After last night's first Presidential Debate some may be left wondering what information the candidates provided was real and what was false. ABC News helps sorts through the truths, facts and somewhat factual statements made by President Barack Obama and Mitt Romney.
Fiction:
Romney Fact Check
Millions Losing Health Care Under Obama
Gov. Romney: Right now the CBO says up to 20 million people will lose their insurance as Obamacare goes into effect next year.
That claim is based on a report from CBO. Politfact says it's false.
"That number is cherry-picked, and he's wrong to describe it as only including people who 'like' their coverage, since many of those 20 million will be leaving employer coverage voluntarily for better options. Romney also ignores that under the status quo, many more people today "lose" coverage than even the highest, cherry-picked CBO estimate. We rate his statement False," the article says.
Part two: Governor Romney: McKinsey and Company of American businesses said 30% of them are anticipating dropping people from coverage.
Fact: Overall, 30 percent of employers will definitely or probably stop offering ESI in the years after 2014.
Mostly fiction:
Romney Fact Check
Pre-Existing Conditions
Gov. Romney: Number one, pre existing conditions are covered under my plan.
Mitt Romney said he does not think insurance companies should have to cover people with pre-existing conditions who have not had continuous health care coverage.
The article says The Affordable Care Act created special health care plans in 2010 for people who have pre-existing conditions, and by 2014 it will prohibit insurance companies from denying coverage to anyone because of a pre-existing condition.
It is not a small population who would be cut from health care coverage under a proposal similar to what Romney has suggested. A Health and Human Services report published in January 2011 estimated that between 50 million and 129 million people currently have a pre-existing condition in the eyes of insurance companies. Twenty-five million of those do not have health insurance, according to the report. That number does not take into account those who have had gaps in coverage, suggesting a much larger number of people have pre-existing conditions but have not had continuous coverage.
Not Quite Factual:
Obama Fact Check
Under Romney's Plan, Donald Trump is a Small Business
President Obama: But under Governor Romney's definition, there are a whole bunch of millionaires and billionaires who are small businesses. Donald Trump is a small business. Now, I know Donald Trump doesn't like to think of himself as small anything, but - but that's how you define small businesses if you're getting business income.
The article states that under Mitt Romney's plan, all "small businesses" would receive a 20 percent tax cut. By his definition, the size of a business is defined solely by the amount of people it employs. Any company with 500 or fewer workers is deemed "small." There is no revenue cap, so no matter how much money the business makes, if the payroll does not exceed 500 people, it would benefit from this reduced rate.
By that definition, a "small business" like Trump's Trump Tower Sales & Leasing (20 employees, nearly a million dollars in annual profits) or, for example, an NFL team like the Dallas Cowboys could be called "small businesses."
But The Trump Organization has 22,450 employees, according to this CNN Money article.
Fiction:
Romney Fact Check
Obama Wants to Cut Medicare
Gov. Romney: What I support is no change for current retirees and near retirees to Medicare. And the President supports taking $716 billion out of that program.
Romney's claim that Obama wants to cut Medicare by $716 billion dollars is a misconstrued statement. What Obama did was, through the Affordable Care Act, reduce growth of Medicare over 10 years. This reduction in growth would actually benefit Medicare beneficiaries by extending the life of Medicare. Obama's reduction plan comes through at payments to hospitals as part of Medicare Part A.