NPR Bemoans That Few Think Obamacare Will Benefit Them
On Tuesday's Morning Edition, NPR's Julie Rovner promoted the supposed benefits of ObamaCare, and played up a recent poll which found that "about a third of those without health insurance think the law will help them, and that's because only about half know that it includes key provisions that will make insurance more available and affordable."
The sole source for the correspondent's report was an August 2011 tracking poll conducted by the liberal Kaiser Family Foundation. Rovner played three sound bites from Drew Altman, who works for the foundation, and none from opponents of ObamaCare. In his first clip, Altman highlighted how a majority of people surveyed for the poll agree that "it [ObamaCare] really does help the uninsured. Thirty-two million uninsured people will get coverage."
After noting that according to the poll, "only about half know that it includes key provisions that will make insurance more available and affordable," the NPR journalist played a second sound bite from Altman, who attributed the low numbers to the opponents of the liberal legislation, and added that it could also be explained by the fact that the law hasn't fully gone into effect yet:
ROVNER: One conclusion, he [Altman] says, is that the law's supporters have let opponents define the law on their terms.
ALTMAN: That's why it became, in the minds of many, a government takeover.
ROVNER: But Altman thinks there's something else. The uninsured, like everyone else outside of Washington, have so far experienced the health law as little more than a political debate.
One detail from the poll that both Rovner and Altman omitted during the segment is how more people are opposed to ObamaCare (44%) than support it (39%), and that "six in ten Democrats have a favorable view of the law (the lowest support among Democrats since the law's passage)."
The NPR correspondent has consistently given biased coverage on health care issues. In March 2011, Rovner played up the "benefits" of ObamaCare. The following month, she slanted towards proponents of federal funding of contraceptives. Just over a month ago, the journalist spun the debate over a propose mandate for private insurance companies to cover birth control as being between "women's health groups" and "conservatives."
The full transcript of Julie Rovner's report from Tuesday's Morning Edition:
STEVE INSKEEP: And now let's look at a new study of the government's health overhaul. NPR's Julie Rovner reports that many of the people most likely to be helped by it don't know it.
JULIE ROVNER: When it comes to last year's huge health law, there's not much that people agree on, but there is one thing, says Drew Altman of the Kaiser Family Foundation.
DREW ALTMAN, KAISER FAMILY FOUNDATION: And that's that it really does help the uninsured. Thirty-two million uninsured people will get coverage.
ROVNER: But the latest monthly tracking poll by Altman's foundation finds that only about a third of those without health insurance think the law will help them, and that's because only about half know that it includes key provisions that will make insurance more available and affordable- things like new tax credits and a huge expansion of the Medicaid program for able-bodied adults. One conclusion, he says, is that the law's supporters have let opponents define the law on their terms.
ALTMAN: That's why it became, in the minds of many, a government takeover.
ROVNER: But Altman thinks there's something else. The uninsured, like everyone else outside of Washington, have so far experienced the health law as little more than a political debate.
ALTMAN: And what it means is this will be real for people when it's real, which is mostly in 2014.
ROVNER: Because that's when most of the new benefits for those without insurance take effect. Until then, the law is just so many words on paper, and so much political hot air. Julie Rovner, NPR News, Washington.
- Matthew Balan's blog
- Login to post comments
Comments
Forget whether it might
Submitted by rbosque on Tue, 08/30/2011 - 8:16pm.
Forget whether it might "benefit" anyone...it's UNCONSTITUTIONAL! The gov't can't force me to buy any of their BS.
Oh yes, rates are coming down and you'll keep your insurance....
Submitted by drsamherman on Tue, 08/30/2011 - 8:19pm.
...if you like it. Turns out the exact opposite is happening. Younger Americans will see massive increases in health insurance premiums and many insurance carriers will not be able to offer the same level of benefits as they do now. It is impossible to dump millions of uninsured people onto the rolls without massive increases in cost and corresponding cuts in reimbursement. You will have an under-supply of primary care physicians and an over-demand of patients wanting to cash in on their new free health care goodies. Add into that the number of employers who will simply drop coverage altogether as they know it will be cheaper to pay the fine than to pay the premiums. Anybody who believes that the money they save will be used to increase wages is naive.
NPR's babbling idiots sound worse than Nancy Pelosi's "We have to pass the bill to find out what's in it."
Yes
Submitted by Brad90956 on Tue, 08/30/2011 - 10:34pm.
