More Cornyn Lies About Healthcare

It should come as no surprise to Texans who know what Senator John Cornyn is like, but he is again telling lies and trying to scare the citizens of Texas in opposing real health care reform. He is now telling Texans that the Baucus Health Care Bill (which admittedly could be improved) will add $20.4 billion to Texas Medicaid costs over a ten year period.

Using figures he says comes from a Texas Health and Human Services report, he says the $20.4 billion cost will come from having to cover an additional 2.5 million Texans with Medicaid. Sounds scary, huh?

But the Center for Public Policy Priorities in Austin says the study "overstates the general revenue cost" and is based on "incomplete information." It says "There are cost savings in other areas", such as federal reimbursements that would increase under the bill.

It's not surprising that Cornyn would cherry-pick parts of the bill that support his scare tactics, and ignore other parts that mitigate those scary statistics. But perhaps the stupidest thing Cornyn said was, "Medicaid delivers poorer health outcomes than private insurance..."

Just what is he trying to say here? Does he want to cover these 2.5 million people, who cannot afford insurance, with a private insurance policy? Let's examine just what that would cost Texas in terms of dollars.

A private policy with decent coverage nowdays costs about $12,000 a year. But let's be generous, and assume that Texas would agree to a less expensive policy, covering less but still giving adequate coverage. Let's cut the figure in half, and purchase these private policies at $6,000 a year.

Just doing a little simple math, it would take $15 billion to cover the 2.5 million people with private insurance EACH YEAR! The total cost over Cornyn's ten year period would be $150 billion, and that's assuming there would be no rise in premium cost over that ten year period.

The truth is that private premiums are rising at about 10% per year, so the real cost would be much higher than the $150 billion. Even if the $20.4 billion for ten years was true, it sounds like a bargain compared to this.

But we all know Cornyn has no intention of helping these people to get private coverage (or any other kind of coverage). He's just trying to help his rich buddies at the insurance companies by scaring the people into opposing health insurance reform.

He and his rich buddies have their coverage, and to hell with everyone else. It's the Republican way these days.