The Associated Press launched a farcical defense of Hillary Clinton’s discredited account of a “health care horror story” that involved a pregnant woman who died weeks after losing her baby. The article, Clinton’s Tale Part Truth, Part Errors, by Charles Babington (or is it Babblington?) is a classic journey down Libsteria Lane where no good lie goes undefended.
The AP one-ups the Hillary Clinton spin by ending their article with their own activist tainted lie as is often the case with mainstream media protectionists of candidates that have been granted most favored party status. (all emphasis mine throughout)
Clinton erred in telling audiences that the Ohio woman lacked insurance when seeking help for her troubled pregnancy. But according to Casto’s account, Bachtel’s medical tragedy began with circumstances very close to the essence of Clinton’s now-abandoned account: the lack of insurance created a $100 barrier to needed medical attention close to home.
The Casto that Babington is talking about is Susie Casto who is the aunt of the woman that died. The following is what Casto said as documented in the AP article in question under a section titled, “THE FACTS:”
The AP then spoke with Bachtel’s aunt, Susie Casto of Middleport, who helped raise the woman. She said Bachtel, who worked at a pizza parlor, did in fact have health insurance when she and her baby died.
But at an earlier time, Casto said, Bachtel lacked health insurance and ran up unpaid bills when treated at a clinic near her home in Middleport. When she returned for treatment when pregnant, the clinic demanded $100 per visit to help retire the outstanding debt, Casto said. Because Bachtel could not afford the fees and found it difficult to travel, her aunt said, she postponed receiving treatment.
Bachtel eventually went to O’Bleness, about 30 miles to the north, for attention.
Casto declined to name the clinics or hospitals involved, and said she felt medical professionals did all they could to save Bachtel and her unborn child.
This is the extent of Casto’s comments regarding the case. Yet somehow the AP came to the conclusion that “the lack of insurance created a $100 barrier to needed medical attention close to home.” This isn’t even close to the truth. Not by a stretch, not by a mile. It is a lie.
Even The New York Times gets that part of the story right although they, like most everyone else in the MSM, fail to task Senator Clinton with some common sense questions that seriously question another claim being told by the Clinton campaign.
“We reviewed the medical and patient account records of this patient,” said Mr. Castrop, the health system’s chief executive. Any implication that the system was “involved in denying care is definitely not true.”
Definitely not true, as in lie. But this shouldn’t be news to the AP because they include the following in their “fact section”:
Pomeroy has about 2,000 residents and two medical clinics. One is affiliated with O’Bleness, the other is the Holzer Clinic, part of a nine-facility chain.
O’Bleness Health System spokeswoman Lynn Anastos said Monday that Bachtel was not a patient at their Pomeroy facility and “she would not have been turned away for lack of payment” if she had sought treatment there.
Holzer associate administrator Jim Blevins said his company has no record of Bachtel being a patient for the past five years. About half of Holzer’s patients are “charity cases,” he said, and the company tries to work out payment schedules with those who fall behind on their bills.
In other words Bachtel could have worked out a payment plan and still received non-emergency treatment. In the case of an emergency this would not have been required. Bachtel was insured and under the care of an obstetrics practice affiliated with the hospital. Finally, there is nothing in the Clinton health care proposal that would require that a treatment facility be close to home. So the facts of the Clinton account are in direct contradiction to the AP’s silly defense.
To take this account of liberal bias in the press one step further one must also look at the Clinton campaign’s excuse and wonder why the MSM gives them an obvious pass.
A Clinton spokesman, Mo Elleithee, said candidates would frequently retell stories relayed to them, vetting them when possible. “In this case, we did try but were not able to fully vet it,” Mr. Elleithee said. “If the hospital claims it did not happen that way, we respect that.”
Let me get this straight, Hillary Clinton is telling a third hand story that they were not able to “fully vet” yet she could retell the story with such specificity as to recount the actual conversation that took place between the dead woman and medial care staffers. Thus when the Clinton campaign spins the spin with their “not able to fully vet” account nobody in the press corp thought to ask them how Mrs. Clinton came up with such a detailed sentence by sentence account. Does any of this excuse make sense to you? No? Me neither.
Mrs. Clinton does not name Ms. Bachtel or the hospital in her speeches. As she tells it, the woman was turned away twice by a local hospital when she was experiencing difficulty with her pregnancy. “The hospital said, ‘Well, you don’t have insurance.’ She said, ‘No, I don’t.’ They said, ‘Well, we can’t see you until you give $100.’ She said, ‘Where am I going to get $100?’
“The next time she came back to the hospital, she came in an ambulance,” Mrs. Clinton continued. “She was in distress. The doctors and the nurses worked on her and couldn’t save the baby.”
Let's not forget the fact that the press is also giving Hillary Clinton a pass on the fact that she is doing something so callous as to use a fabricated story about a dead woman and child to prop up her presidential campaign.
This latest tale as told by Hillary Clinton did much more than expose her as the 2008 Commander McBragg of presidential candidates. It acted like a liberal bug light, trapping activist story tellers and journalistic excuse makers in the web of deceit that has become commonplace in the industry of activist reporting that is known as mainstream media journalism.
Terry Trippany is the editor and publisher of Webloggin.
(Commander McBragg was an obscure cartoon produced and released by Leonardo Productions/Total Television/CBS-TV 1963)
