When it Comes to the Health Care Law, Confusion Reigns

I’d probably be confused too if I didn’t have Kate Pickert showing me the ropes!.
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Thanks for all the fine reporting you’ve done on HCR – all of us here really appreciate it!

Kate, thanks for at least trying to clear up the no-jail-time part. Okay, you did clear that up, but O’Whatshisname and “friends” won’t give up so easily. Actually, this is a great opportunity for YOU. Not Oh Really, but to spend this year carving up HC Law into bite-size pieces and clarifying them …thus making you a turn-to-you expert, TV, cover stories, the works. Just as HCR made KT a media starlet, simplifying HCL can do the same for you. (But do some finance reform stuff with CC blog reporters too, please.) Thanks for your thoughts and great work, Kate.

Is it possible that so much confusion still reigns because the media as a whole did such a horrible job of, well, doing its job? Rather than explaining what’s actually in the bill, now the law, and analyzing exactly what all this means to, you know, actual people, the vast majority of reporters seemed to get caught up in covering the frenzy, the hype and the “he said, she said.” Too many stories focused on “Republicans say” or “Democrats say,” and not nearly enough on what the bill/law says.
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There are exceptions; Kate and Karen Tumulty have done remarkable work in trying to guide us through the fog. Sadly, though, y’all remain the exceptions.
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The profession whose mandate is supposedly to enlighten and inform has done neither.

Part of the problem is that despite Americans claiming that they distrust their institutions and leaders, in reality most are reluctant to believe that their elected officials, trusted commentators, and revered public figures would deliberately lie about something so important to the well being of the American people. So every time the mainstream media insists on presenting what both sides are saying instead of simply telling the public the truth regardless of the talking points, they help to keep the public confused. The media insists on asking the public to determine who is lying for themselves and obviously they can’t so stop acting so surprised that the result of the media doing such a lousy job of informing the public results in a populace that doesn’t know its butt from its elbow.

Dee in C” agree. I know that Kate works at it. The time for giving space to lies, distortions and obfuscations is over. Let’s have accuracy, transparency and information. This to not the time for giving voice to bogus interpretaions. One way would be for a set of specific questions to be put to those who have to implement an aspect of HCR and get their response on the record. Then the reader can see what’s in store instead of having to rely on the distorters with vested interests.

Is it possible that so much confusion still reigns because the media as a whole did such a horrible job of, well, doing its job?
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I think that is a huge, huge part of it.
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And thanks, Kate, for taking the time to write an article that provides useful information to readers, rather than just quoting people from each sides as if neutrality were objectivity.

Agreed with you both.
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Today’s news coverage seems to go like this.
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“Tonight we have an astronomer, Neil deGrasse Tyson to tell us why Pluto is not a planet, and, our other guest, Micheal Groenhagen who says that it not only is a planet, but he is from Pluto, himself.”.
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Then the anchor would give them both equal weight.
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Why do so few media outlets have a legal scholar of their own to tell us these things?
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Why so much air time for things which are, obviously, untrue.

The healthcare reform is very simple – it’s all the obfuscation (isn’t that a great word?) that makes it seem complicated.
USA has been a sleeping giant on the civilisation front – how can it be that the richest country in the world has such a very poor lifee expectancy?
People need healthcare because it is good for America – not just because it is good for the individual. You can take risks and invest without having to worry “have I got enough put by for the next frightening health bill?”, you can love mom and pop without thinking “when do the bills start coming in?”, employers can get their best workers back to work quickly.
The only thing in the way of Obama’s healthcare reform is the cost of healthcare – it’s way inflated (it’s over 2* the % of GDP and 3* the cost per person of UK healthcare). It’s draining the economy, destroying wealth, crushing people to poverty. DId you know more people are bancrupted from healthcare bills than any other cause?
So where is it complicated?

This bill was written so the average person COULD NOT understand it.. To do so would have had even MORE people against this.. can someone tell me why the founding fathers killed a lot less trees to run this country for over 200 years and the BOZO’S in Washington have killed 1/2 a forest for taking over our lives?? thing is NO ONE will have the superior health care the 53% who pay taxes provide for the Politicians.. so sad.. our kids and grandkids will be FINDING OUT what is in PELOSI’S bill and paying for it for the rest of their lives.. Remember Pelosi said, “we have to PASS the bill to find out what’s in it”, and they did.. not even KNOWING what was in it.. or they would have caught the wrong date for their own insurance..meaning they didn’t even read it.. and we pay them??? WHY?? While reading the bill don’t forget IF IT’S NOT EXPLICITLY omitted in the bill it’s automatically included..