The broadcast networks have refused to cover the repeated failures of ObamaCare in 2016. During the entire year, ABC World News Tonight and NBC Nightly News have yet to give the floundering program any coverage at all, while CBS Evening News only found time to cover two of the ObamaCare updates – and that only added up to 2 minutes and 18 seconds of coverage for the entire year.
To put that in perspective, these same three evening news shows managed to find 46 minutes and 49 seconds to dedicated to Olympic swimmer Ryan Lochte running afoul of Brazilian police.
Here are some of the major ObamaCare developments that the networks ignored:
February: Investigators from the Government Accountability Office successfully defraud the ObamaCare system 11 out of 12 times.
No network evening news coverage
March: The Congressional Budget Office says that ObamaCare will cost $136 billion more than predicted a year ago. The CBO also revealed that 9 million fewer people will have work-based coverage under ObamaCare than if the law had never been enacted.
No network evening news coverage
April – May: 1 million less people have coverage during 2016 than was estimated, and 12 of 23 insurance nonprofit plans will not offer coverage this year.
During this time period, United Healthcare announced that it would pull out in all but a “handful of states.” It later announced it would be “dramatically scaling back its involvement” in ObamaCare, and pulled out of state exchanges in California.
Only CBS Evening News covered this, and only for 23 seconds on April 19
April: Premiums rise, deductibles spike as high as 76 percent in some states
No network evening news coverage
May 12: Federal judge says the President is illegally using federal money to pay for premium subsidies
No network evening news coverage
August: Aetna announced that it plans to back out of ObamaCare, after losing $300 million this year from individual coverage sold on the ObamaCare exchanges. Aetna and Humana join UnitedHealth in pulling out of ObamaCare.
Only CBS Evening News covered this, for 1 minute, 55 seconds on August 16
August: UnitedHealth Group, Health Care Service Corp, Highmark and Blue Cross & Blue Shield all report losses in the hundreds of millions or billions of dollars.
No network evening news coverage