Fox Stokes Fears On Costs Of Obamacare For Young Adults

Fox News hyped a misleading Wall Street Journal article that claimed young adults will face higher insurance premiums under the Affordable Care Act (ACA) without disclosing that only a small portion of the health care market would be affected.

A September 25 article in The Wall Street Journal claimed that “for some buyers, prices will rise from today’s less-comprehensive policies,” and went on to say that “For consumers used to skimpier plans–or young, healthy people who previously enjoyed attractive rates–that could mean significantly higher premiums.” Fox News host Neil Cavuto hyped the article during an appearance on America’s Newsroom, claiming, “premiums are going up, they’re going up markedly…for young people in particular, the means by which we pay for all of this, their premiums are going up smartly“:

Both the Journal and Fox’s segment ignored that the potential premium increase is for a very small subset of the insurance market. The Center for American Progress estimated that “only about 3 percent” of young adults have the potential to see premium increases, which makes up about half of one percent of all Americans:

More From Media Matters: