Correspondent of the Day: Has This Editorial Page Sipped Fox’s Kool Aid?
Has This Editorial Page Sipped Fox's Kool Aid?
Editor, Times-Dispatch: I am baffled by your recent choice of Paul Knapik ["This Isn't About Health Care At All"] for Correspondent of the Day. In an attempt to "prove" that health care is really about increased government control, and not about health care at all, Knapik wonders why we aren't hearing about a health care system like the one that the Swiss have. He then mentions some of the features of the Swiss program: All citizens are required to have health insurance that they select and purchase themselves; the government subsidizes premiums for those who can't afford them; and costs are kept down by competition among insurance companies. He is obviously unaware that all of these features are also in the health care plans that are being discussed in Congress. If he isn't hearing about them, then he isn't paying attention to what is really going on.
I can understand this coming from someone who listens to Fox News all day and who believes what they report is the truth, but you're supposed to be a news organization and you're supposed to know better than to spread this kind of garbage. I could understand printing the letter to allow this particular misinformed belief to be expressed but to make him the Correspondent of the Day seems to imply that you believe this nonsense too.
I have to ask if you are in the misinformation business too. Do you really believe that whatever President Barack Obama does is evil and health care reform equals socialism?
Stan Baranowski.
Richmond.
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Reader Reactions
Why are so many citizens obsessed by FOX News?
No wonder their numbers are so huge.
To imagine that Nancy Pelosi with her great wealth and strong corporate connections is concerned with the “little fellow’s” health care is a joke.
This is a huge power grab, pure and simple.
At least the insurance companies don’t pretend to be anything other than what they are.
A business.
I ask; Should the TD editorial staff drink the left wing CNN kool aid and chase the lowly 826,000 viewers who tuned into that network in Election Night.
Or should the TD be catering to the 4,043,000 that the evil Fox News attracted?
Mr. Baranowski, if it’s that simple, then why is the bill 2000 pages long? Besides the features you mention as being in the bill, it’s pretty obvious there’s a whole lot of other baggage in there too. Are we to buy into a plan just because 2 or 3 things suit our fancy and take the rest on trust? Am I supposed to buy a car because the salesman tells me the steering wheel works, but fails to mention it has no tires? I’ll finish with one question. Will this new plan work as well as the government-run distribution of flu vaccine?
Perhaps whether or not the T-D is striving for closeness with Rupert Murdoch, News Corp, and Fox will be determined by how much print is devoted in reporting the Nov 3 press release from the U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportaion re: their probe finding the major U.S. health insurers are spending considerably less of their premiums on medical care than official industry estimates; an average of $0.70/dollar instead of the $0.87 cited by industry group AHIP.
Months ago Wendell Potter, former VP of Cigna Corporate Communications, testified medical loss ratios (% of premiums used to pay claims) ran 95% in early 1990’s, leaving 5% for expenses and profits, and has been squeezed to 80% and lower. Senate investigating now finds 70% average; a true figure for large Wall Street hedge fund investors, while cooking the books for an 87% figure prepared for public consumption.
Hopefully, the T-D will devote a front-page article on the thievery and better-inform readers for their decision to support more corporate greed or not.
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