In a single year, health care premium costs have jumped 9% and nowhere in this report does the NBC Nightly News bother to look at the reasons why. All they appear to be doing is trying to scare people … right into the arms of the federal government and ObamaCare.
Furthermore, at no time does NBC even float the idea that maybe, just maybe, the very idea of ObamaCare – the inevitable burdens, costs and mandates just a year or so away – might have something to do with this jump in the cost of premiums.
My favorite part of the report, however, is when they announce that 31% of those covered by health insurance pay the first thousand dollars of their health care costs out of their own pocket.
Well, gasp and egads.
As far as I’m concerned, out-of-pocket costs are mostly a good thing. And I say that as someone who regularly pays upwards of $10,000 a year in co-pays and deductibles. But as someone who puts the well-being of his country over his own selfish interests, I realize that one component in bringing down the artificially-inflated cost of health care is to have the customers incentivized to shop around a little bit — create something along the lines of a free market atmosphere. As things stand now, there’s no benefit to doing that because insurance pays for everything. But if, for instance, you have to pay for your own MRI, you might actually make a few phone calls.
Why is it that every other technology in America gets cheaper by the year, but not health care? Computers, televisions, and DVD players are all so ridiculously cheap today that welfare recipients own them. Moreover, some health care actually is getting cheaper. Lasik eye surgery is much more affordable than it was a decade ago. So is plastic surgery. The reason for this is that most insurance companies don’t cover these procedures which forces providers (who face the same red tape and malpractice costs) to compete for customers.
That’s the beauty of the market at work. An MRI, however, remains outrageously expensive. Why? Because health insurance removes the market incentive. There’s also the odious trial lawyer lobby blocking legal reform and the crushing burden of government red tape EVERYWHERE.
But does NBC even bother to look at WHY there’s this rise in premium costs? No. Obviously, they’re afraid of what they might discover – and worse, what they might have to pass on to their viewers. So instead, at the very end of their report, they pretend that ObamaCare has nothing to do with any of this because it hasn’t really kicked in yet. The dishonest message being: Don’t blame Our Precious One and ObamaCare might just make it all better!
Worse still, the entire tone and subtext of this report is modulated to make it sound as though paying for your own health care is some kind injustice. It’s also fear-mongering and borderline hysterical.
Remember, Leftists like NBC News never let a crisis go to waste.
Big Journalism
