Jumping in to excuse President Obama for making the false promise (“If you like your plan, you can keep your plan”), ABC News on Tuesday night rationalized how ObamaCare is simply saving people in the individual market from being victims of awful policies forced upon them by insurance companies.
On World News, Jim Avila cited the case of Julie Prince, who has been notified her policy will be canceled. Avila turned to an ObamaCare advocate and asked: “Julie tells us that she doesn’t have hospital care on this cheap insurance plan. Is that dangerous?” Lynn Quincy of Consumers Union agreed: “Absolutely. That’s on enormous hole in her coverage.”
Avila had put a pro-ObamaCare spin on how individual policies getting canceled is a beneficial development “because insurance companies, which offered cheap insurance like Julie’s, left out basics now required by ObamaCare, like hospital coverage, maternity, mental health or prescription drugs and are now forced to cancel those plans and replace them. Julie’s new premium would be $210 a month, three times more than she pays now if she takes the insurance company’s alternative.”
Avila, however, insisted: “But three independent health care experts tell ABC News Julie and the others are likely to find plans just as cheap or cheaper on the marketplace when it’s fully functional and with better coverage.”
More benefits at a lower price -- a miracle!
That’s when, in his October 29 story, Avila turned ominous: “Julie tells us that she doesn’t have hospital care on this cheap insurance plan. Is that dangerous?” The Consumers Union representative endorsed his take: “Absolutely. That’s on enormous hole in her coverage.”
Avila then concluded: “Oversold, or big lie as the President’s opponents contend, the White House says America’s under-insured will be better off with ObamaCare.”
Then all is well. Very reassuring.
— Brent Baker is the Steven P.J. Wood Senior Fellow and Vice President for Research and Publications at the Media Research Center. Follow Brent Baker on Twitter. [1]