Salon - "How the media is blowing the Obamacare rollout" [View all]

[TomCADem]

This is great story that talks about the now familiar Fox news pattern:

1) A story about an individual insurance policy holder discouraged by a cancellation notice and “rate shock” lands and blows up, all likely with the help of a dutiful GOP public relations professional.

2) A day or a week later, the story is debunked or a more conscientious reporter finds that the full set of facts paints a much more nuanced picture. But it gets much less attention than the first story.

It is sort of like the Death Panels, where the media lazily pushes outrageous GOP talking points, then quietly offers a fact check after the damage has been done.

http://www.salon.com/2013/11/05/how_the_medias_blowing_the_obamacare_rollout/

But it’s really striking how long it’s taking reporters to realize that these stories are incomplete, and probably inaccurate, unless and until they and their subjects have a handle on all of the relevant information. Read the kicker of this Jonathan Cohn story. It really should be the lede. Dianne Barrette, a Florida woman who became a poster child for the “rate shock” meme, has learned a bit more about her situation, and now says that the cancellation of her junk insurance plan may may be “a blessing in disguise.”

You can trace Barrette’s change of heart to the fact that her initial outrage was based upon misleading information from her insurance company, and CBS News’ decision to pass that information along to the public without explaining the deceit at the center of it.

“Last month, she received a letter from Blue Cross Blue Shield informing her as of January 2014, she would lose her current plan. Barrette pays $54 a month,” according to the Oct. 28 report. “The new plan she’s being offered would run $591 a month — 10 times more than what she currently pays.”

CBS did note that Barrette will be eligible for subsidies to defray some of her expenses, but let the $591 quote from Blue Cross stand. What’s more shocking than a 1000 percent price increase? Cohn’s article makes clear that once Healthcare.gov is fixed, Barrette will find much, much cheaper options, all of which offer far better insurance than she currently has.