Since he left Fox News Channel in 2013, conservative pundit Bill Kristol now gets to play TV expert on a range of outlets. On April 6, he showed up on ABC‘s This Week to misinform viewers about healthcare.
When host Jonathan Karl noted that the White House announced that more than 7 million Americans had signed up for insurance through the Affordable Care Act, Kristol declared this wasn’t as impressive as it sounded:
The Rand Corporation says about 800,000 of those people were previously uninsured. Eight hundred thousand out of 7 million, the huge bulk of them previously insured.
So big deal. He moved people from insurance plans they liked, forced them into the exchanges. That’s like saying you’ve got to give the Soviet Union a lot of credit, 200 million people bought bread in their grocery stories. If it’s the only place you can buy health insurance, they’re going to get people to buy health insurance there.
That would be an astonishing revelation. But it falls apart under scrutiny.
The story appears to have originated at the British tabloid the Daily Mail (4/1/14), which declared an “unsettling reality” this way:
Numbers from a RAND Corporation study that has been kept under wraps suggest that barely 858,000 previously uninsured Americans–nowhere near 7.1 million–have paid for new policies and joined the ranks of the insured by Monday night.
The paper added that the Rand study “found that just 23 percent of new enrollees had no insurance before signing up. ”
But are these numbers correct? The Daily Mail story mentioned that this Rand analysis was actually covered elsewhere: “It should be noted that the study has not been officially published and has only been reviewed by the Los Angeles Times.”
This is true. But the L.A. Times‘ account (3/30/14) of the research is quite different. Under the headline “Obamacare Has Led to Health Coverage for Millions More People,” reporter Noam Levey wrote that, based on the Rand survey and other indicators, “at least 9.5 million previously uninsured people have gained coverage.”
The Times reported that about one-third of the 6 million who have signed up on the new marketplaces were previously uninsured. Beyond that, Levey writes:
At least 4.5 million previously uninsured adults have signed up for state Medicaid programs, according to Rand’s unpublished survey data, which were shared with the Times.
So how does any of this square with Kristol’s claim? The “only 800,000” figure seems to be based on one interpretation of how many people have already paid insurance premiums, which is an issue that many on the right have seized on (L.A. Times, 3/31/14).
But Kristol claimed that the law has insured only 800,000 people who didn’t have insurance before the law took effect. That does not appear to be close to accurate.
Not only that, but the exchanges aren’t the only only “place” you can get health insurance. Number two, the fact that someone was previously insured but now bought insurance on the exchange doesn’t automatically mean that they were forced into worse insurance.
They could easily have switched because they were able to find better/cheaper insurance on the exchange. So, it doesn’t even matter what the numbers are, the whole statement in nonsense.
And talking about people buying insurance on “the exchange” as if it is some monolithic place is like talking about people buying something from Craigslist or eBay as if that means that they had limited options.
What’s remarkable here is not William Kristol’s insistence that the Affordable Care Act is a failure, it is the fact that ABC This Week would feature such a thoroughly discredited politician. What kind of journalism is this?
So again the left “assumes” that premiums will be paid and calls the fact that they have not yet been misleading. Segueing effortlessly from that to ” questionable” calling the report itself into question not due to in accuracy but simply by disparaging the organization and person who focused on different aspects than they wanted. The mail is “tabloid” for reporting actual figures which are not contested, but when the times assumes that the premium will get paid and rounds up to “almost a third” now that is real reporting.
Guess what, not only do many not pay premiums, (I won’t because I enrolled elsewhere) but the statistics are already out that nationally over 20% which paid the first month, did not pay the second (in California this number is almost 40%) You see what I did there? I through in that “almost” to enhance my credibility.
FYI Kristol is not a politician
Reply to “Mary Sammons:
FYI, “Through” is not the same as “threw.”
You DID throw in some WORDS, which can be discredited easily by anyone who actually reads Mr. Hart’s blog.
Sorry, I couldn’t find a way to edit my previous post, so here it is again, with a sentence that was inadvertently deleted:
Reply to “Mary Sammons:
FYI, “through” is not the same as “threw.”
You DID throw in some WORDS, which can be discredited easily by anyone who actually reads Mr. Hart’s blog.
P.S. You will have to try better if you want to “enhance your credibility.”
Bar Baxter,
Mary is not the same as Marv.
Through is exactly the same as threw to Siri.
All those “easily discredited words”…no one, including you has mustered the minimal effort to attempt.
A ton of fuzzy numbers are flowing about.Here is a few that stick.The 30 million this was all done for ,are mostly still in a bad position or dumped to medicare.Most premiums are up.There is no longer discrimination for previous conditions,but now 10x as much discrimination for your age.Its a mess top to bottom.No where near what they need of young people,or anything else to fund any of this.Cost up 4x that promised.And so far we dont know if anyone has paid into it let alone 7 mil.So the gov is gonna pick up the tab.And this plan is no longer the one congress voted into law.WHAT A FRIGGIN MESS
michael e, your unsourced numbers are incorrect. You’re so gullible.
So, the Rand study was largely positive, the L.A. Times reported it that way, the Daily Mail referred to the L.A. Times’ review yet ignored the positive and focused on a meaningless stat, the right seized on it, and then Bill Kristol mucks up that meaningless stat and turns into something completely different and dishonest. Ya gotta love cons.
“Through is not the same as threw.”
“Mary is not the same as Marv.”
LOL!
Yes Vrede sorry about the “threw”.Listen ,Im in a positive mood.I want to see how all this is going to work .Back under the monetary cap promised when this was pitched to us and congress.I want to see how this is going to be better.I just cant.It looks like a disaster to me.
Sheesh, michael e, you are not the one that misspelled “threw” as “through”, criticized it, or responded funnily to the criticism.
“I want to see” if you’ll ever start paying attention. Until then, how things look to you is irrelevant, you’ll just regurgitate ODS inaccuracies like the ones from the Daily Mail and Bill Kristol described in this article and the incorrect, unsourced numbers you spewed in your prior post.
Vrede, come november the left will loose the Senate.Almost entirely because of this debacle.Yet you seem to believe that you have some stats that will change everybody’s mind,and convince us all that this is still a good thing.So “stat” away my friend.You still believe in this mess.Even after the horror of the roll out.The cost that is 4x more than promised.The millions that lost coverage.The ever changing law(in violation of Congress)that bears no resemblance to what was passed.The pass being given to “OBAMA FRIENDS”.The skyrocketing premiums.The Doctors opting out.And how many of those poultry 7 million have paid into it I wonder.The skyrocketing cost all around.I do see this working for those who were uninsured.But they could of all been taken care of for a fraction of a fraction of the cost.This is a nanny state.And everyone else is paying through the teeth.Please tell me how this is the best we could do
Only a fool makes such electoral predictions, michael e. Remember 2012?
Debacle? Not that I’m a fan of the ACA – single payer has been proven to work everywhere – but you should search the Gallup poll: “Obamacare effects are bigger than expected, poll finds”. 12 million previously uninsured Americans have gained coverage since the Fall and the uninsured rate is the lowest it’s been since the survey began in 2008. Also, the CBO is now saying lower costs than predicted.
Your “in violation of Congress” is yet another rightwing fantasy you’ve swallowed, oh gullible one. Have you seen a successful court challenge?
I sure haven’t ever said it’s “the best we could do”, or even that it’s the best the wishy-washy Dems could have passed. You’re hallucinating again. However, it’s better than what we had and, more importantly, where we were headed.
“poultry” – LOL! Honestly, michael e, you are too illiterate for web forums. I imagine you have some talent but it’s pitiful that you’ve chosen a hobby where you are guaranteed to be an ineffective failure.