CBS This Morning was the sole Big Three morning newscast on Thursday to report that delivery company UPS was cutting health insurance to 15,000 spouses of employees due to the rising costs related to ObamaCare. ABC's Good Morning America and NBC's Today both failed to cover this latest development concerning the controversial law. [audio available here; video below the jump]
The CBS program devoted a news brief and a two-and-a-half minute segment to UPS being "one of the first major companies to directly blame ObamaCare for changes in coverage." When host Gayle King wondered if the company's move was "a bad thing to do", analyst Mellody Hobson actually replied that "it's actually not, because, at the end of the day, the spouse will be covered."
King gave a 22-second news brief about UPS's move 13 minutes into 7 am Eastern hour of the morning show:
GAYLE KING: UPS announced it will cut off health benefits to the spouses of 15,000 employees. The package delivery giant says the federal health care overhaul is driving up its cost. It's one of the first major companies to directly blame the Affordable Care Act for changes in coverage. UPS says the cuts apply only to spouses who can get health care coverage through their own employers.
After King tossed her "bad thing to do" question, Rose followed up by wondering if UPS's decision might "feed the controversy over ObamaCare". Hobson answered by outlining that "it really does get to this whole point that has been a huge debate about the costs...The one thing that is key to this issue for the White House, is they need young people to be covered....But the question will be, will the young people say, instead of coverage, I'll just take the penalty which, in the beginning, won't be very much, but over the long term, will rise to be quite significant."
The full transcript of the Mellody Hobson segment from Thursday's CBS This Morning is available at MRC.org.
