***To read the full blog please check out the complete post on NewsBusters***
Late Monday afternoon, the Congressional Budget Office released its report on the House Republican’s proposal to repeal and replace the crumbling ObamaCare law, and it wasn’t pretty. “It finds that under the replacement plan, there would be more 14 million more uninsured people next year than under ObamaCare, and 24 million more uninsured a decade from now,” announced ABC anchor David Muir during World News Tonight. But ABC and the rest of the Big Three networks omitted key details of the bill and it’s only fair to report them.
ABC’s Mary Bruce sounded the alarm bell during her report. “Under the House Republican plan, embraced by President Trump, 14 million fewer Americans will have insurance coverage next year than under Obamacare,” she said, “Within a decade, the number of uninsured Americans will increase by 24 million.” Bruce failed to explain to viewers that the CBO determined that number by taking into account that people would choose not to buy insurance:
Most of that increase would stem from repealing the penalties associated with the individual mandate. Some of those people would choose not to have insurance because they chose to be covered by insurance under current law only to avoid paying the penalties, and some people would forgo insurance in response to higher premiums.
It’s a very important distinction because intent actually matters, they’re not just being cruelly left to fend for themselves. It’s also a fact that both CBS and NBC did mention in their respective reports, along with the claims that many would be thrown off of Medicaid. Instead, Bruce touted how Republican lawmakers were being pressured in town halls to vote it down.