I recently attended rallies in front of the US Supreme Court to show support for the Affordable Care Act (ACA) otherwise known as Health Care Reform or Obamacare. I had no illusions that demonstrations would affect the outcome of the Supreme Court hearings, but since the event would be heavily covered by the news media I felt it was important for those who support the law to be as visible as possible.
The experience reinforced my already low opinion of the mainstream news media, particularly the TV news outlets. First of all,
I was astounded to find that virtually all of the news outlets I checked gave the impression that supporters and opponents were there in roughly equal numbers. Even my beloved NPR gave that impression. The reality was that supporters of the
ACA outnumbered opponents by nearly ten to one as the following photographs clearly show. The two views show demonstrators on the East and West sides of First Street NW immediately opposite the court. I have outlined the signs of ACA
opponents in red. All other
signs are carried by supporters.
First Street NW looking
east
First Street NW looking
west
Note: The group circled in yellow are school kids
touring the Capital, not demonstrators. There are no anti-ACA demonstrators
A Missed Opportunity to Provide Real Information to the Public
The organizers of
the pro-ACA demonstration held a news conference that featured real people who related personal experiences in which the ACA had rescued them from the kind of abuses that are
now prevalent in our employer-based, for-profit, insurance system. The stories were compelling and would have provided TV viewers with very clear and compelling examples of how responsible people who have played by the rules have been screwed by the present system and helped by the ACA. None of this made the evening news even though it took place less than 50 feet away from a mob of 40 TV
news cameramen and a handful of carefully coiffed TV reporters twiddling
their thumbs while waiting to perform their 30-second sound bites. Not a single one of them bothered to walk
over and listen to the stories even though they had been
urged to do so by the organizers. Here are just two of them.
(1)
Stacie and Her Twin Daughters
Stacies' twin
daughters, now 11, were diagnosed with leukemia when they were four. They both
needed stem cell transplants and other cancer treatments. Once the cancer was
in remission the twins needed hormone injections in order to grow
normally. Stacie’s husband’s company
switched to CIGNA health insurance, and CIGNA refused to cover the hormone
shots, which cost $440 each. The high cost of these medications and related treatment costs forced Stacie and her to
file for bankruptcy. Thanks to the ACA, however, the family was able to obtain coverage for the girls' treatment under a provision that provides $5 billion to insure families that
have been denied coverage for a pre-existing condition. The pre-existing condition exclusion will disappear in 2014 when the ACA
becomes fully operative. In the
meantime, the act
The Twins Stacie
the ACA is providing desperately needed coverage for families like Stacie's.
(2) Christina
(2) Christina
While attending a
work-related conference, Christina let two men buy her drinks at a bar in Fort
Lauderdale. The next thing she knew, she was lying on a roadside with
cuts and bruises that indicated she had been raped. Since she did not know
anything about the men who raped her, she was advised by her doctor to take
anti-AIDS drugs for 30 days as a preventive measure. She never developed an HIV infection, but months later, when she
lost her health insurance and sought new coverage, she ran into a problem.
The insurance
companies examined her health records. Even after she explained the assault,
the insurers would not sell her a policy because the HIV medication "raised too
many health questions". The company told her they might reconsider in three or more
years if she could prove that she was still AIDS-free.
