In an unintentionally hilarious article today, the Associated Press is reporting that there may be another problem with Obamacare even though the exchange websites are getting better. The AP seems to have just discovered that for the vast majority of Americans who get their healthcare coverage from their jobs, costs are going up. That's right; premiums are rising and so are deductibles and co-pays. And here is the most shocking thing to the AP: Americans are blaming Obamacare for these cost increases. Specifically, AP is reporting on a poll in which 69% of respondents reported rising premiums for insurance, 59% reported deductibles and co-pays getting higher, and a sizeable minority reported either losing coverage or seeing it cut back in significant ways. Here's the clincher: 77% of those polled blame Obamacare for these changes.
The AP reporters seem at a loss to explain how it can be that the American public blames Obamacare for all of these cost and coverage changes that it caused. People understand that adding all sorts of extra services to insurance coverage makes that coverage cost more, even if the reporters do not. Americans get the fact that the only way to keep costs down after all the extra doodads get put into the plans is to raise the deductibles and co-pays even if the reporters don't.
In truth, the funniest thing here is not the cluelessness of the reporters. After all, they work for the AP in the bubble in Washington; their connection to the real world is tenuous at best. No, the funniest thing is that these reporters write about the problem of rising health care costs for the insured due to Obamacare as if they just discovered it. These reporters are, in fact, good examples of the reason why Obamacare passed in the first place. When the law was being debated, the president and his party talked about expanding coverage to the uninsured and portrayed opponents as folks who wanted to keep the poor from getting insurance. That is what the mainstream media talked about too. Instead of looking at the proposed law and reporting on its likely effects, the media reported on the press releases and talking points of the Democrats. Instead of actually doing the work needed to understand how Obamacare would work, the media made the debate one of the good, kind Democrats who wanted to provide coverage for more people against the hard hearted and racist Republicans who wanted to limit coverage. If you doubt this, just remember the coverage of the Tea Party in 2009 and 2010. That group appeared principally in response to Obamacare. These folks, who understood the likely effect of the proposed changes to be made by Obamacare, went to town halls and raised hell about it. They made their points, but the media spent most of the time covering the phony question that the Democrats created to deflect the impact of the Tea Party: namely, the media covered the issue of whether or not the Tea Party members were really racists. Do you remember how often you heard discussions about possible racism by the Tea Party? There was no indication that there was any racial animosity in their message, but the Tea Party got tarred with that label regardless.
Well now we have the disaster commonly known as Obamacare. Millions are suffering and millions more will get hit hard starting in January. Now, NOW, the AP wakes up.
The AP reporters seem at a loss to explain how it can be that the American public blames Obamacare for all of these cost and coverage changes that it caused. People understand that adding all sorts of extra services to insurance coverage makes that coverage cost more, even if the reporters do not. Americans get the fact that the only way to keep costs down after all the extra doodads get put into the plans is to raise the deductibles and co-pays even if the reporters don't.
In truth, the funniest thing here is not the cluelessness of the reporters. After all, they work for the AP in the bubble in Washington; their connection to the real world is tenuous at best. No, the funniest thing is that these reporters write about the problem of rising health care costs for the insured due to Obamacare as if they just discovered it. These reporters are, in fact, good examples of the reason why Obamacare passed in the first place. When the law was being debated, the president and his party talked about expanding coverage to the uninsured and portrayed opponents as folks who wanted to keep the poor from getting insurance. That is what the mainstream media talked about too. Instead of looking at the proposed law and reporting on its likely effects, the media reported on the press releases and talking points of the Democrats. Instead of actually doing the work needed to understand how Obamacare would work, the media made the debate one of the good, kind Democrats who wanted to provide coverage for more people against the hard hearted and racist Republicans who wanted to limit coverage. If you doubt this, just remember the coverage of the Tea Party in 2009 and 2010. That group appeared principally in response to Obamacare. These folks, who understood the likely effect of the proposed changes to be made by Obamacare, went to town halls and raised hell about it. They made their points, but the media spent most of the time covering the phony question that the Democrats created to deflect the impact of the Tea Party: namely, the media covered the issue of whether or not the Tea Party members were really racists. Do you remember how often you heard discussions about possible racism by the Tea Party? There was no indication that there was any racial animosity in their message, but the Tea Party got tarred with that label regardless.
Well now we have the disaster commonly known as Obamacare. Millions are suffering and millions more will get hit hard starting in January. Now, NOW, the AP wakes up.
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