http://newsbusters.org/blogs/matt-hadro/2013/11/15/cnns-cuomo-uproar-over-one-slice-losing-insurance-gop-straw-man-distractCNN's Cuomo: Is Uproar Over 'One Slice' Losing Insurance a GOP 'Straw Man' to 'Distract' the Media?
By Matt Hadro | November 15, 2013
CNN's Chris Cuomo was in full ObamaCare-apologist mode on Friday's New Day, asking if the uproar over millions losing their insurance wasn't a "straw man" that Republicans were "distracting" the media with.
"So it comes to are we being distracted in the media into this political play by opponents of President Obama and making this more than it is?" Cuomo said of the "five percent" who lost or were set to lose their insurance on the individual market before President Obama promised a "fix."
Cuomo said that Obama "took the bait that five percent meant everything" and called the millions who received insurance cancellation notices "one slice of the people."
"You cannot measure the law by what's happening with this one slice of the people potentially," Cuomo stated. He offered this defense of the law: "Some people are going to have to pay some more, but over time it evens out."Avik Roy argues here that much more than "five percent" will lose their insurance plans on the individual market, not to mention the looming employer mandate and the Medicare cuts that will affect even more of the population.
Cuomo accused Republicans and conservatives of a "straw man" fallacy for using the current problems to argue the law is rotten at the core. Conservative guest Will Cain countered that it is a harbinger of greater problems to come:
"One year from now we'll be doing the same thing because the employer mandate comes in and all the people that are on employer plans will be upset. So you think this is the end? This is the beginning of the end of Obamacare."And in his interview with Louisiana Insurance Commissioner Jim Donelon in the 8 a.m. ET hour, Cuomo cited "economists" he talked to who weren't fretting over the current problems:
"Economists that are in the business of measuring this law and measuring health care, they have a hard time seeing the urgency that's been raised politically about this issue, Mr. Donelon, which I'm sure you're not surprised to hear. They say this has been priced in. They say they knew it would take healthy, young people longer to come in. They say a lot of these policies needed to be canceled because they were substandard. And when those people get sick, it puts a strain on the system and that insurers know this better than anyone else. How much of this is a straw horse?"When Cuomo argued that insurance companies are "flush with cash" and "change rules on policyholders all the time," Donelon responded that "there are plenty of local, smaller companies that are providing health insurance all across the land."
