Residents from both sides show their opinions during a town hall meeting on health care reform is Reston, Va.
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Residents from both sides show their opinions during a town hall meeting on health care reform in Reston, Va.

If you're like most people, you spent your summer at the pool absorbed in the health care reform proposals. Which did you prefer: America's Affordable Health Choices Act of 2009, put out by the House of Representatives, or the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee's Affordable Health Choices Act? Are you biting your fingernails in anticipation as the Senate Finance Committee debates its bill?

What's that? You didn't read them? And you don't know anyone who did? Well, it does seem that only policy wonks and congressional groupies mustered the energy to consume the doorstopper-sized bills. Many senators and representatives have been put on the spot and forced to admit they haven't read them. Yet even those that didn't read the proposals claim to know exactly what's in there and precisely how it will help or ruin the United States. Discussion about the health care reform proposals often turns into a shouting match, and it can be hard to figure out what's true and what's not. In this article, we'll take a look at 10 common claims from both the left and the right.