Five guidelines for reporting on Trump's sabotage of health care subsidies

[UCmeNdc]

News media face a challenge as Trump rescinds subsidies for millions of working-class Americans


1. Do: Call this what it is -- part of a long-term effort to sabotage the health care system


Ending cost-sharing reduction (CSR) payments is the latest move in the Republican-led effort to sabotage the ACA, and media must say so. Republican efforts to take down the ACA are nothing new, but they have been regalvanized under Trump’s presidency. A lot of the destruction Trump and his cronies have caused has been in the shadows, and that strategy has fooled the media into neglecting to mention the role of sabotage whenever anything goes wrong in the health care market.

2. Do: Elevate experts who know what they’re talking about

When real experts have appeared on cable news, however, these doctors, health care beat reporters, and current and former health care officials have effectively debunked misinformation and accurately explained the debate at hand. These are the kind of people media should be hosting. Tell Stephen Moore to take the day off.

3. Do: Let people know how Trump’s sabotage will impact them

Ending CSR payments is going to rattle the markets and increase costs for both the country and millions of Americans.

4. Don’t: Fall for the conservative “bailout” spin

Conservatives have repeatedly tried to frame CSRs as “bailouts” to the insurance industry. The problem with that is they’re lying.

As The Washington Post Fact Checker explained, “A bailout means a company is being propped up with government money after making bad decisions. That’s not the case here.” Additionally, according to the Commonwealth Fund, the payments are reimbursements the federal government gives to insurers for providing subsidies that include “lower copayments and deductibles for people in households earning between 100 percent and 250 percent of the federal poverty level.”

Republicans want people to think these payments are bailouts, because that sounds a lot more scandalous than helping low-income people buy insurance. Media shouldn’t adopt that frame.

5. Don’t: Let Republicans off the hook for their hypocrisy

Many of the ways Trump has acted to sabotage the ACA have been through executive order or unilateral action from the executive branch. Predictably, under former President Barack Obama, Republicans routinely freaked out over any executive order or unilateral action het put into place. If they come out supporting Trump’s use of unilateral action to end these payments, they should be called out as hypocrites.


https://www.mediamatters.org/blog/2017/10/13/five-guidelines-reporting-trumps-sabotage-health-care-subsidies/218220

[riversedge]

1. " Consequences of Trump dismantling the ACA are dire -- media coverage must reflect that"

This subtitle is important.

[global1]

2. Do: Refer To It Now As Trumpcare....

Hang that moniker on it from now on.

Let the Repugs and Trump own it.