Paul Mitchell: textbook example of a wingnut liar

Here’s an example of the sort of mendacity popular on wingnut blogs, this from a particularly dimwitted specimen name of Paul Mitchell (no, not the hairdresser). He’s been busy spreading a particularly pernicious rightwing fairy tale about HR 3200, the healthcare bill now being considered by Congress:

From HR3200, page 16, Line 11-16, says that a “Grandfathered” private insurer CANNOT enroll new people into their program after year one. So, if you are NOT in a private plan before year one is over, YOU CAN NEVER GET IN ONE. So, what does that do? It makes private insurance IMPOSSIBLE because they can NEVER sign up new clients. GET IT, MORON?

Well, he used CAPITAL LETTERS. That’s undeniable proof that he’s telling us the absolute truth, right?

Of course not. Mitchell is deliberately lying when he says that “if you are NOT in a private plan before year one is over, YOU CAN NEVER GET IN ONE”. He is pretending that “grandfathered private insurer” is synonymous with “any private insurer” — which, of course, it is not.

HR 3200 [PDF] goes into great detail regarding the requirements that an insurance plan must fulfill to participate in the proposed health insurance exchange. Upon reading the requirements (which start at section 122(b) of the bill), one sees quickly that these requirements are virtually identical to the benefits now provided by private health plans available from many employers, as Tim Foley has noted:

The qualified benefits package includes coverage for hospitalization, doctors visits, prescription drugs, mental health, maternity, etc. that is defined to be “equivalent to the average prevailing employer-sponsored coverage.” So right from the start, the definition is what private employer-sponsored plans are already providing.  The Health Insurance Exchange is itself populated with private insurance options and, according to page 81, anyone buying from this transparent marketplace, whether because their employer doesn’t offer them insurance or because they work for a small business “may choose coverage under any such plan” both for themselves and for their dependents.  And, of course, those who cannot afford a plan are subsidized so they only pay a fraction of their income, and Uncle Sam picks up the rest.

Read that again.  Not only is private insurance not being outlawed, it’s receiving subsidies from the federal government.

Whoops. That giant whooshing sound you hear is the credibility of Paul Mitchell, and thousands of wingnuts just like him, being flushed down the toilet.

The claim that you won’t be able to get private insurance through your employer under HR 3200 has been further debunked by MediaMatters.

To Paul Mitchell: You’re a wingnut and a liar, Mitchell. No one expects you to be anything else. No one expects you to acknowledge your lies — on the contrary, it is obvious that you will go right on lying. Just be aware that it is now a matter of record that you are, in fact, a liar.

GET IT, MORON?

UPDATE 07/28/09 1:27 PM EDT Paul Mitchell tries, and fails, to prop up his lies with more bluster:

(A) IN GENERAL.—Except as provided in this paragraph, the individual health insurance insurer offering such coverage does not enroll any individual in such coverage if the first effective date of coverage is on or after the first day of Y1.

This is exactly, word for word what the Bill says. So, any private insurer CANNOT add a single person to any existing plan after the first year that the LAW is in effect.

False. Y1, as used in the bill, is not “the first year the LAW is in effect”. It is defined in Sec 100(c)(25) as the year 2013. The provision to which Mitchell refers deals strictly with plans in existence on the first day of Y1, not with any plans that may be created after that date. Plans created after that date are perfectly free to enroll new subscribers.

By the way, there are some other provisions in that section, too, but none actually strike out this NO NEW PARTICIPANTS clause.

False. Note that subparagraph (A) states “Except as provided in this paragraph”… and if one bothers to read the next paragraph, one finds that the bill as proposed does, in fact, allow for new enrollees in grandfathered plans:

(B) DEPENDENT COVERAGE PERMITTED. Subparagraph (A) shall not affect the subsequent enrollment of a dependent of an individual who is covered as of such first day.

This is typical of the cherry-picking that Mitchell does. He takes certain phrases out of context, and ignores everything else — because the facts simply do not fit the fantasy narrative he is trying to sell.

After year one, you may NEVER get a new person into the plan. That means the number of your customers never increases, ever.

False. The bill permits for enrolling new customers into plans that meet the requirements for participation in the insurance exchange, as defined in section 122(b) of the bill. None of the requirements listed for such a plan are especially onerous; virtually all of them are found today in the myriad of private health insurance plans offered to employees. Section 122(a) notes that this minimum coverage package is required to be “equivalent… to the average prevailing employer-sponsored coverage”. Oh, the horror!

This next bit is my favorite:

Also, this does not limit any NEW companies from offering another plan that meets the provisions of the government plan, either. BUT! If you were a capitalist and you wanted to start a medical insurance company, while strapped to exactly what you must offer and the amount you must charge for it, how long would you stay in business?

So Mitchell admits outright that new plans can, in fact, be offered under the provisions of the new bill. But he pretends that the only way to offer a new private health care plan after the passage of HR 3200 is to start a new company — an utterly ridiculous assertion, and one that is not supported by any provision of the bill. He also provides no evidence for his claim that the bill will dictate “the amount you must charge for” a qualifying private insurance plan. Where, exactly, are those premium levels specified?

Wingnuts make shit up out of whole cloth and try to sell it to you as fact — and Paul Mitchell is nothing if not the archetypal wingnut.