President Trump's USA Today op-ed lacerating Democrats' push for Medicare-for-all on Wednesday used his signature hyperbolic flair, including claims that health care as we know it would be "forced to die" and that Democrats want to recreate Venezuela.
But The Washington Post's fact checker found that the op-ed was even worse than merely hyperbolic. "Almost every sentence contained a misleading statement or a falsehood," the Post concluded. The single-payer health-care plan as outlined by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) would expand services for seniors, not "take away benefits that seniors have paid for their entire lives," as Trump posited.
Fact checker Glenn Kessler also pointed out that health insurance premiums have not, in fact, gone down on average, and Trump did not keep his promise to bolster protections for pre-existing conditions. Where Trump blames Democrats, the Post blames the efficacy of health-care providers; where Trump claims seniors will be disproportionately harmed, the Post describes the opposite. When Trump, or his ghostwriter, inexplicably ropes in the calls to abolish Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Kessler reminds him that it's far from a widely held view.
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Trump's warning that the "Democratic plan would inevitably lead to the massive rationing of health care" is nothing more than a "Chicken Little" style "scare scenario," Kessler determines. Read the point-by-point dismantling of Trump's rhetoric at The Washington Post.
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