Medicare for All advocates, policy experts, and journalists pushed back strongly on Monday after an astroturf front group funded by the insurance and pharmaceutical industries misrepresented facts as part of a multi-pronged effort to convince the American public that a single-payer system would be more costly than the for-profit status quo.



On Twitter, in digital ads, and in memos to supporters and the press, the Partnership for America's Health Care Future (PAHCF) and its allies are ramping up their nationwide campaign to fight the momentum built by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and other Medicare for All advocates as proponents show how the system would be more financially feasible for middle-class families and less costly overall.



Tweeting a link to a recent Washington Post article by Jeff Stein, the Partnership for America's Health Care Future (PAHCF) claimed that the piece showed that "Medicare-for-All would force middle-class families to pay more through massive tax hikes," without providing the context for the statement within the article.

Stein himself was among those who quickly rejected PAHCF's summation of the article.

That's not what the article says. https://t.co/5cJEyDZNPJ — Jeff Stein (@JStein_WaPo) April 1, 2019

Sanders, sponsor of a Medicare for All bill which has 15 co-sponsors in the Senate, was also among the critics that spoke out against PAHCF's blatant misrepresentation of the Post's reporting.

This is the front group for the insurance and drug industries. They are desperate to protect their profits, so they are going to lie to Americans. This is what we're up against. Here’s the truth: Medicare for All would save Americans money. https://t.co/vgsuQAxrtw — Bernie Sanders (@BernieSanders) April 1, 2019

Journalists Libby Watson and Ryan Cooper, both of whom have written about Medicare for All extensively, also condemned PAHCF for its disingenuous statement about Stein's conclusions.