False claims about the Affordable Care Act have been circulating for years – since before the legislation was officially signed into law. But we noticed an increase in intensity in the months leading up to Oct. 1, the date when the federal and state insurance marketplaces were set to open. In this article, we highlighted the most egregious, and most popular, claims, giving readers a guide to the top myths. We found that most of the falsehoods centered on three topics: jobs, premium costs and medical care. Republicans had long made the overblown claim that the law was a “job-killer.” But despite some anecdotal evidence of employers expressing concern about the law, experts predict a small impact on mainly low-wage jobs. The Republican National Committee claimed that 8.2 million Americans couldn’t find full-time jobs “partly” due to the law. But that’s the total number of part-time workers seeing full-time work, and we found no evidence from Bureau of Labor Statistics numbers that the law had had an impact on that category of workers. Premiums were an increasing source of contention before the insurance marketplaces opened. Both Democrats and Republicans had made false claims in attempts to bolster their views. But the fact remained a change in premiums for those buying their own insurance would vary based on personal circumstances, including age, health status, geography and the type of coverage purchased. We explained why it was difficult to make generalizations about premiums. On medical costs, we debunked claims about the government coming between you and your doctor, and President Obama’s promise that you can keep your plan if you like it. (The political furor over that claim would come weeks later.) We also investigated the whopper that Congress was “exempt” from the law – lawmakers actually face an additional requirement that most Americans don’t – and the falsehood that those applying for subsidies could lie about their income without facing verification.
