You see the trick? "I've been told" - so he doesn't actually make the lying statement himself, he delegates it out to some unknwn source.

And it is a complete lie. With the additional somewhat questionable implicatrion in the background that the American system would provide the same quality of treatment that Ted Kennedy will have got ("the way its treated in the United States") for everyone who needs it.
Is that really true?   It would be, here in the UK.