No respect for journalism, no respect for its readership
Yes, it's another dishonest Intelligencer editorial on health care
From this morning's editorial, "Health Care Law Action Essential":
No one knows how many billions — more likely, tens of billions — of dollars have been funneled to insurance companies by the government, under former President Barack Obama. Much of the subsidy money was paid illegally.
"No one knows"? We don't have any accounting of this? "Illegally"? According to whom? If it was illegal, wouldn't the Republicans be investigating something that illegally funneled "tens of billions" dollars? The Intelligencer has no shame.
The long editorial is evidence-free and uses only one example to make its point. For its example, the editorial explains why, without quoting Anthem, the insurance provider is leaving Ohio's health care exchange:
Consider what is happening in Ohio. There, Anthem Inc. has announced it will pull out of health insurance markets in most of the state next year. Anthem’s reasoning is simple: As Obamacare is structured, the company cannot afford to continue offering government-approved health insurance without losing money. Only a commitment to more government payments to offset losses would keep Anthem in the Buckeye State’s individual insurance marketplace.
But is that what Anthem said? From CNN Money:
Anthem said it won't participate on Ohio's Obamacare exchange next year, citing growing uncertainty over the law's future in Washington D.C.
The insurer ticked off a list of concerns, including "continual changes in federal operations, rules and guidance" and "an increasing lack of overall predictability."
"A stable insurance market is dependent on products that create value for consumers through the broad spreading of risk and a known set of conditions upon which rates can be developed," the company said in a statement.
That's not what the Intelligencer told us.
Let's see if I understand this. The Republicans ran on a platform of ending Obamacare. The House ended Obamacare and passed a new health care bill. The Senate will attempt to pass a different health care bill. Meanwhile, Republicans have done what they can to destabilize the marketplace. (See here, here, and here for examples.) Insurance companies, like Anthem, say they need "stable" markets to participate so when there is uncertainty, they withdraw from the exchanges. As a result, the Republicans and our "newspapers" get to blame Obamacare for the instability that the Republicans created. Nice.