Republican Senators released the draft of their replacement for the failing ObamaCare on Thursday, and with it came the wrath of the liberal media. “The cat is out of the bag tonight on the Senate Republican plan to overhaul ObamaCare. The veil finally lifted today on the draft of a health care bill written in secret…,” chided Anchor Lester Holt to begin NBC Nightly News. Despite the legislation keeping their favorite parts of ObamaCare, they chastised the bill while at the same time casting blame on President Trump for ObamaCare’s death-spiral.
“And we can't lose sight of the fact that while lawmakers do battle over all this in Washington, there are real people with very real problems across this country left in suspense over the future of health care,” declared Holt, as he said people were “caught between” the Senate bill and rising premiums.
Reporter Gabe Gutierrez sat down with a single mother from Kentucky named Sarah Halfacre, who was losing her health insurance because Humana was pulling out of the state’s exchanges. “In a written statement in February Humana said it was leaving the exchanges because of further signs of an unbalanced risk pool,” he reported but didn’t mention that meant they were losing money. “Humana is just one of the insurers leaving the affordable care act pools either nationwide or in certain states.”
According to Gutierrez, the reason insurance companies were leaving “a third of counties in the U.S. have just one provider” was because of the President’s rhetoric. “People think that it's gone away because of all the rhetoric that we're hearing,” Emily Beauregard, a “health care advocate, ” told the reporter. Her statement was followed up with clips of Trump talking about how ObamaCare was failing. Gutierrez then asserted that Trump was “fueling market turmoil.”
One industry person, Sam Glick, told Gutierrez that “the slowness of clear guidance from Washington is really what's driving all of this premium increases and people pulling out of the marketplace.” But that’s not true. NBC News had interviewed Halfacre once before when her previous insurer, United Healthcare pulled out of Kentucky. At the time, NBC’s Tom Castello cited how the company was “losing money” as the reason. And two days prior to her interview airing, NBC had censored the skyrocketing ObamaCare premiums from the evening broadcast.
Both of these instances occurred in late October 2016, that’s before Trump was elected president and Hillary Clinton was considered the default winner. NBC’s Clinton super-fan Andrea Mitchell even described the hikes as just “nagging problems” for her candidate.
When it came to the Senate’s replacement for ObamaCare, NBC’s Kasie Hunt turned up the heat. “Wheelchair-bound protesters … 43 arrested and dragged from a Senate office building,” she noted as she hyped the protests of the bill on Wednesday. “The draft Senate bill would repeal the mandate to buy insurance but keeps protections for people with pre-existing conditions and creates a new fund to support the individual insurance market,” she explained, going through the popular parts that would stay. But that wasn’t good enough for her.
“It keeps the expansion of Medicaid through 2020 but then phases it out,” she declared without explaining that it’s because prices were expected to come down to balance it out. “It also ties Medicaid funding to inflation, which means a dramatic reduction over time.” That was false because in our economy inflation almost constantly increases so that means so would the funding. But, of course, to the media, it’s a cut because the rate of increase is not what they would like it to be.
Hunt then used clips of noted liberals to smear Senate Republicans as evil. “These cuts are blood money. People will die. Let's be very clear. Senate Republicans are paying for tax cuts for the wealthy with American lives,” Elizabeth Warren angrily declared on the Senate floor. Shocking, since it had only been a week after Congress vowed to stop the violent rhetoric following the almost deadly attack on Congressional Republicans.
“This bill covers fewer people, charges them more for the coverage they're going to get and gives them a poorer product for that coverage,” smeared Yale Professor Abbe Gluck. What Hunt failed to disclose was that Gluck was a liberal activist. She had even written a piece for Vox where she argued for “social solidarity” in health care. “The GOP plan is basically a tax cut for the rich that takes health care away from the poorest Americans and leaves the states holding the bag,” she decried in her article.
