The media has a short term memory problem

Aaron Carroll

January 28, 2011

I was absolutely, positively going to ignore the child-only insurance policy story that’s revived again. But then I saw it in Wonkbook so here it is:

Health insurers in 34 states have stopped selling child-only insurance policies as a result of the health reform law, and the market continues to destablize.

According to a survey of state insurance departments by Republican Senate committee staff and obtained by POLITICO, states that have seen carriers exit the market include those that have been ardent supporters of the health reform law, like California and Oregon. Twenty states now have no insurers offering child-only policies.

This is old news, people. I wrote this when it reared its head in September, and it’s still entirely applicable.

I could just repost it and pretend it’s new, but that’s exactly what I’m faulting the media for doing. So I won’t. Please just go read it again.

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Aaron Carroll

Aaron E. Carroll, MD, MS is co-Editor-in-Chief of The Incidental Economist and tweets at @aaronecarroll. He is the Chief Health Officer at Indiana University. He is also a Distinguished Professor of Pediatrics and Associate Dean for Research Mentoring at the Indiana University School of Medicine. In addition to contributing regularly to The New York Times and the Atlantic, he is the author of four books, most recently The Bad Food Bible.

The media has a short term memory problem

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Aaron Carroll

The Incidental Economist

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