Next, I phoned Gregory Sullivan himself to find out how the IG’s office arrived at the numbers McConville reported. He explained they used data from the Massachusetts Division of Insurance and other sources. Indeed, the numbers were correct, he said; health reform hadn’t done much to bring rates down to more reasonable levels. Whether the rates will drop in the future may be problematic, Sullivan explained. It has a lot to do with not only global payments, but how those payments will work with tougher insurance regulation. I will tackle that subject in another post.
So you see, dear reader, the story is more complicated than the paper of record reported. We expect political candidates to oversimplify policy positions and outcomes. Like it or not, that’s what they do. But if they want to be taken seriously, newspapers can’t do the same.
If you'd gone to the web version of the piece, you'd have found the report a lot more easily, as it was linked to in the article. Beyond that, not sure why you divine 'sugar coating' -- the article stated that costs had increased, and that tax increases were needed to keep pace. And it is pretty broadly known that our costs are highest in the world.
#1 Posted by Michael Powell, CJR on Fri 9 Sep 2011 at 03:31 PM