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Columbia Journalism Review content tagged Affordable Care Act

1. February 6, 2012 11:57 AM

   USA Today Touts the Government’s Good News on Medicare

   But was it the full story?

   By Trudy Lieberman

   A few days ago USA Today trumpeted some health policy news: enrollment in Medicare Advantage plans is up and premiums are down. The paper reported that premiums for the controversial Medicare Advantage plans, which provide private benefits for Medicare seniors through managed care arrangements, had dropped an average of seven percent during 2011, while enrollment had grown on average by...

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2. August 24, 2012 04:04 PM

   A laurel to Jackie Calmes of The New York Times

   She begins to X-ray the Romney/Ryan Medicare plan

   By Trudy Lieberman

   This week’s laurel goes to Jackie Calmes of The New York Times for reporting the increasing skepticism in health policy circles about claims from the Romney-Ryan ticket that Medicare beneficiaries will be hurt because the president’s health reform law cuts $716 billion from future Medicare spending and puts the savings into subsidies for the uninsured called for by the...

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3. July 9, 2012 06:50 AM

   A sober look at healthcare after the ACA

   The Los Angeles Times leads the way

   By Trudy Lieberman

   Chad Terhune’s piece, “Supreme Court’s healthcare ruling: The outlook for California,” offered a clear-eyed look at the repercussions of the Supreme Court’s decision on the healthcare reform law. It presented a realistic assessment of what Obamacare might really mean for California—a blend of the good that the Affordable Care Act does and what it leaves undone for Californians (and residents...

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4. November 2, 2012 10:28 AM

   Ask Romney This: What will replace Obamacare?

   A vague healthcare plan raises many questions

   By Trudy Lieberman

   Over the final weeks of the campaign, CJR has been publishing a series of pieces under the headline “Ask Obama This” and “Ask Romney This,” suggesting themes and questions that reporters and pundits can consider posing to the presidential candidates. There’s not much time left for that, of course, but the questions this series raises will be around for the...

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5. March 22, 2012 04:16 PM

   Birthday Coverage for the Affordable Care Act

   The two faces of health reform

   By Trudy Lieberman

   The health reform law celebrates its two-year anniversary tomorrow. There are myriad ways to report on the Affordable Care Act and its sure-to-be-tumultuous future. Two stories showed up this week that illustrate two sides of health reform. The AP, which reaches zillions of ordinary people, reported—not surprisingly—on how the law has helped ordinary people. Politico, which reaches the Beltway types,...

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6. March 24, 2011 01:00 PM

   CJR Holds a Town Hall at NYU

   Students know little about the health law

   By Trudy Lieberman

   It is birthday week for the Affordable Care Act, the official name of the health reform law passed a year ago. Previous CJR town halls have suggested that ordinary people, millions of whom are supposed to be helped by the Act, know little or nothing about it. But what about young adults who will benefit from one of the Act’s...

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7. September 24, 2012 06:51 AM

   Eureka! The media discovers Medicaid

   And why that matters to the middle class

   By Trudy Lieberman

   Ah Medicaid! What can we say about it? Until the last couple of weeks, the press has said almost nothing. It’s not sexy; not fun to write about. It affects poor people who don’t bring in traffic. And it can get us tangled in the weeds pretty fast. But lately we’re on the case. Perhaps one reason is Bill Clinton’s...

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8. March 27, 2012 02:29 PM

   Health Reform and the Supreme Court: Day One

   Press coverage offers a little something for everyone

   By Trudy Lieberman

   Press coverage of the Affordable Care Act’s debut before the Supreme Court yesterday offered a little bit of everything. The reportage generally sorted itself into categories: The politics. Not surprisingly, the political take dominated. The AP, whose coverage reaches the nooks and crannies of America, sent out a story that minced no words about the potential political fallout. “No doubt,...

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9. March 29, 2012 03:06 PM

   Health Reform and the Supreme Court: Day Three

   The press reads the tea leaves

   By Trudy Lieberman

   As the Supreme Court ended oral arguments on the Affordable Care Act, addressing whether the law can stand alone without the individual mandate, the press coverage was dominated by speculation. Justices speculated about the questions put before them, and the media speculated on the likely outcome if the mandate doesn’t survive. The Washington Post summed it up this way: Before...

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10. March 28, 2012 01:40 PM

    Health Reform and the Supreme Court: Day Two

    Press coverage focuses on the individual mandate

    By Trudy Lieberman

    There was one near-universal takeaway from Day Two of oral arguments before the Supreme Court: The requirement that almost all Americans carry insurance, the central point of the Affordable Care Act, may be in trouble. Dire-sounding headlines featuring phrases like “possible trouble,” “key justices skeptical,” and “Supreme Court expresses doubt” made it clear the media grasped the main thrust of...

