The campaign for Illinois Senator Barack Obama, the front-running presidential candidate, recently came out with an ad that claims his Republican opponent, Senator John McCain, will cut the Medicare program by $800 billion.
Also, a recent study released by a little-known research group found that McCain’s health insurance reform plan would reduce the number of uninsured Americans by 21 million.
So what how true are these claims?
Well, the statements couldn’t be totally squashed, but they’re a stretch to say the least.
According to the Washington Post, the Obama campaign based their ad on a comment made by McCain’s head economic advisor, Douglas Holtz-Eakin.
Holtz-Eakin said that Senator McCain would pay for his health insurance reform plan partly with savings from Medicare cuts.
The Republican presidential candidate a few weeks ago announced that he would make significant cuts to Medicare. But there haven’t been any conclusive data showing the exact numbers.
The Obama campaign made their ad based on an independent research report that estimated McCain’s health insurance reform plan would cost around $1.3 trillion over the next 10 years, reported the Wall Street Journal.
The McCain campaign hasn’t disputed that number, but it’s a huge assumption that would lead to an $800 billion Medicare cut.
As for the “study ” that found that McCain would reduce the amount of uninsured Americans by 21 million, the Health Blog at the Wall Street Journal reported that the consultants who came up with the health insurance number were paid by… the McCain campaign.