Obamacare misinformation

In a short-but-sweet hit job today, the Oklahoman uses its letters section (surprise!) to spread lies and misinformation about the Affordable Care Act (ACA). Jerry Bowerman of Oklahoma City ignorantly writes:

If Obamacare is good enough for the American people, why is it not good enough for President Obama, Congress and their staffs?

We have been over this before, but it's worth repeating. The basics are as follows: Congress and its staff used to get insurance through the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program, like all full time federal government employees. Indeed, in the United States, most people who have health insurance have it through their (full time) employment. (Or that full time employment of a souse or parent.)

Oddly, though, in negotiations for the ACA,

an amendment required that lawmakers and their staff members purchase health insurance through the online exchanges that the law created. They would lose generous coverage under the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program.

The amendment's author, Republican Senator Charles Grassley, argued that if Obamacare plans were good enough for the American public, they were good enough for Congress. Democrats, eager to pass the reforms, went along with it. 

This doesn't make any sense. The "online exchanges" are for people who don't have health insurance through their employer-- like people who work part-time hourly jobs, or who work for small businesses, and so on-- so why make gainfully, employed people who used to get insurance through their work go onto these exchanges? That is hardly the intent or spirit of the Affordable Care Act, and Grassley's logic is deeply flawed. Indeed, the ACA doesn't tell full time employees at the University of Oklahoma that they are no longer getting health insurance from the university and have to go on open exchanges. It doesn't tell full time employees at Chesapeake Energy that they can no longer get insurance through their company and have to go on open exchanges. It doesn't even tell the employees of the Department of the Interior that they have to give up being on the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program and go to open market exchanges. In short: it doesn't make sense!!

Worse, since Congressional staff members make a good living, they aren't likely to qualify much for subsidies on the open market exchanges like most people who use them. So they would be forced to pay for their insurance completely out of pocket-- unlike every other full time federal government employee. In short, it amounted to a massive pay-cut for these employees.


To remedy this, Congress passed a law that allowed them subsidies that were equal to the government's contribution to their old Federal Employees Health Benefits Program coverage. This seemed like a viable solution (all things considered) for a rather miserable, unnecessary problem.

Unfortunately, right wing media outlets don't really care about logic, or even reality for that matter. So they've spun a totally different tale-- one that doesn't really even make sense. After all, "Obamacare" isn't itself a plan. Americans aren't being forced onto something called "Obamacare" in any way. So when Mr Bowerman writes "If Obamacare is good enough for the American people," what is he even saying?!? "Obamacare" isn't an insurance plan-- it's a series of laws designed to make it easier for people to get private health insurance. That's all. No one is "exempting" themselves from this.

But the Oklahoman doesn't really care about truth or reality like most papers. All it wants to do is sew misinformation in the aims of supporting its plutocratic agenda-- even if this means harming the health and well-being of its own readers. A real newspaper run but editors with souls would never do such a thing, but the Oklahoman is not a real newspaper, and its editors sold their souls away a long, long time ago. It is a shame.