Chad Henderson: Sure I Lied, But I Wasn't Really Lying

Let's start at the bottom.

Tommy Christopher:

Shock and Awful: Conservatives Already Lying About Obamacare Enrollee Chad Henderson

Chad Henderson, the 21 year-old Flintstonian who has become the media’s go-to early example of an Obamacare exchange enrollee, has already become a talking point for conservatives, and the subject of conservative lies. Most glaringly, The Cato Institute‘s director of health policy studies Michael Cannon introduces Henderson with the lie that “Obamacare Increases Man’s Premiums 300%,” then backs it up with another lie that actually turns out to reveal that Republicans screwed poor Chad.

That headline is a self-evident lie, revealed in the Washington Post article that Cannon artfully cherry-picks. WaPo’s Sarah Kliff reveals that Chad Henderson hasn’t had health insurance for over 14 years, which means he had no health insurance premium to quadruple. That makes Cannon’s headline a complete and total lie, and Cannon never gets around to revealing Chad’s pre-Obamacare status one way or the other.

Ah, yeah whatever. The Cato Institute did not say Chad had coverage -- it used the (this is a big word, Tommy, but write it down in your notebook) subjunctive mood or conditional mood to discuss what Chad would have paid pre-Obamacare.

Kliff reports that after a three-hour ordeal, Chad bought an Obamacare plan that cost him $175 per month – pretty steep, considering he makes less than $11,500 per year. His Obamacare premium comes to least 18 percent of his income. And no, Chad is not eligible for subsidies.

Compare that to what Chad could have paid if he bought one of the pre-Obamacare plans still available on eHealthInsurance.com until December 31. The cheapest such plan for someone meeting Chad’s profile is just $44.72 – as little as 5 percent of his annual income and about one-quarter of his Obamacare premium.

Yeah, lies Tommy. Tommy Christopher has declared the counterfactual conditional mood, basic to every language, a "lie."

Now I'm not done with this gigantic lying turd just yet. Don't click on the "Cf" link below just yet; you'll spoil my big reveal. Just enjoy Tommy Christopher, MSNBC Fanboi and hack, shitting all over himself.

Depending me? That seems to be a typo that reveals a deeper truth.

He then suggested that Peter Suderman's scoop at Reason, that Chad hadn't purchased health insurance at all, was itself a lie:

For his part, Chad appreciated Tommy's heroic efforts to rehabilitate the witness:

Noah Rothman continues documenting the media's unusual level of interest in Rudy-Like ObamaCare hero Chad Henderson.

“Reporters are clogging Henderson’s voicemail, pro-Obamacare forces are holding him up as a poster child of the health law and administration officials are giving him shout-outs on Twitter,” reported POLITICO’s Kyle Cheney. “He has been uninsured since he was around 6 years old when his father, a single parent, could no longer afford coverage.”

“It is such a huge honor,” Henderson, a student with a part-time job at a day care center, said of the flood of attention. “The fact that the White House shared my story and Enroll America asked me for some help is a major blessing to me.”

“Enrollment took three hours, mostly because the system crashed every time he tried to create an account,” Cheney continued. “Once he got through that step, he said the process was simple.”

“It’s like looking at a Verizon Wireless phone comparison,” Henderson told POLITICO.

The father and son signed up for a bronze plan in Georgia’s federal exchange, the lowest cost, least generous level of coverage available, Henderson said. Anything more comprehensive would’ve been too costly.

Well, then Peter Suderman did what the media should have done in the first place: He actually checked out the story. It was a false story.

Well now that it's been revealed as false, Sarah "Local Crime Story" Kliff, the WaPo's health issues blogger, must cover it, because she previously made Chad her own poster boy for the awesomeness of ObamaCare.

Now Chad says he didn't actually buy any health care, but says he wasn't lying when he says he "enrolled" in ObamaCare.

Sarah Kliff: So let me make sure I understand things right here. You went through the part of the website where you entered in your information and found out what you qualified for, and that's done. And you got to the part where you can compare plans, but you have not purchased a plan?

Chad Henderson: We have not purchased a specific.The application has information and once you submit it, it reviews eligibility. Obviously I'm not eligible for Medicaid because our governor isn't expanding it. And that’s what I meant by enrollment. I had assumed that I never said I purchased a plan or enrolled in marketplace. I’m not backing down on my comments. I have not misled anyone.

Kliff, by the way, seems sympathetic to this claim that Chad did not "mislead" anyone at all. Just some poorly-chosen language, and a misunderstanding by a media primed to misunderstand to Obama's credit, I guess.

For those claiming no one ever said Chad "enrolled" in ObamaCare, well, at least one person did:

Ah. He said "looking forward" to having health care. So there you go.

Gee, it's so funny, in his dozens of media interviews I guess he just sort of forgot to say "I actually don't have any health insurance yet."

And I guess the media just forgot to ask him.

Or ask anything at all, really.

By the way: I wonder why Chad Henderson thought that Sarah "Local Crime Story" Kliff might be a friendly blogger to whom to make this disclosure.

Thanks to @charlescwcooke for that last tweet.

posted by Ace at 03:19 PM

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