DAILY MYTHBUSTER: Health Insurance Reform - This Week in Mythbusting

HOUSE SPEAKER NANCY PELOSI

September 18, 2009

Health Insurance Reform

This Week in Mythbusting

Health insurance reform opponents continue to spread myths about components of America's Affordable Health Choices Act. But the mythbusters fought back with the truth - debunking misinformation about the impact of health insurance reform on young people and people with disabilities, doctors' support of a public health insurance option and the constitutionality of reform.

MYTH: "The House health insurance reform bill will not benefit young people - instead imposing unaffordable mandates upon them."

FACT: The House bill provides young adults with access to quality, affordable health insurance they may not have now--including one-stop shopping online to find the best individual plan if their employer doesn't cover them. The fact is that young adults are the most likely to be uninsured - making them hit hardest by the health care crisis. [FIND MORE FACTS HERE ]

MYTH: "Health insurance reform will ration care, harming people with disabilities."

FACT: In fact, the House bill protects people with disabilities from discrimination and unfair business practices that have resulted in loss of coverage and denial of care. This critical legislation will help ensure that all Americans - including those with disabilities - have access to affordable, high quality health coverage... and that insurance company bureaucrats are no longer rationing care based on health, age, or ability to pay--instead putting doctors and patients back in charge of health care decisions.

Forty-three organizations representing individuals with disabilities, chronic conditions and their families signed a letter in support of America's Affordable Health Choices Act citing a number of provisions included in the bill that will benefit people with disabilities and chronic conditions. [FIND MORE FACTS HERE ]

MYTH: "Doctors oppose a public health insurance option."

FACT: According to a new survey by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation published in the New England Journal of Medicine, 63 percent of physicians support a health reform proposal that includes both a public option and traditional private insurance. If the additional 10 percent of doctors who support a public-only option are included, then 73 percent of doctors across the country support inclusion of a public option. Only 27 percent of those surveyed support private-only options. [FIND MORE FACTS HERE ]

MYTH: "Health insurance reform could be unconstitutional...or violate the 10th amendment."

FACT: As with creating Medicare and Medicaid, the federal government has the Constitutional power to reform our health care system. The 10th amendment to the U.S. Constitution states that the powers not delegated to the federal government by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the states, are reserved to the states... or to the people. But the Constitution gives Congress broad power to regulate activities that have an effect on interstate commerce. Congress has used this authority to regulate many aspects of American life, from labor relations to education to health care to agricultural production. Since virtually every aspect of the heath care system has an effect on interstate commerce, the authority of Congress to regulate health care is essentially unlimited. [FIND MORE FACTS HERE ].