ObamaCare

 

 

 

Grasping at Straws: WaPo Writer Claims Young People Starting to Sign Up for ObamaCare

 

By P.J. Gladnick

Sarah Kliff of the Washington Post

If Washington Post writer, Sarah Kliff, of the WonkBlog had been the music director aboard the Titanic, the last tune played on the deck of the sinking ship would probably have been Happy Days Are Here Again. I make that claim because Ms Kliff has taken upon herself the role as pollyannish cheerleader for the “train wreck” known as ObamaCare.

In her latest desperate search for a nonexistent silver lining, Kliff has conjured up what she imagines to be an indication that young people might, could be, maybe, possibly are interested in signing up for ObamaCare. Here is Kliff imagining what she so desperately hopes to be true based on nothing real:

The White House has made abundantly clear that the Affordable Care Act’s success depends largely on getting young, healthy people to sign up for health coverage.
This demographic is important — and also thought to be an especially tough sell. Young adults tend to have lower health-care costs and would be less likely to use their health plan. Paying a monthly premium when you don’t expect to get sick doesn’t sound like the greatest deal.
Okay, now that we know what Kliff is hoping for, here she is leaving the bounds of reality in her laughable search for “proof” that young people are boarding the S.S. ObamaCare:
“That’s what makes some early health law data surprising: A few signs are cropping up that, at least initially, young people have been among the more enthusiastic Affordable Care Act shoppers.

“Access Health CT, Connecticut’s marketplace, said earlier this week that approximately one-third of the people who have so far applied for coverage there are under 35. This would hover around the administration’s goal of having 2.7 million of the 7 million estimated new enrollees be between 18 and 35.”

Wow! A third of the people in Connecticut who have APPLIED for coverage are under 35? Note that Kliff does not reveal the embarrasingly low number of the people who have “applied” for ObamaCare. And is “applied” the same as “enrolled” which can still mean many things. For example, Kliff instantly latched on to the “enrollment” of one Chad Henderson last week without doing any basic background check. That act of real journalism was performed by Peter Suderman of Reason who investigated and discovered that Henderson did not actually purchase health insurance via ObamaCare. This forced Kliff to follow up her happy report of a supposed ObamaCare enrollment with an embarrassing Oops!

Kliff, perhaps still licking her wounds from that last embarrassment, is careful to leave herself an out with this preemptive “Never Mind”:

All of this comes with the caveat that we are exactly 12 days into a six-month open enrollment period, with a small slice of data about what insurance shoppers will look like. It’s quite possible that younger, more Internet-adept shoppers would be over-represented in early data.

And it is quite possible that Pollyanna is again grasping at non-existent straws. Meanwhile the NewsBusters Eye of Sauron will remain firmly focused upon the inadvertent comedy act of Sarah Kliff performing her ObamaCare cheer leading routine.
Editor’s note. This appeared at newsbusters.org.

Source: NRLC News