Nets Stoke Fear for Tom Price’s Proposed ObamaCare Replacement

Nicholas Fondacaro | November 29, 2016
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President-Elect Donald Trump announced his latest cabinet pick Tuesday, who would head the Department for Health and Human Services, and it sent the Big Three networks into full spin mode. Trump selected Congressman Tom Price to be the Secretary of HHS, or as Noah O’Donnell described him on CBS Evening News, “Donald Trump makes more cabinet picks, including the man who intends to blow up ObamaCare.

CBS’ fear mongering against Price continued during Major Garrett’s report about Trump’s latest picks and prospective nominations. “Price's plan would abolish the expansion of Medicaid under Obamacare that has provided insurance coverage to 15 million Americans,” reported Garrett, “Price would also roll back guaranteed coverage for patients with preexisting medical conditions.” The only mention of what his replacement plan would do for the public was that it created health savings account, which is only a fraction of what it does.

On ABC’s World News Tonight, Tom Llamas warned that the plan, “Includes repealing the expansion of Medicaid, which provides insurance for millions of low income Americans.” He had no mention at all about how Price planned to ensure that millions of people would have health insurances. That, in spike of reporting, “He's one of few Republicans with a detailed plan for replacing the president's healthcare law.

Both ABC and CBS reported that he drafted an ObamaCare replacement, but they failed to mention that it was drafted before the “Affordable Care” Act was even past. But reporting such a fact would go against the liberal narrative, going back years, that Republicans had no plan to replace ObamaCare and only wanted to leave people high and dry with just a repeal.

While those two networks talked about Price as a part of larger reports, NBC Nightly News dedicated a whole report to trying to freak out the public. Anchor Lester Holt led into Kristen Welker’s report by fretting, “the question for millions who depend on [ObamaCare], what next?

Since ObamaCare's implementation six years ago, Georgia Congressman Tom Price has been proposing ways to dismantle it,” reported Welker, then speculating, “Mr. Trump's promise to eliminate ObamaCare could leave the 28 million people currently enrolled, in limbo.” Welker then detailed two ObamaCare enrollees who don’t trust Trump or Price:

Like Adam Koontz. Koontz says ObamaCare has helped him manage his diabetes. And while Mr. Trump has said he's open to protecting those with preexisting conditions, Koontz isn't convinced…

Kate Gonzedo is worrying too, wondering if her birth control prescription plan will be scrapped if Obamacare is repealed. So Gonzedo opted for a longer lasting IUD.

It is unknown if either had an understanding of Price’s replacement plan.

The only person opposed to ObamaCare, interviewed by Welker, was a Virginia man she said was worried about rising premiums. “Anything would be better than ObamaCare,” he told her, and Welker left it at that.

But NBC once reported about how harmful the skyrocketing premiums were before the election. In the October 26 report Tom Costello talked with a Kentucky mother of two whose insurer pulled out of the exchange market, leaving her only expensive alternatives. 

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