hat tip Rikyrah
Remember this healthcare summit?
Even though 3Chics Politico is written and curated by three women: Ametia, Rikyrah, and SouthernGirl2, I must nominate this as one of the most engaging blogs I've found. Devoted to politics and culture, these three shine a light on contemporary life with humor and spirit.
President Obama just makes so much sense.
President Obama is smart and he cares about the less fortunate.
9 million Americans have health insurance. God is good!
I loved listening to Pres. Obama again. :)
Jan 6, 2014 3:08PM ET / Politics
Lessons from the Obamacare ‘Horror Stories’
Arit John
At the root of every debunked, cancelled plan, Obamacare “horror story” is usually a person who isn’t as informed as he or she would like to believe. Usually that person is a journalist. Last week Maggie Mahar at HealthInsurance.org debunked yet another horror story, but she didn’t blame the misguided former policy holders so much as the journalist who wrote the story. “It appeared that no one at the Star-Telegram even attempted to run a background check on the sources, or fact check their stories,” Mahar wrote. “I couldn’t help but wonder: ‘Why?'”
Obamacare horror story debunkings are actually just journalists calling out their peers. While the Obamacare “victim” — usually someone whose policy was cancelled — may be motivated by political leanings, an aversion to subsidies or just a lack of knowledge, it’s not their job to give an accurate, thorough report on the issue from all sides. “The whole concept of the media checking the media is a new phenomenon,” Bill Adair of PolitiFact told Poynter in November. There was once a time when journalists were a little more discreet with their critics of their peers, but now calling people out is the norm. And with Obamacare, which leads all kinds of reporters to pick and choose details, everyone (everyone) can learn something from the mistakes of others. Here are the key lessons from the last three months of bogus horror stories.
http://www.thewire.com/politics/2014/01/lessons-obamacare-horror-stories/356728/
ACA ‘horror stories’ keep crumbling
01/07/14 10:15
By Steve Benen
For much of the fall, when major news organizations went into feeding-frenzy mode over the Affordable Care Act, an unsettling pattern emerged. The media kept shining a spotlight on various “horror stories” – regular Americans adversely affected by “Obamacare” – and those stories kept crumbling when subjected to scrutiny.
The problem persists. Reader R.B. passed along this striking report from Maggie Mahar, who explained that many of the “tales of Obamacare’s innocent victims … just aren’t true.”
And something was. The Star-Telegram piece profiled four local consumers, three of whom are Tea Party activists, and two of whom hadn’t bothered to even check what’s available through healthcare.gov. They were described as “losers” under the new system, but made no effort to see if they might be winners.
What’s more, the 26-year-old new mother who was facing a $1,000-a-month insurance plan actually ended up with coverage just under $350 a month – a detail the paper has never conveyed to readers – and a stronger safety net than her family enjoyed before.
http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/aca-horror-stories-keep-crumbling
I’m so happy there is no lifetime cap anymore!