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11. May 7, 2012 11:00 AM

    Healthcare: Do Americans get too much—or too little?

    A shout-out to Remapping Debate

    By Trudy Lieberman

    We’ve become accustomed of late to stories telling us we get too much healthcare. We get too much of the Three Ts—treatments, tests, and technology—which has become the dominant narrative in the ongoing tale of US healthcare spending. So it’s refreshing when a story comes along like the one last week from Remapping Debate that reported on those who get...

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12. May 10, 2012 11:42 AM

    How an anti-tax HIT squad employs the press

    "We’re pitching things and hope people run it. We’re not paying for ads”

    By Trudy Lieberman

    The small-business community has revved up its campaign to repeal a tax on insurance companies intended to help finance subsidies for the uninsured, a part of President Obama’s healthcare reform that would take effect in 2014. Congress expected the tax to raise some $87 billion over the 10 years the subsidies were funded. It is aimed at insurance carriers, but...

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13. January 25, 2012 12:38 PM

    Jon Stewart Takes on Sebelius

    What Madame Secretary didn’t say

    By Trudy Lieberman

    Jon Stewart welcomed Health and Human Services secretary Kathleen Sebelius to The Daily Show Monday night, and it was great to see that Madame Secretary had lightened up a bit from her oh-so somber appearances on the Sunday talk shows. There was a bit of jollity and friendly banter this time—but, then, Jon Stewart isn’t David Gregory. Alas, it was...

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14. July 27, 2012 06:50 AM

    Medicare and misinformation

    Is my premium rising? A beat memo for reporters

    By Trudy Lieberman

    Two weeks ago a Midwest businessman sent an email to a long list of his senior friends warning that their Medicare Part B premiums would reach $247 a month by 2014. “These are provisions incorporated in the Obamacare legislation,” he wrote, and they “are purposely delayed so as not to cause Obama problems in the 2012 re-election campaigns.” He urged...

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15. May 21, 2012 06:50 AM

    Medicare and the $500 billion bogeyman

    Will a half-truth still work for the GOP?

    By Trudy Lieberman

    Republicans and their allies are dusting off an old $500 billion deception about Medicare, trying once more to scare seniors into voting their way. The logic on this one turns truth on its head, but some in the media have caught on to this election tactic and have begun trying to supply missing context. A bit of background: Before the...

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16. March 26, 2012 06:14 PM

    Mitt and the Mandate

    Whose paternity is it, anyway?

    By Trudy Lieberman

    No matter what decision comes from the Supreme Court, which began hearing arguments Monday on the constitutionality of the Affordable Care Act health reform’s individual mandate, the individual mandate will continue to be a major flashpoint in the upcoming election and its aftermath. Indeed, as Mitt Romney’s candidacy blossomed in recent months, the media have finally come around to writing...

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17. March 16, 2012 03:45 PM

    Nine Lives of a Disputed Fact

    A Politico op-ed fails the fact-checking test

    By Trudy Lieberman

    The other day, Politico published an opinion piece arguing that Americans should be “extremely anxious about the outcome” of the Supreme Court’s decision on the health reform law. The op-ed, by Scott Atlas, the chief of neuroradiology at the Stanford University Medical Center and a fellow at the Hoover Institution, warned “the entire U.S. health care system as we know...

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18. November 20, 2012 11:15 AM

    Papa John’s Pizza and the business backlash

    The real story: how some employers are still working to undermine Obamacare

    By Trudy Lieberman

    The media have latched onto the story of John Schnatter. That’s the John of Papa John’s Pizza, a CEO with an Ebenezer Scrooge approach to his employees and customers. He is vowing to reduce employee hours and wages while jacking up the price of his pepperoni pies—all because of Obamacare. The press has presented the story as sort of funny...

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19. March 9, 2012 02:57 PM

    Rick Santorum’s Math Problem

    The press doesn’t fall for his incorrect Obamacare answer

    By Trudy Lieberman

    Now really, Rick—every American will get government help after Obamacare takes effect? Surely you jest! Thankfully my press brethren had the good sense not to run with your remark the other night: What we will go to in a very short period of time—the next two years—a little less than 50 percent of the people in this country depend on...

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20. August 6, 2012 06:50 AM

    Romney likes Israeli healthcare

    And the press takes a look at what it is. Whoa!

    By Trudy Lieberman

    Thanks to Mitt Romney’s laudatory remarks about the Israeli health system during his trip to Israel, we now know a bit about how another country provides healthcare—and how that nation manages to have better mortality and other outcomes than we do, at a far lower cost. The press, laudably, took a bread-and-butter political story—what Romney said—a big step further, explaining...

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