On Obamacare, The Truth Is Catching Up To The Lies

Kudos to Steve Benen for wrapping up all this week's good news on the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare).  Some of the highlights:

-  the number of insurance companies wanting to get in on the Obamacare exchanges is growing, with the potential for more competition in -- and therefore lower -- premium rates;

-  ACA guru Charles Gaba is predicting that, contrary to wingnut declamations, "at least 90% of the original 8.2 million exchange QHP enrollees have paid their first premiums";

-  the rate of uninsured has dropped by 38% in New Jersey, by 40% in Minnesota, and by 50% in Kentucky;

-  Medicare is growing slower as a percent of the economy and on a per person basis, a trend that could mean billions in savings for the Federal Government.

As Jon Chait points out in a linked article, information surrounding Obamacare is "asymmetrical," in that you'll get a discussion of the good and the bad news from the left, but

Conservatives, even the most wonkish ones, have engaged in a one-sided propaganda effort. If you get your news about Obamacare from conservative sources, you have heard an endless succession of horror predictions that, when not borne out, have gone uncorrected. 

And if the "mainstream" media reports it at all, they apply the "Chuck Todd maxim:" it's "not my job to sort out the facts."

More Lies From Rethugs on Obamacare

On CNN yesterday, Candy Crowley was interviewing Rethuglican Rep. and bad liar Justin "The Fibber" Amash about the provision of the Affordable Care Act that prevents health insurance companies from denying coverage to people with pre-existing conditions like diabetes or heart disease.  Perhaps The Fibber thought he was talking to his Party base of gullible mouthbreathers when he claimed that "some" insurance companies already allow people with pre-existing conditions to get coverage.  As the linked article notes, roughly 25 percent of people under 65 said that they or a family member have been denied coverage or had their premiums jacked up due to a pre-existing condition, according to a study earlier this year. (Fortunately, Obamacare covers burns from having your pants on fire).

Rethuglican Congresscritters are doing everything to undermine "Obamacare" because they know that once all of its provisions take effect -- with some important ones taking effect in October -- the public will embrace the program as they did Social Security and Medicare in the past.  That will be yet another major quality of life improvement that the Rethugs not only can't claim credit for, but one that they fought bitterly.

BONUS:  Read Paul Krugman's piece on the inevitability of Obamacare, and the price Rethugs will pay for obstructing it.

Rethug Hoaxes and Our Broken Media

In a last ditch effort to stop health insurance reform legislation, the Rethugs are throwing everything against the wall to see what sticks. After more than a year of spreading lies and misinformation about reform ("death panels," "Government takeover," etc.), the Rethugs are resorting to hoaxes to try to derail the bill. A fake memo from Dem leadership made available to sympathetic "media" purports to claim the Dems plan to make big changes in Medicare next year. Of course, the stenographers at Politico.com picked up the memo and ran with it without checking with Dems to determine its authenticity.

This has become a classic Rethug route for getting bogus information into the mainstream media: hand it to Politico or Drudge (not much difference), who peddle it to the cable TV nitwits, who flog it day and night until the Village media takes note. It's just what President Obama was referring to when he said yesterday at George Mason University that watching the media was like watching ESPN's Sports Center. Except on Sports Center, they don't make up the scores.