The ‘Participant Guide‘ for President-elect Barack Obama’s Potemkin ‘health care community discussions’ includes an ‘Over of the Problem’ section that is filled with false facts. The false claims include:

Large medical bills have contributed to half of bankruptcies and foreclosures.” This widely reported factoid simply isn’t true. Bankruptcy expert George Mason University law professor Todd Zywicki writes: “The conclusion is based on a study in Health Affairs. Reviewing the study, it appears that the estimate that 50% of bankruptcy filings are precipitated by a “serious medical problem” cannot be supported based on what that study actually examined.”

Uninsured trauma victims are less likely to be admitted to the hospital and are 37 percent more likely to die of injuries.” This factoid is based off of one single study conducted in one single state (Wisconsin). And even that study fully admits it only examined one type of trauma injury: automobile accident victims. Expanding this to all ‘trauma’ injuries is at best misleading.

Only four cents out of every health care dollar is spent on prevention and public health.” For this proposition, Obama cites Brookings’ 36-page Hamilton Project study. But don’t expect to find that 4 cents number mentioned anywhere in that report. Instead we get this sentence: “No solid estimates exist on how much is currently being spent on prevention in the United States.” Really? No solid estimate? Because “four cents out of every health care dollar” sounds like a pretty solid estimate to us.

Unless, of course, Barack Obama is just making stuff up.