When bad things happen to imaginary people.

[Sallow]

Good stuff.

Health Care Horror Hooey

Remember the “death tax”? The estate tax is quite literally a millionaire’s tax — a tax that affects only a tiny minority of the population, and is mostly paid by a handful of very wealthy heirs. Nonetheless, right-wingers have successfully convinced many voters that the tax is a cruel burden on ordinary Americans — that all across the nation small businesses and family farms are being broken up to pay crushing estate tax liabilities.

You might think that such heart-wrenching cases are actually quite rare, but you’d be wrong: they aren’t rare; they’re nonexistent. In particular, nobody has ever come up with a real modern example of a family farm sold to meet estate taxes. The whole “death tax” campaign has rested on eliciting human sympathy for purely imaginary victims.

And now they’re trying a similar campaign against health reform.

<snip>

And conservatives don’t really have a Plan B — in their world, nobody even dares mention the possibility that health reform might actually prove workable. Still, you can already see some on the right groping toward a new strategy, one that relies on highlighting examples of the terrible harm Obamacare does. There’s only one problem: they haven’t managed to come up with any real examples. Consider several recent ventures on the right:

&#9632; In the official G.O.P. response to the State of the Union address, Representative Cathy McMorris Rodgers alluded to the case of “Bette in Spokane,” who supposedly lost her good health insurance coverage and was forced to pay nearly $700 more a month in premiums. Local reporters located the real Bette, and found that the story was completely misleading: her original policy provided very little protection, and she could get a much better plan for much less than the claimed cost.

&#9632; In Louisiana, the AstroTurf (fake grass-roots) group Americans for Prosperity — the group appears to be largely financed and controlled by the Koch brothers and other wealthy donors — has been running ads targeting Senator Mary Landrieu. In these ads, we see what appear to be ordinary Louisiana residents receiving notices telling them that their insurance policies have been canceled because of Obamacare. But the people in the ads are, in fact, paid actors, and the scenes they play aren’t re-enactments of real events — they’re “emblematic,” says a spokesman for the group.

&#9632; In Michigan, Americans for Prosperity is running an ad that does feature a real person. But is she telling a real story? In the ad, Julia Boonstra, who is suffering from leukemia, declares that her insurance has been canceled, that the new policy will have unaffordable out-of-pocket costs, and that “If I do not receive my medication, I will die.” But Glenn Kessler of The Washington Post tried to check the facts, and learned that thanks to lower premiums she will almost surely save nearly as much if not more than she will be paying in higher out-of-pocket costs. A spokesman for Americans for Prosperity responded to questions about the numbers with bluster and double-talk — this is about “a real person suffering from blood cancer, not some neat and tidy White House PowerPoint.”

Continue reading the main story

Even supporters of health reform are somewhat surprised by the right’s apparent inability to come up with real cases of hardship. Surely there must be some people somewhere actually being hurt by a reform that affects millions of Americans. Why can’t the right find these people and exploit them?
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/24/opinion/krugman-health-care-horror-hooey.html?_r=1

 

[J.E.D]

It's pretty much all they have. They know the ACA will never be repealed. They know that politically they are doomed if they send people back to the pre-ACA days of pre-existing conditions, Medicare donut holes etc. So they'll use the law to raise funds from gullible people.

 

[buckeye45_73]

Wow paul krugman, i read it already. Hes a liberal democrat the astroturf comment gives it away, since he never says that with any liberal protest

 

[Mad_Cabbie]

Not everybody likes the ACA.

 

[deltex1]

Good stuff.

Health Care Horror Hooey

Remember the “death tax”? The estate tax is quite literally a millionaire’s tax — a tax that affects only a tiny minority of the population, and is mostly paid by a handful of very wealthy heirs. Nonetheless, right-wingers have successfully convinced many voters that the tax is a cruel burden on ordinary Americans — that all across the nation small businesses and family farms are being broken up to pay crushing estate tax liabilities.

You might think that such heart-wrenching cases are actually quite rare, but you’d be wrong: they aren’t rare; they’re nonexistent. In particular, nobody has ever come up with a real modern example of a family farm sold to meet estate taxes. The whole “death tax” campaign has rested on eliciting human sympathy for purely imaginary victims.

