Separating ACA fact from myth

As the health-care exchanges opened across the nation under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, local and national media were full of investigative stories that tried to separate fact from often agenda-fueled fiction.

For instance, the Tampa Bay Times’ popular PolitiFact section listed 16 of the top Obamacare whoppers from both ends of the political spectrum, labeling them either “Pants on Fire” or merely “False.” The refuted fallacies ranged from President Obama’s claim that health-care premiums have “gone up slower than any time in the last 50 years” because of the new law to Sarah Palin’s “death panels” fable and radio yakker Rush Limbaugh’s charge that the new health-care law is “the largest tax increase in the history of the world.”

The media also carried reports of scammers who preyed on the confusion, calling folks with false warnings that they needed to buy a “national insurance card” and trying to collect their Social Security numbers and other identity-revealing data.

It turns out, though, that most folks weren’t getting sucked in by the orchestrated obfuscation – at least in Colorado.

“Folks are kind of sitting around, waiting,´ said spokesman Ben Davis of Connect for Health Colorado, the state’s health-insurance marketplace that opened for business Oct. 1. “The large majority of people just want to ask ‘Will you be open?’ or ‘Are you going to offer the services you set out to offer?’

Many visitors to the exchange’s website, connectforhealthco.com, and callers to its help line want to know which carriers are involved in their county, Davis said. “It’s offered on a county-by-county basis, and people from Huerfano County and Denver County are going to get two different answers.”

People who want to shop the exchanges for health insurance – which will be mandatory as of Jan. 1 – also want to know whether they qualify for tax credits or other assistance to help pay for the policies they choose, Davis said.

The toll-free help line, 855-PLANS-4-YOU (855-752-6749) is staffed from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday through Friday.

Connect for Health Colorado staff also will be holding events around the state to answer questions and help people sign up. One is scheduled from 7 to 9 p.m. Oct. 14 at Avogadro’s Number, 605 S. Mason St. in Fort Collins.

Oh, and about that talk-radio report that all patients will be implanted with microchips? FactCheck.org says no.

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