March 18, 2010

Anti-health care reform legislation ad distorts, "outrages" legislator whose parents died of cancer

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The AP reports that a group opposing the current health care reform legislation has “outraged” Pennsylvania Democratic Rep. Kathy Dahlkemper, who recently lost both parents to cancer.

The ad reflects on the US Preventive Services Task Force’s breast cancer screening recommendations from last November. Among the distortions in the ad are its claims that the “government panel that didn’t include cancer specialists says women shouldn’t get mammograms until age 50. … If government takes over health care, recommendations like these could become the law for all kind of diseases.”

That isn’t what the task force said. And the big government takeover theme is classic rhetorical fear-mongering.

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