Shingleback Skink - Los Angeles ZooI've been trying to make sense out of today's news reports about "the house healthcare reform bill." The AP and Reuters press releases do not give the title of "the bill." None of the major newspapers give the title of the bill. The blogs blather on about a health care flow chart neglecting to mention the title or name of the legislation spawning this dissection.
Finally, about twenty minutes later, I sifted through the "health care legislation" results I googled and found an msnbc report featuring a letter to the House Ways and Means Committee from the AMA. The first sentence mentions the correct title of the legislation under consideration. It is called, H.R. 3200, the "America's Affordable Health Choices Act of 2009."
The title of this legislation is important to me because I can then access THOMAS or other government information sites and read the bill. US news organizations (press, television, radio, blogs) need to go back to communications 101: who, what, when, where and why. Americans need clarity and precision from the press about these important issues. It's not important for me to know that democrats or republicans have flow charts or like/don't like the bill. I need to know what is in the bill. Report that in the first paragraph. Make it clear what the bill contains. That's news. The political and partisan posturing should be reserved for the last paragraph, or the OpEd pages.
No one has time for reports on important news that presume people already know about the issue. Who can make heads or tails out of a report like this one...
"WASHINGTON, July 17 (Reuters) - A second U.S. House panel approved on Friday legislation to overhaul the $2.5 billion healthcare industry, but lawmakers were still struggling to find out how much it will cost and how to pay for it."
Sorry, Reuters, but this is useless garbage. One good thing this garbled mess did was make me so mad, I did my own research on "Friday legislation" and came up with something coherent and interesting....
"OpenCongress Summary: This is the House Democrats' big health care reform bill. Broadly, it seeks to expand health care coverage to the approximately 40 million Americans who are currently uninsured by lowering the cost of health care and making the system more efficient. To that end it includes a new government-run insurance plan to compete with the private companies, a requirement that all Americans have health insurance, a prohibition on denying coverage because of pre-existing conditions and, to pay for it all, a surtax on households with an income above $350,000. A more complete summary of the bill can be read here."
This summary is short, accurate and respectful of the reader. Mainstream media needs to be mindful that citizens need news not propaganda and we can smell the difference.
