Summer of Myths and Fearmongering Scare Tactics

AARP Kentucky volunteers listened to thousands of members’ comments on overhauling the nation’s broken health care system at the annual State Fair. Specially trained volunteers delivered 11 daily public presentations on health care reform at the Fair and collected thousands of comments in an informal survey.

The health care debate in August was often heated and targeted consumers with myths and scare tactics used by special interests prevent all of us from getting dependable, affordable health insurance, such as saying it will:

Cut Medicare Benefits

None of the major health care reform plans currently being considered would cut Medicare benefits. Reform will lower prescription drug costs for people in the Part D “doughnut hole,” protect access to doctors, prevent costly and avoidable hospital readmissions, improve quality of care, and eliminate billions of dollars in waste that is causing poor care and medical errors.

Government Takeover

Health care reform will not be a government takeover. All of the main proposals currently being debated by Congress would preserve the employer-based health care system, meaning an estimated 200 million Americans will continue to get their coverage through their employers.

Can’t afford it

We can not afford the status quo—any one of us could be one pink slip or one serious illness away from financial ruin. If we do nothing to fix health care, families with Medicare or employer-based health coverage will likely see their premiums nearly double again in the next seven years.

Mandatory End of Life Counseling

We’ve even heard that an email has been circulating indicating that all Social Security recipients would be required to have “mandatory euthanasia counseling.” Not only is that completely false, it is a misleading and cruel scare tactic. Health care reform will NOT give the government the power to make life or death decisions for anyone regardless of their age.

Rationed Care

Health care reform will not give the government the power to make important health care decisions, regardless of a person’s age. Those decisions will be made by individuals, their doctors and their family.

People need to hear the good things that will happen when we pass real reform. AARP is calling on Congress to guarantee all Americans have a choice of dependable, affordable health insurance plans and preserve your choice of doctors who can work with you to make the best possible health care decisions for you and your family.

AARP believes health care is not a Democratic or Republican issue. It’s about people’s lives. That’s why we believe health care reform must fix what’s wrong and preserve what’s right. Health care reform must strengthen and improve Medicare, protect people’s choice of doctor and insurance plan, stop insurance companies from charging older people unaffordable premiums, and guarantee dependable, affordable coverage.

Don’t let special interest groups trying to block progress on health care reform fool you with their myths and scare tactics. Letting the myths get in the way of fixing what’s broken with health care will hurt all of us. We need an American solution to our health care challenges and we need to work with our lawmakers to make sure we get one.