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services found that the Senate version of major health care legislation would increase total national health spending from 2010 to 2019 by $222.3 billion, or 0.6 percent, more than projected under current law.”
So the cost curve is being bent, but in the wrong direction. Yes it’s tough to get up the energy to think about all the problems with this health care bill, but we can’t let them get away with selling this bill on such an absolute lie.