We weren’t alone in noticing that the press spun for Obamacare on the matter of rising premiums. Kausfiles has also noted this. Mickey Kaus supports Obamacare, but he called out the press and printed an email from another astute reader:
Most of the coverage I’m seeing today of the new CBO report on health reform’s effects on premiums is .totally in the tank for the Obama administration. CBO’s report argues (contrary to a recent paper by Jonathan Gruber, the Obama administration’s favorite health economist) that health reform will INCREASE the cost of private health premiums. There’s no other way to read the thing. Yet the NYT ["No Big Cost Rise in U.S. Premiums Is Seen in Study"] and Wash Post ["Senate health bill gets a boost"] and especially Ezra Klein ["Congressional Budget Office: Reform Will Bring Down the Cost of Health Insurance"] are all saying the report vindicates the Democrats on cost. That’s insane. (The WSJ’s ["Some Health Premiums to Rise"] is the only news account I’ve seen that reports it straight.).
Kaus, who seems to feel higher premiums would be worth it, nevertheless deserves credit for admitting that newspaper readers are being spun.