Donald Trump: “I am pro-life.” [LifeNews, 4/8/11]
Ted Cruz opposed abortion even for victims of rape and incest, and referred to contraception as “abortion-inducing drugs.” [PBS, 3/23/15]
Marco Rubio did not support abortion exceptions for cases of rape or incest. [CNN, 8/9/15]
Ben Carson said he opposed abortion in all cases, including rape and incest. [New York Times, 10/25/15]
Ben Carson compared abortion to slavery.” [Raw Story, 10/25/15]
John Kasich signed into law a bill banning abortion after 20 weeks with no exceptions for rape or incest. [Huffington Post, 7/21/11]
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Here’s a dose of reality:
The evidence is clear when it comes to access, affordability, and quality the Affordable Care Act is working.
For the last 50 years, Americans have struggled to navigate a health care system that has failed to put patients first. Millions who were uninsured struggled to pay for even a doctor’s visit, while those who had insurance risked losing it when they needed it most. Quality care, especially preventive screenings and checkups that keep people healthy, was a luxury for many. And doctors were encouraged to focus on the amount of care they delivered, rather than effectively treating patients’ big-picture health.
Today, as a nation, we are at the threshold of a truly historic opportunity. The promise of positive transformative change in the U.S. health care system is at hand, thanks to:
The evidence is clear when it comes to access, affordability, and quality the Affordable Care Act is working.
ACCESS
Strong Enrollment in the Health Insurance Marketplace. On March 31, 2015 about 10.2 million Americans had paid their premiums and had active coverage through the Health Insurance Marketplace.
Historic Reduction in the Uninsured. We have seen the largest reduction in the uninsured in four decades. Since the passage of the Affordable Care Act five years ago, about 16.4 million uninsured people have gained health coverage. Those gains come primarily from the Marketplace, young adults who can stay on their parents’ plans until they turn 26, and Medicaid expansions.
Progress in Fighting Health Inequity. Since 2013, the uninsured rate has declined 9.2 percentage points for African Americans, resulting in 2.3 million adults gaining coverage and 12.3 percentage points for Latinos, resulting in 4.2 million adults gaining coverage. Since 2013, the uninsured rate among women declined 7.7 percentage points, resulting in 7.7 million women gaining coverage. An estimated 55 million women are also benefiting from preventive services coverage with no out-of-pocket costs. And health insurers can no longer discriminate based on gender, so being a woman is no longer a preexisting condition.
Medicaid Expansion. Over 12.3 million additional individuals are enrolled in Medicaid and CHIP as of April 2015, compared to before October 2013. To date, 28 states plus DC have expanded Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act. This is one of the areas where we know more can be done. We want to work with all the states that have yet to expand — to get as many people covered as possible.
Reducing Uncompensated Care in Hospitals. As a result of Marketplace coverage and Medicaid expansion, hospital uncompensated care costs were reduced by an estimated $7.4 billion in 2014, compared to what they would have been in the absence of the coverage expansion. Medicaid expansion states account for $5 billion, or 68 percent, of that reduction. If all States fully expanded Medicaid, uncompensated care costs would be about $8.9 billion lower in 2016 than they would be if no additional states expanded Medicaid.
From Coverage to Care. Now that millions of Americans have health coverage, we are working toeducate consumers about their coverage and to reduce barriers so that they can get the care they need to live longer and healthier lives.
AFFORDABILITY
Health Care Coverage is now Affordable for Millions of Americans. Of the about 10.2 million consumers who had paid their premium and had active Marketplace coverage on March 31, 2015, nearly 8.7 million (85 percent) nationwide and 6.4 million in the 34 states with Federally-facilitated Marketplaces received an average premium tax credit of $272 per month. And in 2015, nearly 80 percent of Marketplace shoppers using HealthCare.gov could purchase coverage for $100 or less after tax credits. A recent Commonwealth Fund study found that in 2014, fewer Americans had problems paying medical bills or medical debt, and fewer went without care because they couldn’t afford it. This is the first decline and lowest level in these areas since 2005.
Choice, Competition and Premiums. Insurers have decided that the Marketplace is a good place to do business and as a result, consumers have more choices. Twenty-five percent more issuers joined the Marketplace for the 2015 Open Enrollment, and consumers could choose from an average of 40 health plans, up from 30 in 2014. Studies show more issuers are associated with more affordable premiums.
Health Care Cost Growth Has Slowed Sharply. Since the Affordable Care Act became law, the price of health care has risen at the slowest rate in 50 years. Medicare has paid out nearly $316 billion less through 2013 than it would have had previous trends continued. The average premium for employer-based family coverage rose just 3 percent in nominal terms in 2014. Just more than a decade ago, surveys by the Kaiser Family Foundation frequently registered double-digit premium increases for this type of coverage.
QUALITY
Improved Patient Safety. Since 2011, patient harms like hospital-acquired conditions, pressure ulcers, central line associated infections, falls and traumas have fallen by 17 percent, saving an estimated50,000 lives and $12 billion dollars.