And now they’re trying a similar campaign against health reform.

<snip>

And conservatives don’t really have a Plan B — in their world, nobody even dares mention the possibility that health reform might actually prove workable. Still, you can already see some on the right groping toward a new strategy, one that relies on highlighting examples of the terrible harm Obamacare does. There’s only one problem: they haven’t managed to come up with any real examples. Consider several recent ventures on the right:

&#9632; In the official G.O.P. response to the State of the Union address, Representative Cathy McMorris Rodgers alluded to the case of “Bette in Spokane,” who supposedly lost her good health insurance coverage and was forced to pay nearly $700 more a month in premiums. Local reporters located the real Bette, and found that the story was completely misleading: her original policy provided very little protection, and she could get a much better plan for much less than the claimed cost.

&#9632; In Louisiana, the AstroTurf (fake grass-roots) group Americans for Prosperity — the group appears to be largely financed and controlled by the Koch brothers and other wealthy donors — has been running ads targeting Senator Mary Landrieu. In these ads, we see what appear to be ordinary Louisiana residents receiving notices telling them that their insurance policies have been canceled because of Obamacare. But the people in the ads are, in fact, paid actors, and the scenes they play aren’t re-enactments of real events — they’re “emblematic,” says a spokesman for the group.

&#9632; In Michigan, Americans for Prosperity is running an ad that does feature a real person. But is she telling a real story? In the ad, Julia Boonstra, who is suffering from leukemia, declares that her insurance has been canceled, that the new policy will have unaffordable out-of-pocket costs, and that “If I do not receive my medication, I will die.” But Glenn Kessler of The Washington Post tried to check the facts, and learned that thanks to lower premiums she will almost surely save nearly as much if not more than she will be paying in higher out-of-pocket costs. A spokesman for Americans for Prosperity responded to questions about the numbers with bluster and double-talk — this is about “a real person suffering from blood cancer, not some neat and tidy White House PowerPoint.”

Continue reading the main story

Even supporters of health reform are somewhat surprised by the right’s apparent inability to come up with real cases of hardship. Surely there must be some people somewhere actually being hurt by a reform that affects millions of Americans. Why can’t the right find these people and exploit them?
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/24/opinion/krugman-health-care-horror-hooey.html?_r=1

Look no further than the SOTU....

 

[The Rabbi]

The Left complaining about is hysterical. Obama literally makles up stories of people and the Left just eat it up.

 

[Dot Com]

Is it any wonder why he's a Nobel Prize winner?

Health Care Horror Hooey

I’m not sure whether conservatives realize yet that their Plan A on health reform — wait for Obamacare’s inevitable collapse, and reap the political rewards — isn’t working. But it isn’t. Enrollments have recovered strongly from the law’s disastrous start-up; in California, which had a working website from the beginning, enrollment has already exceeded first-year projections. The mix of people signed up so far is older than planners had hoped, but not enough so to cause big premium hikes, let alone the often-predicted “death spiral.”

[MENTION=19448]CrusaderFrank[/MENTION]

 

[Sallow]

The Left complaining about is hysterical. Obama literally makles up stories of people and the Left just eat it up.

Oh really.

Like who?

 

[Antares]

Is it any wonder why he's a Nobel Prize winner?

Health Care Horror Hooey

I’m not sure whether conservatives realize yet that their Plan A on health reform — wait for Obamacare’s inevitable collapse, and reap the political rewards — isn’t working. But it isn’t. Enrollments have recovered strongly from the law’s disastrous start-up; in California, which had a working website from the beginning, enrollment has already exceeded first-year projections. The mix of people signed up so far is older than planners had hoped, but not enough so to cause big premium hikes, let alone the often-predicted “death spiral.”

[MENTION=19448]CrusaderFrank[/MENTION]

The mix of people signed up so far is older than planners had hoped, but not enough so to cause big premium hikes

This is not true, the numbers are completely skewed...now Dot I know you know nothing at all about any of this but look up the term "adverse risk".

