Obamacare Success Story
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Fox News promised to stay in touch with the cancer patient at the center of one of right-wing activists’ favorite Obamacare horror stories. But now that new reports show it is actually an Obamacare success story, as the woman who worried the Affordable Care Act was “unaffordable” will now save approximately $1,000 a year under the new law, will Fox make good on its promise?
Desperate to find Obamacare horror stories, right-wing media have repeatedly hyped the story of Michigan resident Julie Boonstra, who is suffering from leukemia and saw her existing insurance plan canceled after it failed to meet the ACA’s new guidelines, which force insurers to provide more comprehensive coverage than in the past. Right-wing media, conservative candidates, and ads by Koch-funded special interest groups held Boonstra up as an exemplar of health care reform victims after she claimed her new plan was too expensive.
The one problem? This right-wing bubble’s characterization didn’t hold up under scrutiny — as Washington Post’s fact checker Glenn Kessler noted on February 20, Boonstra’s monthly premiums were “cut in half” on her new plan, and eventually she would reach the law’s new caps and no longer have to pay anything.
But Fox News was undeterred by the holes in the story. From February 20 – March 4, the network hosted Boonstra at least three times, painting her as under attack by the Obama administration for speaking out against the ACA.
On the March 4 edition of Fox’s The Kelly File, host Martha MacCallum praised Boonstra as a “fighter” for pushing back against those questioning whether she was worse off under the ACA, encouraging her to continue her “fight on both fronts.” MacCallum promised to speak with Boonstra again
When will MacCallum follow through on her promise to speak with Boonstra and correct her story?
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