Trump’s Recent HealthCare Claims Fact-Checked

Trump’s Claims That 2 Million More People Just Dropped out of ObamaCare, that ObamaCare is in a Death Spiral, and that Democrats are Obstructing Fact-Checked

Trump claimed a lot of things about healthcare recently, we fact-check some key claims like “2 million more people just dropped out of ObamaCare.”

Claim: Trump recently tweeted “2 million more people just dropped out of ObamaCare. It is in a death spiral. Obstructionist Democrats gave up, have no answer = resist!”

Fact-Check: The idea that 2 million more people just dropped out of ObamaCare is misinformation, what actually happened is 10.3 million of the 12.2 million people who had enrolled in a plan actually paid their premium. That is normal, happens every year. Trump therefore used misinformation as propaganda.

Fact-Check: The idea that ObamaCare is in a death spiral is also misinformation, the states that rejected ObamaCare’s major provisions like Medicaid expansion and the exchange bring down the national average. The Republicans have an ongoing strategy to “break ObamaCare” and so it worked quicker in states they control. In other words, this is more propaganda.

Fact-Check: The idea that obstructionist Democrats gave up, have no answer… is also misinformation. Democrats can’t obstruct, because they don’t have the votes (the country put Republicans in power and they have a majority in the legislative branch and control the executive). Further, the Democrats have a ton of answers, but none are being listened to. The Republicans don’t even plan on having a hearing for the TrumpCare bill they are re-writing in secret right now.

Claim: Trump recently said, “The Democrats are destroying health care in this country.”

Fact-Check: The idea that “The Democrats are destroying health care in this country” is an opinion, but given the fact that Trump is President, it is his administration that has made all recent changes (not Democrats). In fact, the recent instability is said to be a result of the repeal plan and actions like withholding of funding for cost sharing reduction subsidies. The last thing Democrats did regarding healthcare on a federal level was the 21st Century Cures Act. Trump and Republicans are in power, controlling the White House and both Chambers of Congress, and it is other Republicans who keep blocking the GOP health bills. Not to mention, the GOP has an ongoing strategy to “break ObamaCare” which hasn’t been helping.

Claim: Trump said, “Obamacare has been broken, and it’s been a broken promise.”

Fact-check: Again, the Republicans have been trying to break ObamaCare for years, so “it being broken” is 1. not true in every state, but 2. in republican states where it is broken… that is at least a partly a result of Republican obstruction. That said, this is opinion presented as fact, so it is a little hard to properly fact-check.

In other words, Democrats aren’t perfect and neither is the ACA, but Trump skips over any valid criticism and goes straight to talking points.

Thus, the result is that Trump is using the same tactic the GOP has been using for the past 8 years regarding healthcare (and 80 years regarding social programs), but is adding in more misinformation than the average Republican usually does.

That tactic is 1. break ObamaCare, 2. blame Democrats, and 3. offer the “GOP fix” (which is actually just cuts to assistance and tax breaks for the rich).

Trump’s claims are therefore, misinformation designed to perpetuate myths that are part of an overarching Republican strategy to cut social spending and give tax breaks to the rich.

Now consider, this is just a few claims made about healthcare. We haven’t even dug into the abolishing of the estate tax, the slandering of Comey and the FBI, or the thousand other things that fit this same mold.