PolitiFact: Roundup for past week

The fact check then moves on to a panel of editors who debate the statement and the reporter’s recommended Truth-O-Meter ruling. The panel votes on a final ruling; majority prevails.

The government reopened late last week, but PolitiFact Georgia and the AJC Truth-O-Meter never stopped fact-checking.

We investigated chronic illnesses and their impact on Georgia’s economy for a claim by one of the state’s congressmen. We went to the archives to review the state Democratic Party’s record on ethics. We also checked a claim about DeKalb County school system’s progress on requirements set by an accreditation agency. And our PolitiFact national colleagues checked a viral Facebook post about Obamacare and one man’s experience enrolling on the insurance marketplace.

Abbreviated versions of our fact checks are below. Full versions can be found at: www.politifact.com/georgia/.

To comment on our rulings or suggest one of your own, go to our Facebook page (www.facebook.com/politifact.georgia). You can also find us on Twitter (http://twitter.com/politifactga).

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Facebook post: Says a man opted out of Obamacare after the marketplace launched on Oct. 1 and was informed he owed a $4,000 fine.

This Facebook post went viral on the Internet this month after enrollment for the national health care law’s insurance marketplace opened on Oct. 1.

It was originally posted on the Facebook page of HealthCare.gov, the federal government’s portal to the new insurance marketplace for Americans whose employers don’t offer coverage. The post claims to be from a man named Will Sheehan, but we couldn’t confirm his identity.

The post includes many elements that make no sense or are flat-out wrong — and can be easily debunked by reading the law or reliable summaries of it. For example, the agency that runs the marketplace says there is no way for people to complete the online application then opt out at the end; the system wouldn’t send out an email if a person didn’t complete an application; and an applicant has many weeks to find another insurance plan and avoid a penalty.

We rated the Facebook post Pants On Fire.

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Republican Party of Georgia: “Rather than prioritize and pass ethics reform measures to restore trust in state government, (Democrats) sat on their hands and did nothing” when they were the majority.

Last month, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported that the head of the state’s ethics commission is accused of improperly intervening in an investigation of Gov. Nathan Deal. Both Democrats and Republicans took the story as an opportunity to bash the other side over its ethics record.

The Georgia GOP included this claim in an email.

We searched the AJC’s digital archives, which go back to the mid-1980s, and found that in 1992, the Legislature passed a law requiring for the first time that lobbyists disclose every penny they spend trying to influence legislation. It also imposed new campaign contribution restrictions. Then in 2000, the Georgia House of Representatives passed what the AJC reported at the time was its first formal code of conduct for itself.

Both the 1992 bill and the 2000 code were passed when Democrats were in control. Still the state Republican Party maintained that “passing two ethics-related bills in 130 years clearly isn’t ‘prioritizing’ ethics reform.”

We rated the Georgia GOP’s claim False.

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Michael Thurmond: When SACS came back to the DeKalb County School District to give a midterm review, we got straight A’s.

Thurmond, superintendent of the DeKalb County School District, made this claim during a parent meeting earlier this month when discussing the district’s accreditation.

SACS, the private agency that accredits public schools in Georgia and elsewhere, placed DeKalb’s accreditation on probationary status amid findings of school board mismanagement. The agency visited the district for a progress review in May, and Thurmond used the letter grade as an interpretation of the positive report from that visit.

We found that the report does note the district’s improvements on 11 requirements. But it also notes the significant work that is left to do, and it questions whether the school board and district leadership can successfully complete it. Another SACS monitoring team is scheduled to return for a two-day visit in December. In the meantime, the district remains on probation.

An A means exceeding standards, which the district hasn’t done yet.

We rated Thurmond’s claim Mostly False.

*After publication of this fact check, Superintendent Thurmond and SACS president and CEO Mark Elgart released a statement rebutting our Truth-O-Meter rating. That statement and the SACS midterm report are available for review on our Facebook page, www.facebook.com/politifact.georgia, and on our website, www.politifact.com/georgia.

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U.S. Rep. Hank Johnson: “By reducing chronic health care costs in the State of Georgia, we can reduce the $32.8 billion lost each year due to lack of productivity and economic costs.”

A PolitiFact Georgia reader asked us to check this claim that Johnson, a Georgia congressman from DeKalb County, included in a recent letter to a constituent.

Johnson’s claim was based on a thorough study by the Milken Institute economic think tank. The study — published October 2007, and based on 2003 figures — outlined the economic burden of chronic disease and focused on seven diseases. The study included the $32.8 billion figure for Georgia’s annual productivity losses due to these illnesses.

Another report released in May, though, found lost productivity from various health problems was much less than the Milken Institute’s estimate. The report by Gallup-Healthways calculated the total at $84 billion a year, and was based on a January-September 2012 survey of 94,000 adults nationwide.

Johnson’s claim is based on accurate information, but there is some context necessary to fully examine his statement.

We rated Johnson’s claim Mostly True.