Beware of "The Numbers - The Fictions - Shaping Public Opinion"

There are so many monkey wrenches being thrown into Congress' attempt to pass a health care reform bill that it can be hard to separate fiction from fact.

One example is the claim that government funds will be used to pay for abortion. And another is that the government health insurance program known as Medicare is so ill-managed that fraud eats up roughly 13% -- or $6o billion -- of its $456 billion budget; and if Medicare is such a mess, we'd be stupid to extend government health care further. Right?

Few of us have the knowledge, resources, time or energy to fact check every claim back to its original source. But when determined people take the time to do so, it can be disturbing to find out what turns up.

Recently, the well-respected grandparent of all news magazine shows, 60 Minutes, did a segment on Medicare fraud, citing those numbers I mentioned above -- specifically the alleged $60 million figure.  One of my About.com colleagues, Pierre Tristam (who also writes for the Daytona Beach News-Journal), felt discouraged by the story, thinking it was another nail in the coffin for health care reform. So he started calling around to verify the facts, beginning with the producers of 60 Minutes:

It didn't take long for the story to unravel. There are no facts. "60 Minutes" doesn't know how much Medicare fraud there is. You don't know. I don't know. The federal government doesn't know. Nobody knows, because Medicare fraud as a whole isn't tracked. That's why "60 Minutes" correspondent Steve Kroft said fraud is "estimated now to total about $60 billion a year." Estimated. Fine. By whom?

Pierre tried to find the original source for that very specific number, and a 60 Minutes spokesperson handed him over to the Justice Department, where they attempted to pass him off to Health and Human Services. He describes his search and his ultimate findings in "Loose With Numbers: Medicare Fraud Report a Fiction" and tells us, "Those are the numbers -- the fictions -- shaping public opinion across the country and public policy in Washington."

What makes this story a women's issue?

Health care reform is in our best interests. If it's passed, we'll see the elimination of many gender inequities that persist in the current system such as charging women more for insurance than men and calling 'domestic violence' a pre-existing condition and denying coverage.

But more important, it teaches us to question everything that's placed in front of us as 'fact.' So many times, women don't trust their own instincts, experiences, or background knowledge. We get shouted down in debates, or feel unsure of our own research and findings, or hesitate to express an opinion for fear that we might be wrong.

When the most honored of investigative journalism news programs gets it wrong, that tells us that the 'facts' can be slanted, or misunderstood, or selectively chosen (or ignored) to support or discredit a position on a key issue. Or a piece of legislation -- like health care reform -- that will enhance women's lives.

Keep this in mind the next time a politician or pundit spews forth a laundry list of facts and figures to back up his or her argument. If there were a fact checker verifying every claim, how much of it would really be ' the truth'?