Huffington Post - "Story Wars: Why Personal Stories Are Shaping the Health Care Battleground"

[TomCADem]

Last edited Mon Nov 11, 2013, 01:36 PM - Edit history (1)

Nice story on why coverage of the ACA has been highly misleading.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/richard-kirsch/story-wars-why-personal-s_b_4240479.html

The Affordable Care Act (ACA) would not have become law if it were not for the willingness of survivors of the nation's health care mess - people who had lost loved ones, fought to get care after an insurance company denial, faced crippling medical costs - to tell their stories to members of Congress and the press. Many members of Congress voted for the bill, despite the political risk, because they were moved by personal encounters with constituents with compelling stories. Many of the most effective spokespeople during the legislative battle over the law were people whose lives and livelihoods had been threatened by our defective health coverage system.

Now that the central part of the Affordable Care Act is finally being implemented, however painfully and slowly, personal stories are again becoming the focus of debate. The stories that the press has focused on recently have been mostly negative, largely because of three press biases. The first is that "if it bleeds, it leads." Negative news gets people's attention, raising people's fears, a phenomenon with strong physiological and psychological roots that extends well beyond the news. Advocates for passage of the law used that to our advantage when we were chronicling insurance company abuses, but in the new terrain of the law's implementation, it's a handicap. Coverage of people successfully getting affordable coverage is not as compelling as that of someone who says she is being forced to pay higher premiums after being told she is losing her existing coverage.

The second press bias is to take people at their word and not actually investigate them, particularly when they make good news. We have seen a lot of this in the coverage of people who have received letters from insurance companies telling them they are being forced into higher-priced plans.

* * *
Which brings us to the third media bias, focusing on the white middle class. This is a general bias when it comes to the press, particularly when not reporting on government services or crime. In this case, it is a bias that will accentuate the problems with the Affordable Care Act and downplay its benefits to millions. As Cohn points out in another piece, there are some people who will pay more for comparable insurance plans under the new law. This is the small minority of people in the individual insurance market who, because they have been in good health and have enough income to buy insurance, have been able to find decent coverage at a price they can afford. Their good health has shielded them from big premium hikes or losing their coverage altogether, which will happen when they have a serious illness.

[Arkana]

1. Damn right.

My mother has a friend who's been in shitty health for years--her spine is basically powder, and she's had all sorts of digestive problems. Her medications weren't covered by her insurance, and it got to the point where she had to take out a second mortgage on her house just to cover her medical bills. Her prescriptions were expensive because she couldn't take generics--they didn't work for her, so she had to take brand-name Crestor and other things.

Now, thanks to the ACA, she got a letter from her insurance company a couple weeks ago telling her that she would now pay no more than $1.50 per script for a generic and $3.00 per script for a brand name. She was ecstatic--and she's now a staunch ACA defender, whereas before she was on the fence.

These stories are just anecdotes, but this law is helping real people--and the stories need to be told.

[Wounded Bear]

2. In a population of over 300 million...

It's pretty easy to find someone to tell a story that demonstrates or supports your position, whatever it may be, especially in the internet era.

Anecdotal evidence is the worst kind of evidence to base large decisions on.

[Wounded Bear]

3. And.....you need a link....nt

[TomCADem]

4. Doh! Added link!

Thx