“Not Even Close To Correct” - Fox Continues Attempt To Revive Death Panel Lie

Fox News personalities, Eric Bolling and Marc Siegel made false claims about the Individual Payment Advisory Board (IPAB) included in the Affordable Care Act in an attempt to revive the “death panel” lie. This claim has been repeatedly debunked and has no basis in the law itself.

On the August 6 edition of Fox News' Your World with Neil Cavuto, guest host Eric Bolling and serial health care misinformer Marc Siegel made claims about IPAB that have been repeatedly debunked:

Bolling's claim that “the whole point of [IPAB] is to decide what medical treatment I'm going to be able to get” and Siegel's conclusion that IPAB is “a death panel - it's a rationing board,” has been a proven falsehood dating back to 2011.

In June 2011, Georgia Representative Phil Gingrey claimed that the IPAB board could “decide whether you get care, such as continuing on dialysis or cancer chemotherapy.” Gingrey concluded, “it's rationing.”

PolitiFact addressed this claim in August of that year:

Gingrey is “not even close to correct,” said Michael Tanner, a scholar with the libertarian Cato Institute. He opposes the IPAB.

“It [IPAB] has nothing to do with individual care at all. It's not making decisions on individuals,” Tanner said.

Experts agree that the IPAB has no say in whether a specific person receives dialysis, chemotherapy or any other such treatment. The board does not intercede in individual patient cases. It makes broad policy decisions that affect Medicare's overall cost.

Furthermore, the IPAB is barred from making policy recommendations that would block patients from receiving needed care, experts told PolitiFact Georgia.

“The legislation explicitly forbids the board from rationing care,” said Stuart Guterman, a health policy expert with the Commonwealth Fund, a nonpartisan group which works to improve health care access, quality and efficiency. Guterman said he thinks the IPAB can help with health care savings.

Finally, the law itself makes it clear that IPAB is forbidden from making “any recommendation to ration health care ... or otherwise restrict benefits.”

This is the most recent example of the return of 2009's “lie of the year” to Fox News.