Q: Is it true — as the Obama administration claims — that "129 million Americans with a pre-existing condition could be denied coverage without new health reform law"?
A: No. The number who would be truly at risk of losing health insurance or paying more money is much smaller.
This figure comes from an analysis released by the Department of Health and Human Services as House Republicans were preparing a vote to repeal the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. The administration was making the argument that these millions of Americans would be at risk of losing (or not obtaining, or paying more money for) insurance if the health care law were to be repealed. The headline on the HHS press release said: "129 million Americans with a pre-existing condition could be denied coverage without new health reform law."
Democrats have repeated that assertion. Rep. Nancy Pelosi claims on her website that "Health and Human Services has found up to half of Americans under 65 have preexisting conditions and could lose their health coverage under repeal." But it’s not true that if the law didn’t exist, 129 million persons would all be at risk of losing their insurance, and that becomes clear when reading the full administration report.
The 129 million was the upper range of the administration’s estimate. The low estimate was only 50 million. Plus, those figures are the "share of non-elderly individuals likely to be denied coverage in the non-group market," according to the report. Of course, most Americans don’t get their coverage in the non-group, or individual, market. They get coverage through an employer.
Click on the follo0wing for more details: Millions with Preexisting Conditions | FactCheck.org
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