We've kept pointing out that checking both sides is no kind of guarantee of nonpartisanship. It's a simple matter to give harsher ratings to one side while rating both sides. Or softer ratings to one side while rating both sides.
Latest case in point: Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders.
Sanders claimed that the single-payer health care system in Canada offers "quality care to all people without out of pocket expenses."
PolitiFact found that the Canadian system does not eliminate out-of-pocket expenses (contradicting Sanders' claim).
And then PolitiFact gave Sanders' claim a "Half True" rating.
Seriously. That's what PolitiFact did.
PolitiFact's summary is remarkable for not explaining how Sanders managed to eke out a "Half True" rating for a false statement. PolitiFact describes what's wrong with the statement (how it's false) and then proclaims the "Half True" ruling:
Sanders said, "In Canada, for a number of decades they have provided quality care to all people without out-of-pocket expenses. You go in for cancer therapy, you don't take out your wallet."See?
So long as the care comes from a doctor or at a hospital, the Canadian system covers the full cost. But the country’s public insurance doesn’t automatically pay for all services, most significantly, prescription drugs, including drugs needed to fight cancer.
Out-of-pocket spending is about 15 percent of all Canadian health care expenditures, and researchers said prescription drugs likely represented the largest share of that.
The financial burden on people is not nearly as widespread or as severe as in the United States, but Sanders made it sound as though out-of-pocket costs were a non-issue in Canada.
We rate this claim Half True.
PolitiFact says Sanders made it sound like Canadians do not pay out-of-pocket at all for health care. But Canadians do pay a substantial share out of pocket, therefore making it sound like they don't is "Half True."
Republicans, don't get the idea that you can say something PolitiFact describes as false in its fact check and then skate with a "Half True" rating on the "Truth-O-Meter."
I mean, if prescription drugs are largest share of out-of-pocket expenses, then for the vast majority of people, they probably won't have any expense, or its negligible. I'd say half true a fair rating. In most cases, Sanders is probably correct.
ReplyDeleteAs we often note, PolitiFact's rating system is ultimately subjective. If you want to rate it "Half True" that's as subjectively valid as any other subjective rating.
DeletePolitiFact did not use your reasoning, and the point of our article is the dissonance between PolitiFact's description of the problem and its rating.
Cheers.