PolitiFact last week looked at statements from two candidates for governor of Georgia, one about a Medicare-fraud lawsuit and one about the state's climate for business. We also checked a Wisconsin senator's statement that people pay a smaller portion of health care costs out of their own pockets today than they did decades ago. Here are abbreviated versions of our fact checks. Full versions can be found at www.politifact.com.
“I helped win one of the biggest private lawsuits against Medicare fraud in history. The government declined to pursue the case, so my firm did, and we recovered $324 million for taxpayers.”
— Stacey Evans on Monday, June 12th, 2017 in a campaign video
Rep. Stacey Evans, D-Smyrna, was touting a major Medicare fraud case she argued with her private law practice in a campaign video.
She argued a civil lawsuit she argued alongside three other firms representing the U.S. government against DaVita HealthCare Partners Inc., a leading provider of dialysis services in the United States. They represented two whistleblowers.
Justice Department spokesperson Nicole Navas confirmed Evans’ statement.
“DaVita recovery was one of the largest ever obtained by a relator in a matter declined by the United States,” Navas said.
There have been larger settlements, but only when the government has gone after fraud directly. In this case, the Justice Department chose not to intervene. Navas declined to comment on why it didn’t participate.
Our rating
Evans said that she “helped win one of the biggest private lawsuits against Medicare fraud in history.” The lead counsel on the case corroborated her role in it, and the Justice Department confirmed its historic importance.
Her claim that they recovered $324 million for taxpayers also checks out. We rate this statement True.
Says of Georgia, “for four years in a row, we are the No. 1 state to do business in.”
— Casey Cagle on Thursday, June 22nd, 2017 in a meeting with small business owners
In saying Georgia is the No. 1 state to do business, Cagle was citing a list put together by Site Selection, a magazine that specializes in business relocation and expansion, campaign spokesman Joseph Hendricks told us.
Site Selection said Georgia had the best business climate in the country for the fourth year in a row. It is a credible source, experts told us — but they added it’s not the only one.
Among the better-known and respected rankings, CNBC places Georgia second, while Forbes places it seventh.
Other credible rankings, though, have Georgia lower. The Beacon Hill Institute for Public Policy Research, for instance, placed Georgia 24th.
Our ruling
A well-regarded business magazine, Site Selection, has listed Georgia as its best state for business for the past four years. But that’s just one publication’s ranking; others offered different ratings, and it’s impossible to say that one methodology is the perfect one.
Cagle’s statement is partially accurate. We rate it Half True.
“In the ‘40s, 68 cents of every health care dollar was actually paid for by the patient, today it’s only 11 cents.”
— Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis.., on Sunday, June 4th, 2017 in a television interview
Amid the Senate’s efforts to pass a new health bill, U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., has been adamant that spending on health care must come down.
We examined whether he’s right about the big drop in the percentage of health care costs paid directly by the people served.
The structure of health care has evolved over decades. In the 1940s — the era Johnson cited — as the population moved from rural to urban areas, medical care shifted even more from homes to medical facilities. World War II played a major role in the expansion of health insurance as employers began to boost health insurance benefits to attract workers. After the war, labor unions also played a role, negotiating for better fringe benefits including health insurance.
Johnson spokesman Ben Voelkel said in an email that the senator was referring to the total of health consumption expenditures and pointed us to a 1971 report: "National Health Expenditures, 1929-70" by Dorothy P. Rice and Barbara S. Cooper. According to that report, what is now called out-of-pocket spending for 1949 was at 67.7 percent. That's the 68 cents on every dollar Johnson cited.
Our rating
The numbers Johnson cited track with studies and official statistics. But Johnson is comparing two vastly different eras in health care, including one from a period when fewer people were covered by health insurance and thus paid for costs from their own pocket.
We rate his claim Mostly True.
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