More Myths About Obamacare

Affordable Care Act Myth #8. Obamacare will require forced home inspections.

The South Carolina legislature is the source of this rumor. The Affordable Care Act will pay for home health nurses and midwives to pregnant women in their homes so they won't have to come to the doctor's office, however.

Affordable Care Act Myth #9. Obamacare will question your sex life.

There will be no government-run databases of people's sex lives or other aspects of their health. However, doctors are encouraged to use electronic records rather than paper notes, and these doctor's notes may occasionally mention sex life it is relevant to treatment. While breaches in electronic medical data are absolutely possible, and have already occurred, Obamacare is not their cause. Our modern digital lifestyle is.

Affordable Care Act Myth #10. A hidden provision in the Affordable Care act taxes guns and sporting equipment.

A not-at-all-hidden provision in the Affordable Care Act taxes medical devices, such as pacemakers, defibrillators, insulin pumps, and so on, at a rate of 2.3%. There are no references to sporting goods, rifles, or other firearms in the act.

Affordable Care Act Myth #11. Obamacare represents the largest tax increase in the history of the world.

Most Americans don't remember that just 50 years ago the top federal income tax rate was 90%. There are tax increases with Obamacare, but as a percentage of the economy they are smaller than those signed into law under Democratic President Bill Clinton and Republican President Ronald Reagan.

Affordable Care Act Myth #12. The Affordable Care Act includes a 3.8% sales tax on real estate transactions.

There are new taxes on investment income, such as the sale of stocks and bonds and derivatives, for high-income taxpayers, but there is no federal sales tax on real estate transactions, certainly not on personal homes.

Affordable Care Act Myth #13. After age 76, Americans will no longer be eligible for cancer treatment.

The website Politifact rated this claim as "Pants On Fire." There is no mention in the Act, or in any Medicare rules, of anything in particular happening at age 76, and there are no rules that would deny anyone cancer treatment. People are still free to make their own decisions regarding treatment of cancer, although doctors will not offer treatments they are sure won't work.

Affordable Care Act Myth #14. 75% of American businesses will fire workers or cut their hours because of the new requirements to offer health insurance.

This was a claim made by Florida senator Marco Rubio. Actually, some businesses will fire workers or cut back hours after January 1. The US Chamber of Commerce estimates the number to be 10%.

Affordable Care Act Myth #15. Because of Obamacare, healthcare premiums have gone up at a slower rate than at any other time in the last 50 years.

This was a statement made by President Obama in one of the presidential debates of the 2012 campaign. Actually, there aren't any figures that go back before 1999. Total expenditures on healthcare have slowed since 2009, but that is in part due to the recession. People simply didn't have money to pay for premiums, so the total paid to insurance companies has been increasing more slowly.

Over 10 years on, the Affordable Care Act has survived — even the Trump administration — and continues to ensure that millions of Americans have access to at least semi-affordable medical insurance.