Fewer Avoidable Hospital Readmissions. The Medicare all-cause 30-day readmission rate fell to approximately 17.5 percent in 2013, translating to an estimated 150,000 fewer hospital readmissionsamong Medicare beneficiaries between January 2012 and December 2013.
Alternative Care Models are Driving Value. Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs) are groups of providers and insurers who work together to put patients in the center of their care and create better health outcomes. Today, more than one in every 14 Americans gets their health care from one of more than 700 ACOs established by Medicare and other payers. ACOs have generated a combined$417 million in savings for Medicare. In addition, the Pioneer ACO model has been certified as the first patient care model to meet the stringent criteria for expansion to a larger population of Medicare beneficiaries.
Higher Quality Coverage. After years of dropped coverage, flimsy plans and barriers to care, everyone’s coverage has improved because consumers have new protections, including those who get health insurance through their employers. They can’t be turned away because of pre-existing conditions; they can’t be dropped just because they get sick and insurance has to cover care that Americans count on like trips to the emergency room, prescriptions and preventive services.
We are transforming the way Americans get health care and they have sent a clear message that the Affordable Care Act’s benefits are needed, wanted, and liked.
Content created by Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs (ASPA)
Content last reviewed on June 24, 2015
Donald Trump: “No citizenship.” [CNN’s New Day, 7/30/15]
Ted Cruz: “I think a path to citizenship for those who are here illegally is profoundly unfair.” [Washington Post, 7/21/13]
September 2015: Marco Rubio ruled out a path to citizenship during his presidency. [Bloomberg,9/22/15]
Ben Carson said he would allow some undocumented immigrants to “become guest workers, not citizens, not voting people, not people who get goodies.” [CBS’s Face the Nation, 9/13/15]
John Kasich: “I’m not for giving anybody a path to citizenship here.” [Fox News’ Hannity, 12/30/15]
]]>Ted Cruz: “I will direct the Department of Defense to destroy ISIS.” [Ted Cruz press release, 12/6/15]
Donald Trump on his ISIS plan: “I would bomb the shit out of them.” [Real Clear Politics, 11/13/15]
Paul Waldman: Marco Rubio’s ISIS plan was a “collection of ideas ranging from the irrelevant to the ridiculous.” [Paul Waldman, The Week, 11/23/15]
Ben Carson on his ISIS plan: “The mission that I would give our military is to destroy them first.” [Salon, 2/26/15]
Washington Post’s Paul Waldman: “When Bush is asked what he’d actually do to fight ISIS, he offers a combination of things the Obama administration is already doing.”[Washington Post, 11/18/15]
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WHICH REPUBLICAN HOPEFULS HAVE OPPOSED A PATHWAY TO CITIZENSHIP?
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Jeb Bush: “During an interview Wednesday with the New Hampshire Union Leader in Manchester, Mr. Bush was asked whether he supported a pathway to full citizenship. He replied, ‘No.’ ‘What do we do with the 11 million people here? I think the answer is earned legal status,’ he said.” [Washington Times, 7/8/15] |
Donald Trump: “Donald Trump would reverse President Obama’s executive orders on immigration and deport all undocumented immigrants from the U.S. as president, he said in an exclusive interview with NBC’s Chuck Todd. ‘We’re going to keep the families together, but they have to go,’ he said in the interview, which aired in full on NBC’s ‘Meet the Press’ Sunday. Pressed on what he’d do if the immigrants in question had nowhere to return to, Trump reiterated: ‘They have to go.’ ‘We will work with them. They have to go. Chuck, we either have a country, or we don’t have a country,’ he said.” [NBC News,8/16/15] |
Ben Carson: “CARSON: You also turn off the spigot that dispenses the goodies… DICKERSON: Right. CARSON: … so that people don’t have any incentive to come here. And then those who are here, you know, we have to recognize that we can’t just round them up, but we can give them an opportunity to register. I would give them a six-month period. And if they register and they have a pristine record, they haven’t been causing problems, I would give them an opportunity to become guest workers, not citizens, not voting people, not people who get goodies.” [CBS’s Face the Nation, 9/13/15] |
AND THE REST? THEY’RE ALL THE SAME.
When asked if he supported a path to citizenship, Marco Rubio avoided the question, responding, “It’s not a yes or no answer.”
John Kasich remarked that he was “not for giving anybody a path to citizenship here.”
]]>Republicans are Red. / Democrats are Blue. / CTR made some cookies / Inspired by you!
Happy Valentine’s Day! “Carpet Bomb ‘Em,” “Build a Wall,” “Ban All Muslims”—you invoked it, we wrote it (with frosting). Such sentiment! Nothing says “love” like heart-shaped cookies. Republican candidates, eat your words!
XOXO,
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Thursday, January 28, 2016
Washington, DC — In response to tonight’s Republican debate in Iowa, Correct The Record President Brad Woodhouse released the following statement.
“FOX News, the Republican Party and the Mini-Me collection of Republican candidates who participated in tonight’s GOP debate in Iowa learned the hard way what it’s like to live in the age of Trump,” said Correct the Record President Brad Woodhouse. “While Trump was across town being carried live by every other network, and while he, not the other GOP candidates, dominated social media, the rest of the Republican field desperately and hopelessly failed to catch up to him.
