OK, this sort of thing bothers me.
Dec. 24th, 2009 09:27 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
winterbadgerThe Globetrotter can't understand why I loathe Marketplace (NPR's business news program). Partly it's because I hate its promotion of the Cult of Business, which worships and adores anything and everything having to do with making money, and either strips every happening or event of any context or meaning except profit or actively perverts things that have nothing to do with finance or business into some crippled, sickly version of themselves that is all about How To Make More Money. I have a special hatred of selfishness and greed, and corporate greed is in the top five of my list of Most Evil Things Ever. So that's the main reason I detest Marketplace.
But another reason I hate it is because they treat facts casually and recklessly or outright distort or lie about them. Case in point: today their "short" in the main NPR news had a snippet interview/factoid with an economist (?) about healthcare. He posed the question "In ten years, what will the average American family of four pay for health insurance?" and gave four possible alternatives, the largest of which, $31,000, was the answer. He stated that this was the projected cost of premiums for employer-provided health coverage in 2020. He then 'discussed' this with the 'interviewer' who 'asked' him, among other things, what the average American family earns, to which the 'economist' replied "$51,000".
[The scorn quotes are there because, although it was staged as an interview, the two of them were clearly reading from a script.]
So it sounds as if health insurance costs are going to take up a huge chunk of family income, right? about 60% of income, right?
Not so fast.
Even setting aside the fact that that's only one projection (where does it come from? what assumptions went into it?) and the fact that they're comparing 2020 costs to 2009 income, this is most totally bogus because they're implying that *employees* pay 100% of the cost of *employer-provided* health coverage. Guess what? They don't. Not even close.
In 2002, the average employee premium contribution per enrolled private-sector employee for family coverage was $1,987, according the US Department of Health and Human Services. So less than 5% of family income went to health insurance (in 2002, median family income was closer to $46K then $51K--see, Marketplace? it isn't that hard to compare like-year dollars!) Nothing like the 60% implied by the story. Employers shoulder most of the burden of premiums for employer-provided health insurance.
Of course, there are all sorts of other complicating factors. Only about 85-90% of employers offer coverage. Some employers cover more of the cost than others. Health care costs include lots more than health insurance premiums (there are also deductibles, co-pays, drug costs, annual and lifetime maximum reimbursements, non-insured treatments).
But the snapshot that they provided was alarmist, inaccurate, and sloppy. It didn't inform, it didn't explain; it simply provided a flawed, contextless, scary factoid.
Typical Marketplace material, IMO.
But another reason I hate it is because they treat facts casually and recklessly or outright distort or lie about them. Case in point: today their "short" in the main NPR news had a snippet interview/factoid with an economist (?) about healthcare. He posed the question "In ten years, what will the average American family of four pay for health insurance?" and gave four possible alternatives, the largest of which, $31,000, was the answer. He stated that this was the projected cost of premiums for employer-provided health coverage in 2020. He then 'discussed' this with the 'interviewer' who 'asked' him, among other things, what the average American family earns, to which the 'economist' replied "$51,000".
[The scorn quotes are there because, although it was staged as an interview, the two of them were clearly reading from a script.]
So it sounds as if health insurance costs are going to take up a huge chunk of family income, right? about 60% of income, right?
Not so fast.
Even setting aside the fact that that's only one projection (where does it come from? what assumptions went into it?) and the fact that they're comparing 2020 costs to 2009 income, this is most totally bogus because they're implying that *employees* pay 100% of the cost of *employer-provided* health coverage. Guess what? They don't. Not even close.
In 2002, the average employee premium contribution per enrolled private-sector employee for family coverage was $1,987, according the US Department of Health and Human Services. So less than 5% of family income went to health insurance (in 2002, median family income was closer to $46K then $51K--see, Marketplace? it isn't that hard to compare like-year dollars!) Nothing like the 60% implied by the story. Employers shoulder most of the burden of premiums for employer-provided health insurance.
Of course, there are all sorts of other complicating factors. Only about 85-90% of employers offer coverage. Some employers cover more of the cost than others. Health care costs include lots more than health insurance premiums (there are also deductibles, co-pays, drug costs, annual and lifetime maximum reimbursements, non-insured treatments).
But the snapshot that they provided was alarmist, inaccurate, and sloppy. It didn't inform, it didn't explain; it simply provided a flawed, contextless, scary factoid.
Typical Marketplace material, IMO.
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no subject
Date: 2009-12-24 07:00 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-12-24 07:46 pm (UTC)OTOH, the factual accuracy of much more lefty programs, like "On Point with Tom Ashbrook" and "To the Point with Warren Olney", is equally atrocious. And some of the tripe that shows up on Pacifica...really, it's the Fox News of the Left.
Really, thank goodness for NPR's main news programs (Morning Edition and All Things Considered) and the excellent Commonwealth news programming (The World, a joint NPR-BBC program, and As It Happens, from the CBC). I know the conservatives won't believe it, but they are actual fair and balanced and fairly professional.
no subject
Date: 2009-12-25 04:20 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-12-25 04:41 pm (UTC)