February 3, 2014 by David K. Sutton
Obamacare Anecdote Failure
In their Obamacare opposition, Republicans are now reduced to anecdotes based on misleading or false reporting, and in so doing, they are deceiving themselves. Because millions of Americans have now signed up for health care coverage under Obamacare, that means Republicans are left with their loose evidence and their bad intentions. And in many cases the evidence Republicans present is bad because it has been tainted by their own rhetoric, repeated ad nauseam on Fox News. It’s a self-fulfilling feedback loop. Tell people Obamacare is bad, and the people who listen to you will offer you the “evidence,” even though they never gave the process a good-faith effort.
In the Republican response to President Obama’s State of the Union address, Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-WA) told us of Bette Grenier in Spokane, Washington, who now has to pay $700 more per month for health care coverage after her insurance company cancelled her policy.
Delusions of Failure – NYTimes.com — Bette’s tale had policy wonks scratching their heads; it was hard to see, given what we know about premiums and how the health law works, how anyone could face that large a rate increase. Sure enough, when a local newspaper, The Spokesman-Review, contacted Bette Grenier, it discovered that the real story was very different from the image Ms. McMorris Rodgers conveyed. First of all, she was comparing her previous policy with one of the pricier alternatives her insurance company was offering — and she refused to look for cheaper alternatives on the Washington insurance exchange, declaring, “I wouldn’t go on that Obama website.”
So Bette Grenier didn’t give a good-faith effort to get the most affordable coverage, and then Republicans used this as “evidence” of Obamacare’s failure. Yeah, that sounds about right for the party of obstruction. And this is typical of the anecdotes offered by Republicans. When people look into them, they fall apart. But at that point Republicans have done their job to misinform the Americans who care to listen to them and watch their “news” network. Because you know Fox News isn’t uncovering the truth.
Health Care • News • Politics