Just makin' stuff up on health care

Here's President Obama "helping" Harry Reid at a town hall meeting:

The bill that Harry and I have been working on would provide assistance to a whole range of community-based efforts -- preventive care, wellness care -- which is absolutely vital not only for the people who are receiving services at clinics like yours, but also for reducing the costs of health care overall, because the more that people have access to preventive care, the less likely they are to go to the emergency room when things are already out of hand.

First of all, what's the difference between preventative care and wellness care? Second of all, the vitalness (vitality?) of preventative care has been long debunked; it does not reduce costs. Finally, if you view MassCare as the precursor for government-run Obamacare, then it doesn't reduce visits to the emergency room either. From the April 2009 Boston Globe: "ER visits, costs in Mass. Climb – Questions raised about healthcare law's impact on overuse"

More people are seeking care in hospital emergency rooms, and the cost of caring for ER patients has soared 17 percent over two years, despite efforts to direct patients with nonurgent problems to primary care doctors instead, according to new state data.

Obama wishes these things were true, but the evidence is four-square against him.

Flashback – Opinion Journal: "The Massachusetts debacle, coming soon to your neighborhood."