OnTheIssues Fact Checking: on Health Care

Donald Trump: FactCheck: No, America has tested less than Europe combined

• Counting countries in Europe with over a million population, just the top ten have conducted more tests than the U.S. with about the same population:
• In order of testing frequency: Denmark, Russia, UK, Lithuania, Belgium, Portugal, Spain, Ireland, Belarus, and Italy, total population ~360 million).
• As of Sept. 2020, the U.S. has conducted 85 million tests (about 25% of the population); those ten countries combined exceeded that number, without counting the dozens of other European countries.
• Counting tests per million population also puts America in the second tier: Denmark's testing rate exceeds 40% of their population, and some smaller countries, such as Luxembourg, exceed 100%, which means every person has been tested more than once.
  Source: OnTheIssues Fact-check on 2020 Convention speech Sep 5, 2020

  Donald Trump: Falsely claims US did more tests rest of world combined

  Tweet from @realDonaldTrump: "@washingtonpost Headline reads, 'A BOOST IN TESTS, BUT LACK OF TAKERS.' We have done a great job on Ventilators, Testing, and everything else. Were left little by Obama. Over 11 million tests, and going up fast. More than all countries in the world, combined."
  OnTheIssues FactCheck: According to WorldOMeters.info, tests as of May 18:
  • USA 12 million
  • Russia 7 million
  • Germany 3 million
  • Italy 3 million
  Just those three countries combined total more tests than the USA, so "more than all countries in the world combined" is false. Worldwide, the current total is 61M tests. Trump's figures would indicate the USA has performed over 50% of the world's tests; in fact USA is under 20%.

  Furthermore, a better measurement of testing would count a per capita basis, the number of tests per million population, as World-o-Meter does. On that scale, the USA is in 39th place, just behind Germany, well behind Russia & Italy.

  Source: OnTheIssues FactCheck on Twitter Posting May 18, 2020

  Paul Ryan: FactCheck: No, Medicare cost doesn't exceed national defense

  Paul Ryan writes, "Medicare & Medicaid together consume 22% of the federal budget--more than national defense, including the costs of the two wars." That statement is only true if one defines "national defense" strictly as the budget for the Department of Defense (totaling $664B, or 20% of the 2010 budget, compared to $793B for Medicare/Medicaid, or 23% of the 2010 budget). Ryan adds the "two wars" clause to imply a more general definition of "defense," but just adding the two wars excludes several very large defense expenditures in departments other than DoD:
  • $125B on DVA and Veterans pensions
  • $47B on Homeland Security
  • $109B on interest on debt from past war expenditures
  • $34B for defense-related expenditures under the FBI, NASA, the Energy Department, & the State Department
  • National defense expenditures hence total $979B or 28% of the budget.
  These are the low-end estimates for the 2010-2012 budget; see our "Background on Homeland Security" page for more details. Source: OnTheIssues FactCheck on Young Guns, p.116 May 2, 2011

  Xi Jinping: FactCheck: Overcame impact of COVID-19; played down costs

  China's top leader has declared that the country has "overcome" the impact of the coronavirus, even as sporadic lockdowns continue in various areas. China's top leader, Xi Jinping, said this week that the country had "overcome the impact of COVID-19." In propaganda messaging from a major party meeting, Communist Party leaders touted the successes of their response in saving lives while playing down the huge social and economic cost of those measures.

  

  OnTheIssues FactCheck: China suffered as the early epicenter of the COVID pandemic in early 2020, but then instituted lockdowns. The US experienced its first infections at that time. By the time of the Delta variant in autumn 2020, China had overcome most infections (with no functional vaccine) while the US experienced millions of active cases. By the time of the Omicron variant in late 2021, even with a functional vaccine, the US experienced even more millions of active cases, while China had few cases.

  Source: OnTheIssues FactCheck on Economic Times: "Zero COVID" Nov 13, 2021

  The above quotations are from Presidential Primary Fact Checking by OnTheIssues.org. Click here for definitions & background information on Health Care. Click here for other issues (main summary page). Click here for more quotes by Herman Cain on Health Care.
  2024 Presidential contenders on Health Care:
  	Candidates for President & Vice-President: V.P.Kamala Harris (D-CA) Robert F. Kennedy Jr.(I-CA) Chase Oliver(L-GA) Dr.Jill Stein(D-MA) Former Pres.Donald Trump(R-FL) Sen.J.D.Vance(R-OH) Gov.Tim Walz(D-MN) Dr.Cornel West(I-NJ)	2024 presidential primary contenders: Pres.Joe_Biden(D-DE) N.D.Gov.Doug Burgum(R) N.J.Gov.Chris_Christie(R) Fla.Gov.Ron_DeSantis(R) S.C.Gov.Nikki_Haley(R) Ark.Gov.Asa_Hutchinson(R) Former V.P.Mike Pence(R-IN) U.S.Rep.Dean_Phillips(D-MN) Vivek_Ramaswamy(R-OH) S.C.Sen.Tim_Scott(R)
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  Page last updated: Nov 03, 2024