Thom Hartmann: Politically Corrected! Cancelled Insurance Different than Losing Coverage

[thomhartmann]

The Big Picture with Thom Hartmann on RT TV & FSTV "live" 9pm and 11pm check www.thomhartmann.com/tv for local listings

[onyxw]

1. Good take that's not getting covered

This comes closest as I've seen to addressing the fact that Republicans are running a false equivalent about insurers dropping people's coverage and how that is comparable to uninsured qualifying for coverage and since those situations are equal the number of uninsured now able to get coverage pales in comparison to all these people being dropped from their plans leading one to conclude the program is a failure.

Yes, having your coverage dropped and having to look for a new plan sucks and is an inconvenience, but in most cases they're still going to be able to qualify for health insurance and another comparable plan somewhere. Some will face rate increases and I'm sure there will be instances where the higher price does price an individual or family out of it (and Fox News will be right there to cover it). But I wish there was more distinguishing of those losing health insurance altogether and not being able to replace it (which should be rarer with preexisting condition protections from ACA) and those just losing coverage from their current provider in this transition phase, that are going to still qualify for health insurance and come Jan 1 will be insured but just by somebody new. We really have about 5 buckets to classify people's scenarios, but that are being crammed into 2 buckets of gains vs losses.

1) had insurance, still have insurance
2) never had insurance, can now get insurance
3) had insurance, got dropped, will eventually find replacement insurance.
4) had insurance, got dropped, can't find/qualify for new insurance
5) Never had insurance, still can't qualify for insurance

The 3rd bucket is the one that Republicans/ anti-ACA folks are running out to put into the loss column to mark what a failure the program is, but eventually that 3rd category washes out and so it's really just a timing difference over the long run. Democrats/pro-ACA folks need to do a better job messaging on that aspect or they run the risk of losing the narrative on whether this program is successful or not.

That 4th and 5th grouping is what to factor as to the effectiveness of the ACA and measure it against those in group 2 as to the benefit of the program. 1 and 3 in the long run are irrelevant.