CBS Uncovers ‘Serious’, ‘Incredibly Misleading’ ObamaCare Website Price Quotes
By Matthew Balan
Jan Crawford
Crawford zeroed in on how the “shop and browse” feature on HealthCare.gov drastically underestimated prices for older citizens, in particular, and cited unnamed health care industry executives’ appalled reaction to this latest problem: [MP3 audio available at newsbusters.org]
JAN CRAWFORD: The numbers for older
Americans are even more striking. A 62-year-old in Charlotte, looking
for the same basic plan, would get a price estimate on the government
website of $394. The actual price is $634….industry executives we talked
to literally could not believe the government is providing these
estimates, which they said were useless, and could easily mislead
consumers.
Anchor Charlie Rose trumpeted the “serious pricing problem with
HealthCare.gov” in his introduction for the correspondent’s report.
Co-anchor Norah O’Donnell added that “a new online feature can
dramatically underestimate the cost of insurance”. Crawford picked up
where her colleagues left off: “The administration announced it would
provide a new shop and browse feature on Sunday. But it is not giving
consumers the real picture. In some cases, people could end up paying
nearly double what they see on the website.”The CBS journalist soon detailed the grossly inaccurate price quotes that came out of HealthCare.gov:
JONATHAN WU, HEALTHCARE ANALYST: Incredibly misleading for people that are trying to get a sense of what they’re paying.
CRAWFORD: Industry analysts, like
Jonathan Wu, point out the website lumps people only into two broad
categories: 49 or under, and 50 or older. Prices for everyone in the 49
or under group are based on what a 27-year-old would pay. In the 50 or
older group, prices are based on what a 50-year-old would pay.
We ran the numbers for a 48-year-old
in Charlotte, North Carolina ineligible for subsidies. According to
HealthCare.gov, she would pay $231 a month. But the actual plan on
BlueCross BlueShield of North Carolina’s website costs $360 – more than a
50 percent increase. The difference: BlueCross BlueShield requests your
birthday before providing more accurate estimates.
The numbers for older Americans are
even more striking. A 62-year-old in Charlotte, looking for the same
basic plan, would get a price estimate on the government website of
$394. The actual price is $634.
The CBS correspondent has been persistent in exposing the beyond problematic nature of the ObamaCare website since its launch. On the October 9, 2013 edition of CBS This Morning, she spotlighted the “disastrous” rollout of HealthCare.gov, and noted how “USA Today called the launch ‘an inexcusable mess‘ and ‘a nightmare.’”
A week later, Crawford ballyhooed that the website was a “complete disaster,” and contended that “the backlash, the criticism, the complete failure of this rollout” would get more attention if the partial government shutdown hadn’t taken place. On Friday, the journalist zeroed in on the privacy risks surrounding the federal health care website, and noted that “glitches have, in fact, made the website unusable for most.”
Update, Wednesday, 1:14 pm Eastern: the full transcript of Jan Crawford’s report from Wednesday’s CBS This Morning can be read at www.mrc.org/biasalerts/cbs-uncovers-serious-incredibly-misleading-obamacare-website-price-quotes
Editor’s note. All boldface was in the original. This appeared at newsbusters.org.
Source: NRLC News
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