So PolitiFact deems that "a government takeover of health care" is a "lie" and we are all to take its word for it (Review & Outlook, "PolitiFiction," Dec. 23)? Let's see: Government defines what health insurance is. Government defines what "minimum essential coverage" is. Government forces everyone to buy one of four varieties of overpriced, low-value health insurance. Government expands government-run Medicaid by 16 million people and plans to issue government checks to buy government-approved health insurance.
Congress establishes 159 government agencies to run the new health-care system. The government grants new powers to the Secretary of Health and Human Services, who will "deem," "create," "define," "determine," "approve," "disapprove" and otherwise dictate everything about health care in America. The government takes away the power of individuals to appeal bad decisions by the secretary to the courts. The government assigns Medicare patients to doctors they have never met. The government penalizes doctors who don't save money for government and insurance companies or follow cookbook medicine guidelines while expanding rationing powers of government and the insurance companies that it now effectively controls.
The government encourages the creation of massive new "Accountable Care Organizations" and suggests that doctors join them so they can help the government and insurance companies ration care to patients.
Nope, no government takeover in the 2,500 pages of legislation. The St. Petersburg Times should change the name of "politifact.com" to "politicalpropaganda.com."
David McKalip
St. Petersburg, Fla.
Those of us who are subject to this hyperpartisan branch of progressivism can still remember when the St. Petersburg Times boasted as its motto: "Merely to tell the truth."
Dan Calabria
South Pasadena, Fla.
Any health-care plan that requires 15,000 to 18,000 additional IRS agents for implementation says it all.
Barbara Wall
Fallston, Md.
Long before PolitiFact pronounced that the phrase "a government takeover of health care" was the "lie of the year," this self-proclaimed arbiter of political facts chastised none other than Vice President Joe Biden for exaggerating the role of Washington in health care. Mr. Biden's "half-truth," according to PolitiFact, was his statement that the federal government had to gain greater control of health-care costs because 46 cents of every dollar spent was attributable to Medicare or Medicaid. The full truth revealed by PolitiFact was that Medicare and Medicaid accounted for only 30 cents of every dollar spent, while other federal health programs accounted for an additional 16 cents.
So, starting with the numbers authenticated by PolitiFact, 46% of health-care spending, pre-ObamaCare, was directed by Washington, mostly through Medicare and Medicaid but also through numerous other federal programs. ObamaCare layers on state insurance exchanges, mandated coverage requirements by private insurance carriers and price controls for those insurers.
When all is said and done, federal and state governments will be in direct control of more than 50% of health-care spending and Washington will be dictating coverage and price guidelines to private companies that, for the time being, are permitted to coexist. A truly objective observer might argue that "a government takeover of health care" was at least a half-truth and, therefore, only a half-truther would deem it to be the biggest lie of the year.
Some years ago, nervous Nellies were alarmed that the government had engineered a takeover of the housing-finance market, with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac backing so many mortgages. Cooler heads prevailed based on the argument that Fannie and Freddie weren't the government; they were publicly held companies that carried only an implicit federal guarantee. No doubt PolitiFact's "Truth"-O-Meter would have revealed that the mortgage market was a bastion of free enterprise, just as the health-care industry is today. The worst-case cost of the Fannie and Freddie bailout is around $1 trillion. That's also the purported price tag of ObamaCare's first 10 years, although the "Truth"-O-Meter must have been broken the day that number was concocted.
Ted Phillips
Richmond, Va.
This explains why National Public Radio relies on PolitiFact for news analysis.
Ron Wakefield
San Diego
I suggest the Journal counter PolitiFact with its own "Lie of the Year." How about President Obama's definition of "working Americans"? It includes only individuals earning less than $200,000 a year. It would be laughable if it weren't so insulting.
Ted Blake
Hoboken, N.J.
Keith Burgess-Jackson, J.D., Ph.D. 