Republicans' healthcare plan, Karen Tumulty mislead about number of uninsured Americans

Senators Tom Coburn and Richard Burr and Reps. Paul Ryan and Devin Nunes have released a GOP universal healthcare proposal called the "The Patients' Choice Act of 2009" that you can read about here. As with many others, it misleads about the number of Americans who are without healthcare. The number frequently heard is 45 to 47 million, but that's not true: per the latest Census Bureau statistics, there are only about 36 million Americans without healthcare. The remainder are legal immigrants or illegal aliens; in either case they're citizens of foreign countries and not Americans.

If a source gets something so fundamental wrong (for whatever reason), you can't really trust the other things they say.

The summary of their plan says:

It is time to publicly admit that the health care system in America is broken. Costs are rising at an unacceptable rate — more than doubling over the last 10 years, which is nearly four times the rate of wage growth. Too many patients feel trapped by health care decisions dictated by HMOs. Too many doctors are torn between practicing medicine and practicing insurance. And 47 million Americans worry what will happen to them or their children if they get sick.

In her report (link), Karen Tumulty of Time Magazine repeats their false claim (link):

However, that Republican bill does not purport to assure coverage to all - or even most - of the 47 million or so Americans who now lack it.

Thu, 05/21/2009 - 10:50 · · Importance: 4