 

[The Rabbi]

The Left complaining about is hysterical. Obama literally makles up stories of people and the Left just eat it up.

Oh really.

Like who?

Well, actually a lot of the stories made up by Obama are about....Obama.

 

[HelenaHandbag]

Is it any wonder why he's a Nobel Prize winner?

Health Care Horror Hooey

I’m not sure whether conservatives realize yet that their Plan A on health reform — wait for Obamacare’s inevitable collapse, and reap the political rewards — isn’t working. But it isn’t. Enrollments have recovered strongly from the law’s disastrous start-up; in California, which had a working website from the beginning, enrollment has already exceeded first-year projections. The mix of people signed up so far is older than planners had hoped, but not enough so to cause big premium hikes, let alone the often-predicted “death spiral.”

[MENTION=19448]CrusaderFrank[/MENTION]

I didn't know there was a Nobel Prize for writing socialist propaganda screeds.

The things you can learn on this board.

 

[Sallow]

The Left complaining about is hysterical. Obama literally makles up stories of people and the Left just eat it up.

Oh really.

Like who?

Well, actually a lot of the stories made up by Obama are about....Obama.

Which made up story are you referring too?

This ought to be good.

 

[Dot Com]

this thread was started first: http://www.usmessageboard.com/politics/342081-when-bad-things-happen-to-imaginary-people.html

but I think mine has the better title

 

[Sallow]

Oops!!! I just made a thread on this

http://www.usmessageboard.com/obamacare/342091-krugman-slams-repub-fear-machine-on-o-care.html

Here's the thing.

I have know idea why the media gives these horror stories and credence.

They vaporize once someone chases them down.

Remember those folks that went on FOX?

Every one of those stories proved to be completely fake.

 

[TemplarKormac]

Perhaps this woman is imaginary?

Cancer patient defends ObamaCare criticism after Dem goes after ad | Fox News

If you turn your nose up at a Fox News link, it shows just how imaginary your argument for socialized medicine is. Lets go, Sallow.

 

[Sallow]

Perhaps this woman is imaginary?

Cancer patient defends ObamaCare criticism after Dem goes after ad | Fox News

If you turn your nose up at a Fox News link, it shows just how imaginary your argument for socialized medicine is. Lets go, Sallow.

Addressed.

&#9632; In Michigan, Americans for Prosperity is running an ad that does feature a real person. But is she telling a real story? In the ad, Julia Boonstra, who is suffering from leukemia, declares that her insurance has been canceled, that the new policy will have unaffordable out-of-pocket costs, and that “If I do not receive my medication, I will die.” But Glenn Kessler of The Washington Post tried to check the facts, and learned that thanks to lower premiums she will almost surely save nearly as much if not more than she will be paying in higher out-of-pocket costs. A spokesman for Americans for Prosperity responded to questions about the numbers with bluster and double-talk — this is about “a real person suffering from blood cancer, not some neat and tidy White House PowerPoint.”

 

[Sallow]

Is it any wonder why he's a Nobel Prize winner?

Health Care Horror Hooey

I’m not sure whether conservatives realize yet that their Plan A on health reform — wait for Obamacare’s inevitable collapse, and reap the political rewards — isn’t working. But it isn’t. Enrollments have recovered strongly from the law’s disastrous start-up; in California, which had a working website from the beginning, enrollment has already exceeded first-year projections. The mix of people signed up so far is older than planners had hoped, but not enough so to cause big premium hikes, let alone the often-predicted “death spiral.”

[MENTION=19448]CrusaderFrank[/MENTION]

I didn't know there was a Nobel Prize for writing socialist propaganda screeds.

The things you can learn on this board.

Is that Flip Wilson in your Avie?

Oh man..I loved that guy!

 

[Moonglow]

Americans for Prosperity

Americans for Prosperity was founded by David H. Koch of Koch Industries

now why am I not surprised that even the rwer's lie also???

 

[AVG-JOE]

this thread was started first: http://www.usmessageboard.com/politics/342081-when-bad-things-happen-to-imaginary-people.html

but I think mine has the better title

Had, Brother. Had the better title.

Carry on. ​

 

[Sallow]

Sorry Dot.