Aisha Tyler’s Obamacare sales pitch needs work

http://twitter.com/#!/Twanzio/status/359790892997025793

Aisha Tyler, the voice actress for the popular cable show “Archer,” is among the celebrities recruited by the White House to promote Obamacare.

Tyler took to Twitter to bolster support for the law earlier today. Many liberals were delighted, but Twitchy noticed holes in some of her arguments.

Let’s start with her assertion that Obamacare will keep wealthy people like her from paying for everyone else’s health care:

http://twitter.com/#!/aishatyler/status/359789258808111104

Under Obamacare, of course, subsidies are extensive. Who does Taylor think will pay for those subsidies?

http://twitter.com/#!/aishatyler/status/359775258976325632

“Cheaper?” That’s very questionable.

http://twitter.com/#!/aishatyler/status/359776144528125954

Emergency Room visits cost a thousand times more than other types of health care? Doubtful.

http://twitter.com/#!/aishatyler/status/359784686270169088

Obamacare didn’t make it illegal for insurance companies to drop patients when they become ill. That was already illegal. Has been since 1997.

http://twitter.com/#!/aishatyler/status/359784971428311040

We’ll pay less? Again, that’s questionable.

http://twitter.com/#!/aishatyler/status/359810795783196673

Tyler is an actress. If she were an economist she would know about the “moral hazard” problem and she would understand that people should pay for oil changes, tuneups, and gas out of their own pockets, not through insurance premiums.

http://twitter.com/#!/aishatyler/status/359803843879514113

Except the majority of Americans think Obamacare is flawed and will reduce the quality of health care.

http://twitter.com/#!/aishatyler/status/359815734563586048

“All studies”?

From the New England Journal of Medicine:

Sweeping statements about the cost-saving potential of prevention, however, are overreaching. Studies have concluded that preventing illness can in some cases save money but in other cases can add to health care costs. For example, screening costs will exceed the savings from avoided treatment in cases in which only a very small fraction of the population would have become ill in the absence of preventive measures.

Doesn’t look like “all studies” to us.

By the way, during President Obama’s first term, the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPTF) recommended less cancer screening, not more:

The USPSTF is the … review panel that advised cutting back on routine ovarian cancer screenings last month, recommended fewer prostate cancer screening tests in May 2012, and proposed mammogram restrictions for women over age 50 in 2009.

In fact, the Mayo Clinic reported this summer that mammogram screenings for women in their 40s have declined nearly 6 percent since the Obama panel announced its decision in 2009. “Comparing mammography rates before and after publication of the new guidelines,” the Mayo Clinic wrote, “researchers found that the recommendations were associated with a 5.72 percent decrease in the mammography rate for women ages 40-49. Over a year, nearly 54,000 fewer mammograms were performed in this age group.”

Forbes columnist Dr. Paul Hsieh explains:

ObamaCare links insurance coverage of preventive medical services to their USPSTF rating … [U]nder ObamaCare, Medicare payment decisions will become increasingly controlled by the new Independent Payment Advisory Board, explicitly created to reduce Medicare spending … To reduce costs, many private insurers will likely drop coverage for “C” and “D” rated services. Hence under ObamaCare, the USPSTF guidelines will likely become the de facto standards for both government and private health insurance coverage.

If screening is as awesome as Tyler thinks it is, she should be very worried indeed.

Read more: http://twitchy.com/2013/07/23/aisha-tylers-obamacare-sales-pitch-needs-work/

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