Saturday, February 1, 2014

Failed Journalism

I saw this news report floating around the Facebook world. It shows some people at a small business in Pittsburgh getting the news of their health care costs rising because of the Affordable Health Care Act. You'll notice the news station had their cameras set up for the meeting so they had to be invited there. Charles Moore is identified as the broker who handles the company's health insurance.

Moore hands out papers to each individual.

What I have here is the benefits sheet from last year. What you were on in 2013. Here is the new plan we had to switch to that takes into account the Obamacare regulations.

The (so called) news report goes on to cover all the details in which each person's coverage is much higher than before.



What puzzled me was that each person was presented with only one option when in reality they should have several to choose from. Plus, while Pennsylvania has a private market, people in that state also have the option of using the federal market, which they need to use if they are eligible for federal tax subsidies. Nothing about that is mentioned.

Just as the Bette from Spokane story fell apart under scrutiny, this one does as well. It turns out that Charles Moore has very public anti-Obama leanings and it appears he set this up just to make the Affordable Health Care Act look bad. The employees at this small business (see the recent post from Pete Smith and expand the comments) were, at best misled, by Mr Moore, if not used by him.

And WTAE Channel 4 news could have had a far different news report if they had done just a little homework.

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