It’s clear by NBC’s set up to their reports, the tone they struck, and the “experts” they tapped that their goal was to tear down the bill from the left. They failed to accurately explain how and why certain provisions existed in the bill, yet were glad to spread accusations that the GOP wanted to kill poor people.
Transcript below:
NBC Nightly News
June 22, 2017
7:01:15 PM EasternLESTER HOLT: Good evening. We're glad you're with us on this Thursday night. The cat is out of the bag tonight on the Senate Republican plan to overhaul ObamaCare. The veil finally lifted today on the draft of a health care bill written in secret and now being seen by most members of the Senate for first time, just a week before the likely vote. Democrats predictably are unhappy, saying it will put millions at risk who depend on coverage, but it's dissent among a handful of Republicans that threatens to doom the passage of the plan as it stands tonight. Our Kasie Hunt now on how the law might affect you and the battle lines forming tonight.
[Cuts to video]
KASIE HUNT: Wheelchair-bound protesters.
PROTESTER BEING CARRIED BY POLICE: Save our Medicaid! Save our Medicaid!
HUNT: 43 arrested and dragged from a Senate office building.
PROTESTER: I worked all my life with my disability, but I'm not rich enough to keep my daughter alive without Medicaid.
HUNT: All happening just as the draft of the GOP plan to repeal and replace ObamaCare was finally made public this morning. The draft Senate bill would repeal the mandate to buy insurance but keeps protections for people with pre-existing conditions and creates a new fund to support the individual insurance market. It keeps the expansion of Medicaid through 2020 but then phases it out. It also ties Medicaid funding to inflation, which means a dramatic reduction over time. Fewer people will qualify for tax credits to help them buy insurance, but the Senate provisions are more generous than the House version. And it defunds Planned Parenthood.
ELIZABETH WARREN: These cuts are blood money. People will die. Let's be very clear. Senate Republicans are paying for tax cuts for the wealthy with American lives.
(…)
ABBE GLUCK: This bill covers fewer people, charges them more for the coverage they're going to get and gives them a poorer product for that coverage.
(…)
7:04:03 PM Eastern
HOLT: And we can't lose sight of the fact that while lawmakers do battle over all this in Washington, there are real people with very real problems across this country left in suspense over the future of healthcare. Many are caught between the uncertainty of how the Republican plan will affect them and the dwindling choices and rising premiums under Obamacare. NBC's Gabe Gutierrez has the impact far beyond Capitol Hill.
[Cuts to video]
GABE GUTIERREZ: It was the letter single mom Sara Halfacre dreaded.
SARAH HALFACRE: Your current Humana health plan will no longer be offered.
GUTIERREZ: Her insurance company Humana dropping the bombshell that it was pulling out of Kentucky's ObamaCare exchange. This wasn't the first time you got a letter like this.
HALFACRE: No.
GUTIERREZ: We were with her last year when her previous insurance company did the same.
HALFACRE: I don't know if I'm going to have coverage, which doctors I’m going to go to, which pharmacy I'll get my medication from. I don't know.
GUTIERREZ: In a written statement in February Humana said it was leaving the exchanges because of further signs of an unbalanced risk pool. Humana is just one of the insurers leaving the affordable care act pools either nationwide or in certain states. Right now, a third of counties in the U.S. have just one provider left. In Kentucky healthcare advocate Emily Beauregard says people are confused about ObamaCare status.
EMILY BEAUREGARD: People think that it's gone away because of all the rhetoric that we're hearing.
DONALD TRUMP: Let Obamacare explode. It is exploding right now. Obamacare is dead. It's a disaster. It is dead.
GUTIERREZ: That message, say insurance companies, is fueling market turmoil.
SAM GLICK: The insurance companies are dealing with quite a bit of uncertainty. The slowness of clear guidance from Washington is really what's driving all of this premium increases and people pulling out of the marketplace.
GUTIERREZ: Experts blame that uncertainty for two-thirds of anticipated premium hikes.
(…)
