How The White House Press Reacts To Blockbuster Obamacare News
It was around this time last year that the mainstream media, including the White House press, became acutely interested in the Affordable Care Act, showering the law with attention (if not factual accuracy), so when White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest released some big news about the law today, the reaction was amazing. Earnest knowingly kicked off Friday’s briefing with “a topic that I know you’re all very interested in,” and announced some huge news about Obamacare. First, there was the newest GDP report, which showed health care inflation continuing its growth at historical lows (1.8% in Q2). followed by the news, this week, that hospitals will save $5.7 billion in unpaid medical bills this year thanks to Obamacare, 74% of which will be from states that expanded Medicaid.
Then, there was the news that, instead of fleeing the Obamacare marketplaces, as doomsayers predicted, 77 additional insurers will be offering plans next year. Finally, Earnest hit the most interesting bullet point of them all, because it’s the one the mainstream press spent so much time lying about last year, premiums:
“The average premium for employer-provided coverage went up only 3 percent this year. That’s tied for the lowest increase since they began conducting this survey, back in 1999.”[su_center_ad]
That’s not to mention the individual market, where premium increases have been lower than prior to Obamacare, but where the choices available mean that consumers can limit their increases to an average of 1% by shopping around. According to another recent report, premiums for Silver plans in 16 major cities will actually fall by an average of .8 percent.
As it turns out, Earnest slightly overestimated the amount of interest White House reporters would show in this big news. For the remainder of the briefing, the topic never came up. As usual, there were only a couple of topics that dominated the briefing, and today they were ISIS, the UNGA, , the White House fence-jumper, and Attorney General Holder’s replacement, but they did find time to hit on these other important topics…READ MORE
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edmeyer_able September 26th, 2014 at 10:35 pm
This alone is reason enough to vote BLUE in November, if the republicans gain control they will dismantle the law and things will descend back into chaos.
Of course if you own gold your investment will sky rocket.
M D Reese September 28th, 2014 at 12:06 pm
That and the Supreme Court. We can’t handle more Scalia’s and Thomases on the highest court in the land.
Obewon September 26th, 2014 at 11:51 pm
Meanwhile the GOP does Zip for anybody not in the top .001%! 24 million to 28.6 M are now covered by the ACA’s $1.5 trillion Federal deficit reductions with healthcare costs now rising a record low+1.8% within our recovered record $16.2 T GDP now growing +4.4% APR. http://acasignups.net/
edmeyer_able September 26th, 2014 at 11:55 pm
I think that was revised up to 4.6%.
M D Reese September 28th, 2014 at 12:05 pm
…and the stock market has tripled since Shrub left office.
arc99 September 27th, 2014 at 12:10 am
The ACA is working.
Even if we ignore the objective criteria reported over the past few months demonstrating that the right wing rhetoric about the website, about no one signing up, about no one paying premiums etc etc. etc. was all a bunch of hogwash, there is another 100% foolproof measure which proves that Obamacare is a success.
Most Republican politicians have stopped talking about it.
M D Reese September 28th, 2014 at 12:03 pm
Good point. You don’t hear much about BenghaziBenghazi lately either.
William September 27th, 2014 at 10:01 am
No surprise.
Veri1138 September 29th, 2014 at 3:58 am
You have to know to go online to the ACA website to every year at renewal time to choose the lowest priced plan. Otherwise, you will find your health insurance has suddenly jumped in price.
It’s a feature. Not a bug.