"Add into that the number of employers who will simply drop coverage altogether as they know it will be cheaper to pay the fine than to pay the premiums."
I have been saying that since this whole debate started. As soon as Obama said if you like your insurance you can keep it, I thought to myself, "If my employer figures out it is cheaper to dump me and pay the fine I will not be able to keep my insurance. Before ObamaCare, my employer would pay me $2,000 a year to not accept our companies insurance. I did not do it because I had no other option but there were other co-workers who took this option and just got put on their spouses's insurance.
Obamacare was nothing more than a government seizure...
Submitted by Dave. on Tue, 08/30/2011 - 8:30pm.
...of our nation's health care system.
Now they've got it.
End of story.
-Dave
Vote for the American in November
'key provisions'...'available'..."affordable"
Submitted by Rackie on Tue, 08/30/2011 - 8:33pm.
Julie sweetie, you ain't gonna roll wift da hommies by usin' big words. Ya gotta say shit like "free" or "gummit money" or "handout".
You super dumb woman,
Submitted by Boudin on Tue, 08/30/2011 - 8:43pm.
really does help the uninsured. Thirty-two million uninsured people will get coverage.
Why must we ruin everyone elses policy for the 32 million (even though that number is exaggerated big time) who dont have health insurance? Also dimwit, please explain how rationing our remaining health care will help anyone.
Also, please name any person you know who has been denied Health Care. Because I know lots of folks who have been denied ALL the benefits you cretins pretend to peddle.
Where are the trolls, where you at?
I'm not 110% convinced about Perry yet, but
Submitted by SickofLibs on Tue, 08/30/2011 - 8:43pm.
his schtick of "I will begin disassembling Obamacare on Day 1" is resonating with me so far more than anything else I've heard from anyone esle.
When/if this thing ever kicks in, it will be the biggest f-over in the history of the world. And I hope the half of my family that rabidly supported this POS choke on it.
Perry and Guardisil
Submitted by Radical1979 on Tue, 08/30/2011 - 8:52pm.
First Perry needs to explain his forcing children in Texas to receive the Guardisil vaccine. That has me extremely leery of Perry.
Wasn't it optional?
Submitted by jon_torlin on Tue, 08/30/2011 - 10:29pm.
Rad, based on some of the research I've done (and I will admit to being wrong if I am), I thought it was optional to opt out of that vaccine, that it can't be done without a parent's permission.
-Jon
Rad,
Submitted by Dave. on Wed, 08/31/2011 - 1:36am.
That is one of my problems with Perry, too.
That, and his willingness to grant in-state tuition to beople who shouldn't even be in this country.
He can flip-flop all he wants, but just like Romney concerning Romneycare, it's the mindset that was willing to go along with it in the first place that bothers me.
-Dave
Vote for the American in November
Perry is a good candidate but
Submitted by Dan The Man 2 on Wed, 08/31/2011 - 10:51am.
Perry is a good candidate but not the best one. His immigrations stance, TransTexas Corridor and the vaccine problem. The question is has he learned anything? I am seeing that he may be the GOP pick. He is highly electable and resonates well with the people.
I aint sold either SOL
Submitted by Boudin on Tue, 08/30/2011 - 8:57pm.
I am stunned by how well he appears to be doing. We have a great class here. Please, lets not rule any of them out.
I wish we had 5 candidates who were polling about 10-20% with 3 others getting 3-9%. I pray we dont screw this up, we have this one opportunity to marginalize lbtards for the foreseeable future.
Please folks, this for our future.
Uh - that's because we knew
Submitted by Slyrr on Tue, 08/30/2011 - 9:02pm.
Uh - that's because we knew from the start that this was just another government boondoggle. It was from it's inception, it is now in it's current iteration, and that's all it ever will be until the blessed day comes when this 'law' is overturned and thrown on the dung heap of bad ideas along with every other liberal 'law'.
If Obamascare is so great, why is Obama giving 'waivers' to all his buddies so they don't have to obey it?
In the end - we know it's a government created program. And that's ALL we need to know about it. Because like all government made programs, it is based in lies, false cost estimates, and stuffed with corrupt politicians who are looking to stick their filthy hands into the taxpayer cookie jar.
Of course no one trusts it.
Because no one trusts the govnerment.
Because the government is demonstrably corrupt under Obama.
Probably a Minor Oversight
Submitted by IrateNate on Tue, 08/30/2011 - 9:43pm.
