thinking of signing up for obamacare? you<u+2019>re better off spending your money on beer, says aetna ceo mark bertolini. <u+201c>as the rates rise, the healthier people pull out because the out-of-pocket costs aren<u+2019>t worth it,<u+201d> bertolini tells bloomberg . <u+201c>young people can do the math. gas for the car, beer on fridays and saturdays, health insurance.<u+201d> more: isn<u+2019>t it refreshing to have a little truth in advertising for a change? here we have a ceo of a company straightforwardly telling consumers that his product isn<u+2019>t worth buying. buy beer, instead, he says<u+2014>and aetna is not in the adult-beverage business. ok, that overstates the case. as the bloomberg piece notes, bertolini<u+2019>s comments are less a warning against aetna<u+2019>s (and its competitors<u+2019>) shoddy product than an explanation as to why the company is dramatically reducing its offerings: aca stands for affordable care act, itself a short form of obamacare<u+2019>s orwellian official name, the patient protection and affordable care act. bertolini would like congress to <u+201c>make changes to the market,<u+201d> in bloomberg<u+2019>s words, to allow his company to re-enter the market and turn a profit. follow james on twitter still, bertolini is a truth-teller by the standard of obamacare, a massive consumer fraud marketed under the slogan <u+201c>if you like your plan, you can keep your plan.<u+201d> whereas a corporate executive who told a lie as brazen as that would be at serious risk of prison, when the country<u+2019>s ceo tells a <u+201c>political<u+201d> lie, he faces little by way of accountability<u+2014>including from the news media, which advertise themselves as advocates for the public interest answering power with truth. <u+201c>here<u+2019>s one reason obamacare<u+2019>s marketplaces are struggling,<u+201d> writes sarah kliff at the liberal young-adult website vox: <u+201c>they<u+2019>re less than half as large as we thought they would be.<u+201d> for illiterate or easily confused young adults, that observation is illustrated by <u+201c>one chart<u+201d> featuring a blue bar, representing obamacare sales, overlaid on the outline of a bigger bar, representing hoped-for obamacare sales. so obamacare is failing because people aren<u+2019>t buying what it<u+2019>s selling. that<u+2019>s not an explanation, it<u+2019>s a tautology. for an analogy, consider this new york times story about donald trump<u+2019>s recent difficulties in his hotel business: the times piece suggests trump<u+2019>s business is suffering because the controversies of the presidential campaign have harmed his commercial brand. the kliff approach would be to beg the question and <u+201c>explain<u+201d> that trump international has suffered from a lack of bookings because people haven<u+2019>t been booking rooms there. if fraudulent marketing is unsuccessful, there<u+2019>s always coercion. kliff also argues <u+2014>again <u+201c>in one chart<u+201d><u+2014>that <u+201c>obamacare<u+2019>s mandate isn<u+2019>t strong enough.<u+201d> imagine if trump proposed dealing with his hotel<u+2019>s difficulties by punishing holidaymakers who refuse to stay there. vox is an avowedly, or at least self-evidently, liberal-left-progressive outlet. but purportedly nonpartisan media organizations have also engaged in boosterism for the fraud that is obamacare. in march 2012, the senate republican conference put out a video called <u+201c>obamacare: broken promises,<u+201d> which said <u+201c>that while president barack obama promised to <u+2018>work with your employer to lower your premiums by $2,500 per family per year,<u+2019> his health care law <u+2018>raises premiums in the individual market by $2,100 per family.<u+2019><u+00a0><u+201d> politifact acknowledged that <u+201c>the number does come from a congressional budget office analysis, and it<u+2019>s phrased accurately.<u+201d> it nonetheless rated the statement <u+201c>mostly false<u+201d> on the ground that <u+201c>it<u+2019>s stripped of crucial context and distorts the truth.<u+201d> in july of the same year, florida<u+2019>s gov. rick scott, citing the same cbo report, said <u+201c>if you<u+2019>re going to buy your own policy with these (health care) exchanges you<u+2019>ll be paying 10% more .<u+00a0>.