“It was Donald Trump who set the agenda for a debate that he didn’t even bother to show up for. From talk of zero ‘amnesty’ to snatching health care away from millions of Americans, to spewing their hatred of Hillary Clinton, the GOP debate sounded like a greatest hit parade from one of Trump’s own rallies.
“Long ago this crowd of GOP presidential wannabes made the decision that if you can’t beat him, join him – and in the Age of Trump that means, above all else, hate-filled rhetoric, bellicose fear-mongering and an aversion to any semblance of facts. But for all their efforts tonight, from Cruz to Rubio, Bush and the rest – once again, they got Trumped.”
Correct The Record is a strategic research and rapid response team designed to defend Hillary Clinton from baseless attacks.
Correct The Record ∙ http://correct2016.wpengine.com/∙ Facebook ∙ @CorrectRecord
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]]>“Well I will gladly confess that I am the only one on this stage with no political title. You’re not going to hear a lot of polished political speech from me, but you will hear the truth and I don’t think you have to be a politician to tell the truth.”
Fact-check? True:
Ben Carson: “My own personal theory is that Joseph built the pyramids to store grain.” “On Wednesday, a 17-year-old video surfaced of Ben Carson claiming that the Old Testament figure Joseph built the Egyptian pyramids to store food. ‘My own personal theory is that Joseph built the pyramids to store grain,’ Carson said in a 1998 commencement speech at Andrews University, unearthed by BuzzFeed. ‘Now all the archaeologists think that they were made for the pharaohs’ graves. But, you know, it would have to be something awfully big — when you stop and think about it, and I don’t think it’d just disappear over the course of time — to store that much grain.’ Social media quickly overflowed with scorn. Critics — and not just archaeologists — pointed to well-documented evidence that the structures were built as tombs, not granaries. Photos of pyramid burial vaults circulated on Twitter. Soon, Carson’s comments had become a meme with references to the food pyramid and ‘Stargate.’” [Washington Post, 11/5/15]
Ben Carson compared Syrian refugees to “dogs.” “‘If there’s a rabid dog running around in your neighborhood, you’re probably not going to assume something good about that dog, and you’re probably going to put your children out of the way,’ retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson said Thursday in Mobile, Ala.,when he was asked about Syrian refugees. ‘It doesn’t mean that you hate all dogs by any stretch of the imagination, but you’re putting your intellect into motion.’” [Washington Post, 11/19/15]
Ben Carson on climate change: “These are all very complex things. Gravity, where did it come from?” “‘You don’t believe in evolution or climate change, I believe,’ the Republican presidential candidate was asked at a town hall at the University of New Hampshire in Durham. ‘And I was just wondering, do you seriously not believe that climate change is happening?’ ‘Is there climate change? Of course there’s climate change,’ Carson replied. ‘Any point in time, temperatures are going up or temperatures are going down. Of course that’s happening. When that stops happening, that’s when we’re in big trouble.’ […] And later in his three-minute response, he said, ’Just the way the Earth rotates on its axis, how far away it is from the sun. These are all very complex things. Gravity, where did it come from?’” [New Republic, 10/1/15]
Ben Carson said that “marriage is between a man and a woman” and compared supporters of marriage equality to “people who believe in bestiality.” In response to a question by Sean Hannity about his views on gay marriage, Ben Carson said, “Well, my thoughts are that marriage is between a man and a woman. It’s a well-established, fundamental pillar of society and no group, be they gays, be they NAMBLA, be they people who believe in bestiality. It doesn’t matter what they are. They don’t get to change the definition.” [Slate, 3/28/13]
Ben Carson said the Affordable Care Act was “the worst thing that has happened in this nation since slavery.” “Dr. Ben Carson didn’t mince words: Obamacare is ‘the worst thing that has happened in this nation since slavery.’ Dr. Carson made the declaration about President Obama’s sweeping health care mandate Friday during a speech at the Values Voter Summit. ‘It is slavery because it aims to make all of us subservient to the government,’ he said. ‘It was never about health care. It was about control.’” [Washington Times, 10/11/13]
Ben Carson said that Thomas Jefferson helped write the Constitution. “During a recent TV interview, Republican presidential candidate Ben Carson was asked which Founding Father impressed him the most. ‘I’m particularly impressed with Thomas Jefferson, who seemed to have a very deep insight into the way people would react and tried to craft a constitution in a way that would control people’s natural tendencies and control the natural growth of government,’ Carson replied during a Nov. 22 broadcast on C-SPAN. Our ears perked up, because Jefferson was an ocean away from Philadelphia during the late spring and summer of 1787 when the Constitutional Convention met at Independence Hall. He was in Paris, serving as minister to France for the Confederation Congress. […] Historians with whom we spoke say Jefferson, at most, deserves a footnote at the end of the credits for sending books from abroad that may have influenced Madison’s thinking. So we rate Carson’s statement False.” [PolitiFact, 11/27/15]
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