Although BuzzFeed editor-in-chief Ben Smith’s article is a cheeky defense of ObamaCare, it is the first time since the program’s passage that a member of the elite media has actually bothered to publish a high-profile look at the devilish details. When it might have actually made a difference, there was no way Smith, or anyone in media, would have dared to report the truth about just how brutally ObamaCare screws Obama’s all-important youth vote:
The provisions required to make any kind of health insurance plan work — not just ObamaCare, but really any plan of its sort — require healthy young people to pay more in health insurance than they consume in services, while the elderly (saved by Sarah “Death Panels” Palin from any serious attempt to ration expensive and often futile end-of-life care) consume far more than they pay in. There is always a push and pull, however, and this year will be spent laying plans to shift the burden further toward the young. …
Under the health care overhaul, young adults who buy their own insurance will carry a heavier burden of the medical costs of older Americans — a shift expected to raise insurance premiums for young people when the plan takes full effect.
Beginning in 2014, most Americans will be required to buy insurance or pay a tax penalty. That’s when premiums for young adults seeking coverage on the individual market would likely climb by 17 percent on average, or roughly $42 a month, according to an analysis of the plan conducted for The Associated Press. The analysis did not factor in tax credits to help offset the increase.
The higher costs will pinch many people in their 20s and early 30s who are struggling to start or advance their careers with the highest unemployment rate in 26 years.
And what’s Smith’s rationale for the media covering up this important information until after it matters? Well, of course, it’s all the fault of we eeeevil conservatives. Apparently, the Right was so opposed to ObamaCare, the media was paralyzed and couldn’t do its job:
The voices raised against age rating and other policies tend not to be the most credible. They are, first, conservatives who simply see this as another wedge against Obama and his new policy. Outlandish rhetoric about the health-care law’s threat to American freedom can make it hard for members of either party to consider policy on the merits[.]
Hot Air’s Ed Morrissey, whose informed fisk of Smith’s piece is a must-read, reacts to Smith’s ridiculous excuse with…
So no one did math because we conservatives didn’t like Obama and didn’t trust him? Maybe that’s because we actually did the math when it counted. If more younger voters did the math in 2009, 2010, and especially 2012, perhaps they wouldn’t be on the hook for subsidies for older, wealthier Americans.
And let us never forget that, at the same time the media was attempting to demonize everyday Americans (who had read the bill) protesting ObamaCare at town hall meetings, this very same media had obviously entered into an unspoken agreement not to report on those aspects of ObamaCare that might hurt its chance of passage or Obama’s reelection bid.
Because of Obama’s willingness to screw his own base, Smith attempts to paint Obama as some kind of political braveheart. But when the president knows he can always count on Ben Smith and his ilk to cover up politically damaging news like this, that’s not bravery; it’s entering into a conspiracy.
Related: “Celebrate Inauguration Day by Pledging to Doom ObamaCare.” There’s a potentially fatal loophole in the new healthcare law. If enough of us exploit it, there’s still a chance we can kill this monster before it kills us.
Follow John Nolte on Twitter @NolteNC
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