In the GOP? No health care for you! The most odious lie yet in the health care debate

Is the title of this post hyperbolic? Maybe, but check out this question from a recent Republican National Committee survey sent out about health care reform and then think about it:

It has been suggested that the government could use voter registration to determine a person’s political affiliation, prompting fears that GOP voters might be discriminated against for medical treatment in a Democrat-imposed health care rationing system. Does this possibility concern you?

Given some of the other nefarious stuff that’s been floating around (“death panels”, etc.) it’s almost hard to get worked up over the rampant misinformation that infects the debate on a daily basis. But this is truly vile stuff meant to scare in the most blatant way imaginable with the message being, “If you don’t support the president’s plans, Democrats will leave you to suffer and die if you get sick.”

Time’s Michael Scherer contacted the RNC about that question and this is the response he was given by one of their spokeswomen, Katie Wright:

Although the question was inartfully worded, Americans have reason to be concerned about the failure of the Democrats’ health care experiment to adequately protect the privacy of Americans’ personal information.  From bank accounts to tax payments to personal medical care data, the bill gives government bureaucrats access to a range of Americans’ personal information but does little if anything to protect that data from misuse and abuse.  This is one of the many reasons we have called on President Obama to slow this bill down so that we can get health care reform right.

“Inartfully worded”? Talk about an understatement! But even more disingenuous than the claim that the question was poorly constructed is that Wright’s response is littered with other distortions, like the idea that the government would be able to dig into your personal bank account at will. Politifact investigated and found nothing out of the ordinary:

• Page 59: The federal government will have direct, real-time access to all individual bank accounts for electronic funds transfer. Barely True: Section 163 sets out goals for electronic health records. One of the goals is to include features that “enable electronic funds transfers, in order to allow automated reconciliation” between payment and billing. The legislative summary says the intent in the section is “to adopt standards for typical transactions” between insurance companies and health care providers. The legislation generically describes typical electronic banking transactions and does not outline any special access privileges.

If news organizations fail to debunk this charge about the government discriminating against citizens based on their political persuasion, then I think it’s safe to say that the media will uncritically publish any and every thing and that it will not hold liars accountable. There’s really no other conclusion.