The New Republic

Kaiser Health News Service has started a new series, "Ad Audit," that scrutinizes propaganda in the health care reform fight. Lots of organizations and publications do this sort of thing. But Kaiser brings to the discussion almost unparalleled expertise in health care. (Disclosure: I write for them, too.)

Today's subject is an ad called "Squeeze." Produced by an increasingly notorious organization called Conservatives for Patient's Rights, the ad claims that health reform will "squeeze" Americans with rising taxes, skyrocketing premiums, huge deficits, and lousy medical care.

And how accurate is it? Jenny Gold, Kaiser's correspondent, concludes: 

Although CPR lists individual sources for each statement in the ad, the facts are largely taken out of context, come from biased industry groups or have been discredited. "There's absolutely nothing here that's right. It's unbelievable," says John Holahan, director of the Health Policy Research Center at the Urban Institute, a nonpartisan think tank.

Sadly, it's pretty typical of what we'll be seeing and hearing from the right over the next few weeks. 

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