<u+00a0>. about $2,100 more for a family.<u+201d> again, politifact said <u+201c>mostly false<u+201d><u+2014>this time because <u+201c>what he doesn<u+2019>t say is that these policies will have to offer comprehensive coverage. so people will pay more, but they<u+2019>re also get more benefits.<u+201d> they were still at it in april 2015, when gov. scott walker of wisconsin said that during the obama years, <u+201c>the average cost of family health care premiums has increased by $4,154.<u+201d> politifact acknowledged <u+201c>the figure is correct when comparing 2008 to 2014.<u+201d> but still it said <u+201c>mostly false,<u+201d> claiming walker should have used 2009 as his baseline (which would have yielded an increase of $3,459) later last year the fact-checkers showed signs of catching up to reality. in october 2015 trump asserted that, <u+201c>because of obamacare <u+2018>people<u+2019>s premiums .<u+00a0>.<u+00a0>. are going up 35%, 45%, 55%.<u+2019><u+00a0><u+201d> politifact rated that statement <u+201c>half true<u+201d><u+2014>but what does that even mean? that they<u+2019>re actually going up 17.5%, 22.5%, 27.5%? or 70%, 90%, 110%? it<u+2019>s a familiar pattern. politifact<u+2019>s 2013 <u+201c>lie of the year<u+201d> was the central obamacare fraud: <u+201c>if you like your plan, you can keep your plan.<u+201d> as this column noted at the time , the site had previously certified the promise as <u+201c>true<u+201d> (2008), then equivocated and labeled it <u+201c>half true<u+201d> in both 2009 and 2012. everyone<u+2019>s entitled to his own opinion, but <u+201c>fact checkers<u+201d> think they<u+2019>re entitled to call their own opinions facts. as the president perpetrated a fraud on american consumers, journalists have often helped him along. they would never dream of doing the same for an unscrupulous ceo of, say, a beer company. metaphor alert <u+201c>awaiting next u.s. president: a splintered middle east in <u+2018>free fall<u+2019><u+00a0><u+201d><u+2014>headline, new york times, oct.<u+00a0>25 out on a limb <u+201c>wikileaks bombshell: clinton campaign chair<u+2019>s confidante said hillary and her lawyers never disclosed secret email server because <u+2018>they wanted to get away with it<u+2019><u+00a0><u+201d><u+2014>headline, dailymail.com, oct.<u+00a0>25 longest books ever written <u+201c>what the right<u+2019>s intellectuals did wrong<u+201d><u+2014>headline, new york times website, oct.<u+00a0>26 hypothesis and proof problem and solution<u+2014>i problem and solution<u+2014>ii don<u+2019>t boo, vote <u+201c>cheer the cubs, boo the aldermen<u+201d><u+2014>headline, chicago tribune, oct.<u+00a0>26 slipping through my fingers all the time <u+201c>abba members to launch <u+2018>new digital experience<u+2019> next year<u+201d><u+2014>headline, associated press, oct.<u+00a0>26 hey, kids! what time is it? question and answer it<u+2019>s always in the last place you look bottom story of the day <u+201c>colin powell says he<u+2019>ll vote for hillary clinton<u+201d><u+2014>headline, new york times, oct.<u+00a0>26 warts and all as if there isn<u+2019>t already enough to be anxious about, the new york times<u+2019>s david brooks has diagnosed an <u+201c>epidemic of worry.<u+201d> in reality, there<u+2019>s nothing to worry about. well, not as much as you think, anyway: ninety percent, eh? in an effort to make that number concrete, we found a youtube video titled <u+201c>10 most deadly diseases<u+201d> (warning: contains unpleasant images of afflicted persons). here they are, in order of appearance: plague, sars, cholera, typhoid, smallpox, malaria, anthrax, ebola, influenza, hiv/aids. but don<u+2019>t worry, 90% of them will never come true, so you<u+2019>ll only get one of the diseases. don<u+2019>t you feel reassured? follow @jamestaranto on twitter. join fans of best of the web today on facebook. subscribe to the best of the web email with one click. (carol muller helps compile best of the web. thanks to ed lasky, joel engel, tony lima, irene deblasio, michele schiesser, alan kuska, scott ott, norman blanton, wes van fleet, mark finkelstein, bruce goldman, debbie wells, jay weiser, robert lamoureux, dave mulligan and thomas nast. if you have a tip, write us at opinionjournal@wsj.com , and please include the url.)
care goggles - wsj
james taranto