Karl
DP Veteran
- Joined
- Sep 24, 2010
- Messages
- 5,561
- Reaction score
- 1,589
- Gender
- Undisclosed
- Political Leaning
- Progressive
In a DP discussion of new Obamacare fees which has gone wildly off topic (http://www.debatepolitics.com/obamacare-aca/181904-new-obamacare-fees-coming-2014-w-41-a.html), I was hit with two links in one post referring to the same NY Post article on doctors who are not signing up to participate in exchange health insurance policies. The article was based upon a NY state poll. Forbes made the following claim:
1. This part, in bold, is a falsehood. The truth is that 44% of the doctors who responded to the poll (survey) are not participating in Obamacare (not accepting patients with exchange health insurance) (keep in mind this poll is not dated but the file was last modified Oct. 30th). They only received 409 answers to that question, and I presume there are more than 409 doctors in New York. Now while you can use a poll to predicted total outcomes, this poll has no features of a professional poll, such as confidence interval and margin of error, nor was it seemingly conducted by a qualified, professional polling/survey company.
2. This part, also in bold, is a gross misrepresentation of the facts presented by the poll results in another falsehood. This claim consists of two parts:
The actual poll is here: http://www.mssny.org/surveys/HealthExchange_10282013.pdf
Clearly, whomever wrote the Forbes article is rather stupid or is trying to manipulate their readership by giving them false information. In any case, it is yet another example that you cannot take 'reporting' at face value, especially if there is a history or expectation of deceit; you have to dig down to the original source and see if the reporting is truthful.
[...] The New York Post recently reported on a very troubling survey from the New York State Medical Society, [1] which found that 44 percent of New York doctors are not participating in Obamacare. Worse yet, [2]three-fourths of those who are participating are being forced to because of existing insurance contracts. [...]
Docs resisting ObamaCare | New York Post
1. This part, in bold, is a falsehood. The truth is that 44% of the doctors who responded to the poll (survey) are not participating in Obamacare (not accepting patients with exchange health insurance) (keep in mind this poll is not dated but the file was last modified Oct. 30th). They only received 409 answers to that question, and I presume there are more than 409 doctors in New York. Now while you can use a poll to predicted total outcomes, this poll has no features of a professional poll, such as confidence interval and margin of error, nor was it seemingly conducted by a qualified, professional polling/survey company.
2. This part, also in bold, is a gross misrepresentation of the facts presented by the poll results in another falsehood. This claim consists of two parts:
1. The first poll question asked doctors how many exchange insurance companies they were doing business with. 44% said none, as noted above. 33.5% said they were not sure. In order to get the "three-fourths" that Forbes claimed, they had to assume that these 33.5% were also not accepting any exchange insurance policies. Hopefully everyone can agree that "not sure" is probably 1 or more, not "none".
2. The next question asked how many doctors freely chose to accept exchange patients and how many were forced to accept exchange patients because an insurance company they were already doing business with required them to (or lose all that company's business). The compared this latter number to 22.6% who gave a firm number in response to the first question above, when they should have compared it to that 22.6% plus the 33.5% that were "not sure" how many exchange policies/networks/companies they were doing business with. The result is they greatly inflated their claim (it would be less than half the "three fourths" that they claim).
2. The next question asked how many doctors freely chose to accept exchange patients and how many were forced to accept exchange patients because an insurance company they were already doing business with required them to (or lose all that company's business). The compared this latter number to 22.6% who gave a firm number in response to the first question above, when they should have compared it to that 22.6% plus the 33.5% that were "not sure" how many exchange policies/networks/companies they were doing business with. The result is they greatly inflated their claim (it would be less than half the "three fourths" that they claim).
The actual poll is here: http://www.mssny.org/surveys/HealthExchange_10282013.pdf
Clearly, whomever wrote the Forbes article is rather stupid or is trying to manipulate their readership by giving them false information. In any case, it is yet another example that you cannot take 'reporting' at face value, especially if there is a history or expectation of deceit; you have to dig down to the original source and see if the reporting is truthful.