Healthcare reform and the media conversation: Let the silliness begin

The New York Post and conservative news outlets are trying to control the media conversation about healthcare reform. A recent article in The Post warns that the New York Health Act, a single-payer proposal, will be the death of the best New York hospitals.

Is it true? Absolutely not true, but this doesn’t prevent The Post and other media outlets from promulgating preposterous headlines. The RAND corporation released a Report in August showing the New York Health Act would have enormous benefits and manageable costs. Reading the back-of-the-envelope financial “scenarios” created by The Post authors was like an explanation of healthcare economics from The Minions; entertaining, but not to be taken too seriously.

The two academic medical centers mentioned in the article, New York Presbyterian and Memorial Sloan Kettering, are not in any financial jeopardy. They are paid more than most other hospitals because of their markets and their negotiating positions with private insurance providers.

Like claims of “death panels” associated with the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) which proved silly, the media conversation created by The Post about healthcare reform ignores the underlying, complex facts. But there’s no consequence to such blatant lies conjured up in the interest of controlling the media conversation. They hijack the media conversation about healthcare reform. The truth is that healthcare reform is needed, and that New York has a proposal on the table with is bold and could lead the way toward creating equity and transparency in a healthcare system which is both unfair and shrouded in secrecy.