Just now, Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar addressed the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), a secretive group that backed Florida’s Stand Your Ground Law and is even too toxic for Exxon Mobil (but still supported by his former Big Pharma employer, Eli Lilly). Protect Our Care fact-checked Azar’s lies about our health care in his speech.
Azar claimed 28 million Americans are uninsured because of the Affordable Care Act.
TRUTH: The ACA had helped 20 million people gain coverage and pushed uninsured rate down. But then Trump was the one that signed legislation in December that is expected to make 13 million more people newly uninsured.
Azar claims people who don’t have subsidies are backing out of the markets because premiums have gone up so much.
TRUTH: The Trump administration is taking actions that push health premiums even further out of reach. Just ask insurance commissioners and other experts in state after state.
Azar claims short-term plans are great for the gig economy.
TRUTH: Short-term plans leave Americans with junk coverage and saddled with huge debt. People in the gig economy enrolled in these junk plans could be left owing hundreds of thousands if they, say, get in a car accident.
Azar claims there’s been good progress on driving the costs of drugs down.
TRUTH: Pharmaceutical companies are reaping huge benefits from Republican tax cuts, raising prices and earning massive profits while President Trump pushes sham drug pricing policies.
Azar claims that Americans feel disempowered with health care because government rules stand in the way of necessary competition.
TRUTH: Americans feel disempowered because Trump-GOP policies are driving the cost of their health care up, and they’re terrified they could once again be discriminated against for having a pre-existing condition.