Posted on 10/18/2019 5:06:48 PM PDT by Kaslin
If you want to run for office, political consultants will hammer away at one point: Tell stories. People respond to stories. We've been a storytelling species since our fur-clad ancestors gathered around campfires. Don't cite statistics. No one can remember statistics. Make it human. Make it relatable. Lincoln told stories. FDR told stories. Reagan told stories.
Watching the Democrats' fourth debate Tuesday night, you could see the candidates implementing this advice. They'd mention Joe in their state who said X, or Jane who called their office with Y problem. They commonly use techniques like: "The voters I speak to aren't preoccupied with the elite concerns of Washington or New York. The voters I speak to are concerned about..." and then the candidate fills in the policy he or she is touting.
That's OK, as far as it goes, but politics by anecdote should have some limits, because, as a wag once said, "The plural of anecdote is not data." Relying on anecdotes alone is how you get the anti-vaccine movement and other dangerous delusions. "I knew a little boy who was totally normal and chatty until he got the MMR shot and then he became autistic." That's tragic, but the data show that across large populations, there is no link between vaccines and autism. On the contrary, vaccines are a key public health benefit.
Politicians owe it to us to ensure that when they use examples, they are using them to illustrate larger truths, not to mislead.
Elizabeth Warren fails this test. For someone who touts herself as a scholar, she resorts to anecdotes in a most disingenuous fashion.
At the last debate, for example, asked to account for the cost of her "plan" to adopt "Medicare for All," which would eliminate the private coverage enjoyed by an estimated 150 million Americans, Warren proffered stories:
"So I have talked with the family, the mom and dad whose daughter's been diagnosed with cancer. I have talked to the young woman whose mother has just been diagnosed with diabetes. I've talked to the young man who has MS.
"And here's the thing about all of them. They all had great health insurance right at the beginning. But then they found out when they really needed it, when the costs went up, that the insurance company pulled the rug out from underneath them and they were left with nothing."
Later, after asserting that only the wealthy and corporations would see their taxes go up under her plan, she cited the same anecdote: "And I will not embrace a plan that says people have great insurance right up until you get the diagnosis and the insurance company says, 'Sorry, we're not covering your expensive cancer treatments; we're not covering your expensive treatments for MS.'"
Is there a widespread practice of insurance companies rescinding coverage when people get serious illnesses? There are only two studies of the problem dating back to the early 2000s. One by the House Oversight and Investigations Committee found that three companies had rescinded 20,000 policies over the course of five years -- sometimes for fraud but in some cases for trivial reasons. All were policies purchased on the individual market, not through employers. Another study, by the National Association of Insurance Commissioners, found that between 2004 and 2008, some 27,000 policies were rescinded out of 6.7 million individual plans surveyed. That translates to less than one-half of 1 percent of policies.
Does that mean it wasn't a problem? Not necessarily. Doubtless there were injustices -- serious ones -- when people found themselves facing a medical crisis and had their insurance canceled. But there's a reason that all of the data on this practice of rescission (which insurance companies claimed was fraud prevention) predate 2010. The Affordable Care Act, aka Obamacare, explicitly outlawed it. As Healthcare.gov explains: "Under the Affordable Care Act, rescission is illegal except in cases of fraud or intentional misrepresentation of material fact as prohibited by the terms of the plan or coverage."
Warren surely knows this, and thus, her tales of people's insurance being withdrawn when they get sick are not illustrative examples of a serious problem; they are dishonest efforts to build a case for eliminating private health coverage. Elizabeth Warren, like Bernie Sanders, is an ideologue, enamored of government regulation of everything. Most Americans do not share her disdain for private health coverage. Eighty percent rate the quality of their care as excellent or good, and 69% rate their personal coverage the same way.
They deserve leaders who will not attempt to mislead them.
How near-fetched. Thanks Kaslin.
Liars gotta lie. Democrats are liars
How is this news?
I been trying to pin down who it is that she reminds me of. It finally came to me. Elvira Gulch.
“How do you know a politician is lying? Their lips are moving!”
No shit, Sherlock.
Dishonest injun.
Very few politicians lie like Warren lies... even for a Democrat she’s one of the worst.
I’m still searching for honest Democrat!
Don’t believe there is one alive today!
She does it (lie) so badly. It is almost as if she doesn’t believe it herself while she is saying it.
Rule number 1 in lying. You must be convinced your lie is 100% true if you expect it to have a chance at all of it sticking.
Inasmuch as Senator Warren (D-MA) is widely acknowledged, even by her “fans” (who make excuses for her dishonesty, & KNOWN as “LYING LIZ”, what else is there to say of her except that she is UNFIT “be reason of character flaws” to fill ANY office “of trust”??
Yours, TMN78247
Mona’s a NeverTrumper. At least she also doesn’t like Warren.
Exactly
My Chamber of Commerce Photo OP GOP Rep won’t talk to Intractable Pain Patients. He talks to hospital administrators. Nor will he hold town halls to speak with him. Senior senator is retiring and Blackburn hates Disabled Veterans won’t talk to them. Wrote 1 of them a threatening letter to quit harassing her. All 3 are big disappointments.
You're right. I didn't see that but it's how she lies. Good catch.
And in other news, the sky is blue and the sun rises in the east.
JoMa
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