| October 11, 2018 10:00 AM
Washington Post fact-checker Glenn Kessler wrote Wednesday that an op-ed written by President Trump "contained a misleading statement or a falsehood" in "almost every sentence," though Kessler largely based his finding on competing statements by Republicans and Democrats or on disputed information regarding Obamacare's impact on healthcare markets.
Trump's op-ed, published Wednesday in USA Today, argued that Democrats, if elected in the midterms, would push for policies that lead to higher insurance premiums, less healthcare choice, and a weak, Venezuelan-style economy.
"Throughout the year, we have seen Democrats across the country uniting around a new legislative proposal that would end Medicare as we know it and take away benefits that seniors have paid for their entire lives," Trump wrote.
[Related: Trump says US 'would end up' Venezuela if Democrats win midterms]
Kessler disputed the claim because, "on paper at least," a plan by Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., to provide Medicare for everyone "would improve benefits for seniors, not take them away."
Kessler also asserted that "in theory," senior citizens would receive more healthcare benefits under Sanders' plan.
Trump wrote in his op-ed that under his administration, "we are now seeing health insurance premiums coming down."
Rebutting the claim, Kessler said that premiums "have continued to increase on average, just at a lower rate than in the past" and he said that "experts say that without Trump’s moves to weaken [Obamacare], premiums would be even lower in many states."
But the only expert Kessler cited was Charles Gaba, who runs a blog tracking state-by-state enrollment in the individual health insurance markets set up by Obamacare.
There are others who disagree. Katherine Hempstead, a senior policy adviser at the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, a nonprofit that studies health issues, told NPR in September that, "In quite a few states, we're actually seeing premiums going down" and that premiums nationally were generally going up in line with standard inflation in the healthcare industry.
Trump predicted in his op-ed that Democratic policies "would inevitably lead to the massive rationing of health care," a political claim shared by Republicans who point to extended wait periods for elective surgery in other countries with universal healthcare as evidence.
Kessler called the prediction "a scare scenario," even while admitting that an overhaul of the U.S. healthcare system "would lead to upheaval and uncertainty."
Sumber: https://washex.am/2EgRASb
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