|
By Joseph Devlin
Health care reform is closer than ever, but right-wing hit men continue to employ corporate "researchers" to muddy the waters. Such as the recent Lewin Group study which gave rise to rumors of federal "death panels" designed to kill off patients by denying care. Unfortunately, leading politicians like Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) have relied on Lewin reports, apparently unaware of the company's underlying conflicts of interest.
Link: http://thinkprogress.org/2009/...
First, the latest Lewin study was bad research. It didn't reflect the legislation before Congress and relied on unrealistic assumptions. Lewin figured that private companies could buy into the public plan while the government dramatically increased the cost of private policies. Neither is the case.
Link: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/...
In fact, the most likely effect of a "public option" would be to force private insurers to become more efficient and reduce administrative costs. The Congressional Budget Office figured that perhaps three million people would shift from employer plans. In contrast, Lewin made the fantastic claim that nearly 90 million people would drop private policies and take the public option.
Link: http://mediamatters.org/resear...
This conclusion may reflect the fact that Lewin is a subsidiary of UnitedHealth Group, which sells private insurance policies. UnitedHealth obviously opposes government competition.
|
