Right-Wing Group Spreading Health Reform Lies

Using nearly all of the right-wing lies about health care reform in a single, brief commercial, the “Better Government Association” is using fear tactics to scare people about providing the choice of a public option for health care.

Here is their Press Release:

CANTON, Ohio, July 27 /PRNewswire/ — The Better Government Association (BGA), a newly formed 501 C4 non-profit association, announced today it will be making a huge splash into the debate on Cap-and-Trade, national health care and the socialist policies of the Obama Administration and the Democrats with a nationwide ad campaign using television, radio, newspapers, Internet and direct mail across the country.

The Better Government Association has hired the best marketing experts in the world to produce advertising that will present the facts and persuade the public to turn against the socialized policies, including national health care, of the Obama Administration and Congress.

Better Government Association (BGA) to Launch Massive Ad Campaign.

Government-run, i.e. not-for-profit, health care, like that enjoyed by millions of citizens on Medicare, and the V.A. health system for members of the armed forces is consistently rated higher, with greater satisfaction and fewer road-blocks to receiving care than exists with private, for-profit insurance.  Yet, here we have a video so full of lies that it almost seems like a parody of an attack ad:

[Update 08/19/2009:

The "Better Government Association" is no more. A court order ruled that they had misappropriated the name of a real watchdog group called, "Better Government Association"]

Even though the health care bill specifically states that it will not cover illegal aliens, the video says that we would have to cover 20 million illegal aliens and provide for their health care. It says that government-run health care would put private insurers out of business, when in fact, a public option competing with private insurance companies will keep insurance premiums lower for everyone.

Ever notice how most of the people bused in to the Town Hall Meetings to protest loudly have gray hair and are already covered by Medicare, a government-run health care system?  One senior shouted out that “the government better keep its hands off of my Medicare!”, not knowing that Medicare is government-run health care.  Could they really not know that that they have guaranteed coverage because of the government?  Would private health insurers take them on as customers at all once they are were in their advanced years? Of course not.

Isn’t it obvious that without health care reform, our payments for insurance premiums and medications will double or triple in the next five years?  The only plans we will be able to afford will have such huge deductibles, it will be like not having insurance at all.

It’s amazing how the free market is always discussed by corporations as the heart of capitalism, yet the for-profit insurance companies want to be the only player in providing health care coverage, and not compete in a real capitalist system. If private insurance is so great, what do they need to fear from a public option? Since citizens will have a choice to keep their coverage or choose a public option, obviously the private insurers, with the superior health coverage will attract the majority of patients, right?

In reality, the health insurance companies know that they serve no useful role in the delivery of heath care. If they were not spending 1.3 million dollars per day on lobbying and killing health care reform, we would join the rest of the civilized world and have a single-payer system.

That would mean we would never have to sell our homes or declare bankruptcy because of lack of  insurance, expensive hospital stays, high deductibles,  or high-priced medications.  We would never have our policies canceled because we  became ill or the insurance company fabricated a pre-existing condition.  Small businesses would not have to endure 40% rate increases from year to year, threatening their very survival.

The insurance companies are willing to do anything to prevent health care reform, and this video is testimony to that fact.