More Republican Lies about Healthcare

In true Republican form, we have seen party members take to their self-assigned pulpits and proclaim that “119 million Americans will be off healthcare” if the Democratic healthcare plan is enacted.  We are bombarded with this same untruth countless times on popular media venues.  I supposed they are following the old mantra that says if you tell a lie over and over again that eventually people will believe.

Let us examine this statement out of the context of the 30 second sound-bite.  “119 million Americans will be off healthcare if the Democratic plan is enacted”.  They attribute this statement to the “independent health care analyst”, Lewin Group.  Here is the link to their web site. The whole truth is that these 119 million Americans will be off corporate healthcare plans and onto the government plan and simply because it will have better benefits and cost less.  That statement is also from the same Lewin Group study, and so conveniently left out of the Republican line.

Also conveniently omitted from the Republican line is the fact that this study was conducted by a subsidiary of one of the Nation’s largest health insurance corporations, United Healthcare.  Just do a little Googling and you can find this article over at BusinessWeek.com that states, “The company was founded in 1970 and is based in Falls Church, Virginia. As of June 12, 2007, The Lewin Group, Inc. is a subsidiary of Ingenix, Inc.”  We turn to Google again and find this statement on the Ingenix web site, “Ingenix is a wholly-owned subsidiary of UnitedHealth Group, founded in 1996…”.

I leave you to conjure your own conclusions about the statement, “119 million Americans will be off healthcare” if the Democratic healthcare reform plan is enacted.