I wonder why the (recently ruled unconstitutional) individual mandate was not mentioned by either Altman or Rovner? We know this mandate is the cornerstone of Obamacare; without this source of funding there is no possible way costs can remain at their current level, much less be reduced.
But at least NPR admits the entire argument is simply political spin. They just failed to acknowledge the direction of the spin is, as always, to the left.
NPR Propagandists for Totalitarianism:
Submitted by Comrade Jim on Tue, 08/30/2011 - 9:50pm.
NPR is nothing but a propaganda arm of the progressive/fascist movement to impose totalitarian government on the US. NPR will glue itself like a barnacle to the ship of totalitarian state. NPR will tell us what is true, what is right, what is just, and what is good for us. Big Brother will know best. These mental dictators revel in screwing the taxpayers twice, first by stealing their money and second by incarcerating them in a totalitarian straight jacket.
NPR really means this
Submitted by jon_torlin on Tue, 08/30/2011 - 10:31pm.
NPR bemoans that few think Obamacare will benefit them translates to:
"Doggone it, I thought we had these idiots fooled! Why did they have to have that stupid Constitution??"
-Jon
I hate to tell Rick Perry, but even if he should move into the
Submitted by Dave. on Wed, 08/31/2011 - 1:40am.
...White House on January 20, 2013, it's going to be too late to reverse Obamacare.
People don't seem to understand that there is a point beyond which Obamunism as a whole will be mathematically irreversible, and I think it very possible that point is going to get here sooner than the 2012 election.
-Dave
Vote for the American in November
Has Julie Rovner Been To A Country With National Healthcare?
Submitted by Avitar on Wed, 08/31/2011 - 3:02am.
Smart tough people make good doctors. They don't make good slaves. As Senator Rand Paul has pointed out in a National Healthcare system makes every doctor is a slave. At the top of the heap is generally not a doctor either but some sort of bureaucratic overseer who knows the cost of everything and the value of nothing.
Obamacare has cost me big-time...
Submitted by big.league.slider on Wed, 08/31/2011 - 3:10am.
I'm self-employed and single with no dependents. I have a high deductible PPO that I pay for and an HSA account. In the past 12 months, my monthly insurance premiums have gone up almost 50%, due to the threat of Obamacare.
It's not that I don't "think" Obamacare will not benefit me, it's that I have solid evidence that Obamacare will not benefit me.
Obamacare would accomplish two things...
Submitted by c5then on Wed, 08/31/2011 - 7:41am.
1) It would require current Insurance companies to either begin losing money by complying with the law and insuring everyone without raising premiums or to exit the business. We all know which will happen. Companies can not lose money and survive for long.
2) It would force small businesses to decide whether to spend $12,000 per employee to offer health insurance to them, or pay a $2,500 fine per employee for not offereing health insurance. Again, we all know what will happen.
Obamacare is step one in creating a British-like government run healthcare system. It creates many disincentives for insurance companies and makes it cheaper for small businesses to not offer health insurance.
Step two (which was removed from Obamacare to get it to pass) will be the creation of a government run health system originally based on Medicare to "fix the problem" of all the people who are losing their health insurance because of "unforseen" and "unexpected" developments.
Madison and Jefferson and Franklin built a Republic - Roberts killed it!
The fate of the monstrosity known as ObamaCare will be
Submitted by no tingly legs on Wed, 08/31/2011 - 8:26am.
decided in the Fall of 2012 by one man: Supreme Court Justice Kennedy. He'll be the swing vote, either siding with the four justices who respect our Constitution or the four liberal droids who think it's a "living document" which enables libtard politicians to enslave the populace by foisting any scheme upon us which they think will get them reelected. I have zero faith in gutless Republicans like Boehner to ever stand up against the Pelosis or Reids of the world or Dear Leader himself.
Some secondary benefits of ObamaCare
Submitted by needle on Wed, 08/31/2011 - 9:39am.
ObamaCare is a significant contributor to the Obama Administration’s severe unbalancing of the federal budget, whether Julie Rovner cares to admit it or not.
As soon as politically possible the Tea Party is going to do all it can to get the federal budget balanced, another matter Julie Rovner is most likely in denial about. One of the early items in line for the chopping block is NPR, along with PBS ant the CPB.
Will Julie Rovner ever be perspicacious enough to realize how ObamaCare failed to benefit her?
I doubt it, but I sure will. I can’t wait.
- Looking forward to the self-annihilation of the Manipulated Stories Machine.