Quackwatch founder Stephen Barrett, MD, has started a new Web site that claims to debunk myths about health care reform, which Barrett refers to more accurately as insurance reform.

Quackwatch is made up of an international network of people who are concerned about health-related frauds, myths, fads, fallacies, and misconduct. In creating Insurance Reform Watch, Barrett elisted the help of a group of fellow retirees that includes a past admissions officer at Harvard University, a UNC-Chapel Hill academic, a doctor, two dentists, an economist and a one-time New York City insurance fraud investigator.

Their mission: to vet some of the more outrageous claims of those opposed to current health-care proposals and publish them on the Internet. "Most of it is sheer baloney," Barrett says.

John Hammond, PhD, a professor emeritus of pathology and lab medicine at UNC-Chapel Hill, says the group decided recently to go public with its findings as the debate grew more rancorous and certain assertions began to be repeated.

"All this garbage needs to be debunked," Hammond says, pointing to one claim that older Americans will lose access to their doctors if more people are covered. "That’s so morally bankrupt you can’t even begin to consider it as a rational response."

Beyond Avery’s article itself, the comment thread there is worth reading briefly as it deteriorates almost from the start with the accusations that since Dr Barrett is a registered Democrat and physician, he cannot be objective.

Judge for yourself. The Web address for the site is http://www.insurancereformwatch.org.

[Source: Insurance Reform Watch/ScienceBlogs]