Thanks to ObamaCare, about two-thirds of Americans who work at small businesses will see a spike in their health insurance premiums. Reaction at ABC, CBS and NBC to this devastating news for employees across the nation? A big fat yawn.
No one at the Big Three networks have reported on the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) report, issued on Friday, that anticipates 65 percent of small businesses will see their health insurance premiums rise. This isn’t what the President promised on the 2012 campaign trail:
“The other thing we’ve done is to say, what are the critical needs of small business? A lot of time, one of the biggest challenges is to make sure that you, as a sole proprietor, that you can get health insurance for you and your family. So when you hear about the Affordable Care Act — ObamaCare — and I don’t mind the name because I really do care. That’s why we passed it. You should know that once we have fully implemented, you’re going to be able to buy insurance through a pool so that you can get the same good rates as a group that if you’re an employee at a big company you can get right now — which means your premiums will go down.”
— President Barack Obama, campaign speech [1] in Cincinnati, July 16, 2012
On Tuesday, the Wall Street Journal’s [2] Jennifer Corbett Dooren broke down the CMS findings: “The report concluded that about 65% of small businesses, or plans covering 11 million people, would see an increase in insurance premiums under these so-called community-rating provisions of the health law. About 35% of employers would see a decrease for plans covering six million people. These employers aren't required to pay a penalty under the federal health law if they don't insure workers.”
The CMS report is just the latest in a string of bad news for ObamaCare that the Big Three networks have either ignored or downplayed. ABC, CBS and NBC ignored a February 22 New York Times story that reported government jobs [3] were also being hurt by ObamaCare. And the news [4] of yet another delay in the employer mandate, and a devastating CBO report that claimed the Affordable Care Act would cost the equivalent of two million jobs were barely mentioned on the Big Three evening and morning shows.
— Geoffrey Dickens is Deputy Research Director at the Media Research Center. Follow Geoffrey Dickens on Twitter. [5]