Wikipedia’s Obamacare article continues to be a heavily biased and censored puff piece
On October 15, 2013, I wrote this blog entry, titled “Wikipedia’s article on Obamacare is a heavily censored, utopian puff piece that ignores Obamacare’s real world problems.”
Well it is now November 6, 2013, and I am writing this new blog entry on the same subject.
As of November 6, 2013, more than a month after the Obamacare website went online, wikipedia’s Obamacare article still includes absolutely zero content on the problems of the Obamacare website, Obama’s false promise that people could keep their insurance, or the rate shock that people felt when they saw their new, higher premiums.
Wikpedia has an entire article – with 38 citations – for Read my lips: no new taxes. But it won’t allow even one sentence about Obama’s broken promise that people could keep their insurance.
I’m glad that that Bush article is there. That was a notable lie that Bush told, and it deserves its own wikipedia article. The fact that wikipedia won’t allow any mention at all of Obama’s broken promise about letting people keep their insurance is a sad reflection of the bias that exists at wikipedia.
The Obamacare article already had a section – with 13 citations - called “Effects on insurance premiums,” but it only includes information that portrays Obamacare in a positive light. The “rate shock” that so many people are experiencing is not permitted to be in the article.
The article also has a section on Obamacare’s new 29 hour work week, but it falsely claims that the impact is limited to “several businesses and the State of Virginia,” when, in reality, the impact has affected at least 363 employers, including private businesses, non-profit organizations, colleges, school districts, and local governments. When someone suggested on the article’s talk page that this information be updated, and cited several reliable sources with more recent information, their comments were deleted, and their account was banned.
More recently, someone added the following information, with reliable sources, to wikipedia’s Obamacare article, but it was deleted, and their account was banned:
Problems at website
Although the healthcare.gov website cost $634 million, it did not work properly during its October 1, 2013 launch. CNN reporter Elizabeth Cohen reported, “For nearly two weeks, I was a failure — a complete and utter failure. Ever since October 1, when Healthcare.gov went live, I’ve tried to go on the site and enroll. For about a week, I couldn’t even create a login and password, the necessary first step for shopping. Then finally I could, but when I tried to log in, I received error messages; sometimes I even saw the dreaded twirly thing that just went ’round and ’round. When I tried to make a new account, that didn’t work either.”
A week after the website had gone onlline, CBS News quoted Luke Chung, an online database programmer, as saying the following about the healthcare.gov website: “It wasn’t designed well, it wasn’t implemented well, and it looks like nobody tested it… It’s not even close. It’s not even ready for beta testing for my book. I would be ashamed and embarrassed if my organization delivered something like that.”
CBS News was able to obtain a copy of a federal memo which showed that during the first 24 hours after the website had gone online, only six people had successfully used the website to enroll.
On October 25, 2013, the Daily Caller reported, “First Lady Michelle Obama’s Princeton classmate is a top executive at the company that earned the contract to build the failed Obamacare website. Toni Townes-Whitley, Princeton class of ’85, is senior vice president at CGI Federal, which earned the no-bid contract.”
“If you like your health-care plan, you’ll be able to keep your health-care plan, period.”
On June 15, 2009, President Obama said, “That means that no matter how we reform health care, we will keep this promise to the American people: If you like your doctor, you will be able to keep your doctor, period. If you like your health-care plan, you’ll be able to keep your health-care plan, period. No one will take it away, no matter what.” On October 30, 2013, the Washington Post gave this statement a rating of four Pinocchios.
In February 2013, the Congressional Budget Office said that the law would cause seven million people to lose their employer provided insurance.
In April 2013, MSN reported, “The Affordable Care Act mandate most commonly known as Obamacare has some tight stipulations that, CNN says, are forcing health care companies to rip up most of their current plans and draft new ones that comply. According to a University of Chicago study, just about half of the individual health care plans currently on the market won’t cut it once key provisions of the Affordable Care Act kick in next year.”
In October 2013, The Detroit Free Press reported, “At least 146,000 Michiganders — and possibly thousands more — with health coverage purchased directly from insurers now are learning their polices will end Dec. 31 because they don’t meet the minimum requirements of the federal health care act.”
In October 2013, Associated Press reported, “Florida Blue is dropping 300,000 customers whose policies the health insurer says aren’t sufficiently comprehensive under the health care overhaul. The Jacksonville-based insurance company said Thursday that the 300,000 policyholders have plans that don’t include all of the 10 categories of benefits required under the Affordable Care Act.”
Rate shock
After the healthcare.gov website went online, news sources reported on the so-called “rate shock” of people who discovered that the prices of their new ACA-compliant plans were substantially higher their previous, pre-ACA plans. CNN reported, “One North Carolina reader was upset to learn her current $267 a month plan was being canceled and the cheapest option on the exchange would cost her family $750 a month. They don’t qualify for a subsidy.”
The Christian Science Monitor reported, “Michael Yount of Charlotte, N.C., is one such unhappy customer. He and his wife, retired and in their late 50s, have been buying their own health insurance from Blue Cross and Blue Shield (BCBS) in North Carolina, paying about $380 a month with an $11,000 deductible. BCBS is offering them a new plan for three times the cost, $1,124.50 a month, still with an $11,000 deductible.”
The San Hose Mercury News reported, “Vinson, of San Jose, will pay $1,800 more a year for an individual policy, while Waschura, of Portola Valley, will cough up almost $10,000 more for insurance for his family of four.”
In February 2008, President Obama had said, “We are going to work with you to lower your premiums by $2,500. We will not wait 20 years from now to do it, or 10 years from now to do it. We will do it by the end of my first term as president.” However, by the time his first term was over, family premiums had gotten bigger, not smaller. The increase was $3,065 per family.