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Health reform ‘reality show’ comes to Washington — MedCity Morning Read, Aug. 11, 2009

President Obama and his allies moved forcefully on Monday to rebut what they say is "misinformation" being spread by opponents of their health care reforms and to spotlight disruptions of town hall meetings by protesters. The White House has launched a new health care "reality check" page at its Web site to lead the confrontation.

By Mary Vanac on August 11, 2009

WASHINGTON, D.C. — President Obama and his allies moved forcefully on Monday to rebut what they say is “misinformation” being spread by opponents of their health care reforms and to spotlight disruptions of town hall meetings by protesters, according to the Los Angeles Times.

The public’s concerns about Obama’s health care proposals are heating up town hall meetings, chat rooms and radio shows, driving down the president’s poll numbers and threatening  the future of his highest domestic priority — reforming health care — according to an Associated Press story published at Yahoo! While Congress is on summer break, lawmakers are hearing from constitutents worried about divisive issues such as the government’s role in health care and the costs of an overhaul, the AP said.

Obama plans a town hall meeting today in Portsmouth, N.H., and two more this week: Bozeman, Mont., and Grand Junction, Colo. All of the meetings will come since protesters began gabbing headlines at meetings held by members of Congress in their home districts, the L.A. Times said. 

Democrats hope direct online engagement with dissenters will will blunt rising public anxiety that they say is being fed by false claims about their health care reform legislation, the Times said. The White House has launched a new health care “reality check” page at its Web site to lead the confrontation. It is patterned after the Obama presidential campaign’s “fight the smears” feature that confronted whispers about the then-presidential candidate, the Times said.

The Obama administration’s logo for the reality check Web site may be telling: “Health insurance reform reality check,” is how it reads. Cleveland Clinic President and CEO Dr. Toby Cosgrove on Friday told Newsweek that he was troubled that the health care reform debate had narrowed to a debate about health insurance. Perhaps Cosgrove has something there.

In one video, a top administration aide says the claim that the legislation encourages euthanasia is a “malicious myth.” In another, a doctor on the president’s staff takes aim at the idea that Obama would ration health care, which he says insurers already are doing, according to the L.A. Times.

House Minority Leader John Boehner, an Ohio Republican, says the White House Web site is “full of errors, misstatements and falsehoods,” the L.A. Times said. For example, the White House is wrong in saying that people would be able to keep their current health insurance, despite reforms, if they wanted to. White House officials “don’t know how many employers are going to drop their coverage altogether if [the public option] plan goes into effect,” Boehner said, according to the Times.

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Confusion over what the final health reform bill will say — legislation is still being written, and Congress is on break during August — has given Republicans the opportunity to rally opposition, especially at town halls, according to the Times. On the other hand, the vitriol of some critics — who hanged one congressman in effigy and shouted down others at a town hall meeting — has given Democrats the chance to criticize opponents’ tactics, the Times said.

It’s going to be a long, hot summer.

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