Elections The Washington Post Tries to "Fact Check" Bernie Sanders and Self-Owns

[Hollywood Jack]

Bernie Sanders, citing a widely cited peer-reviewed study which was published in the New England Journal of Medicine in 2018 and has even been cited by the Washington Post itself in other articles, has pointed out that 500,000 bankruptcies per year are caused by medical bills. Even one of the authors of the study, the lead author David Himmelstein, told the Washington Post that Sanders was citing the study correctly but they still claim that Sanders is making a "false claim" about the study.

A Sanders campaign aide wrote in an email: “Medical debt caused by the greed of pharmaceutical and insurance corporations is crippling millions of Americans, and it’s clear that 500,000 is the bare minimum number of bankruptcy filings caused by medical debt each year.”

Linking to the 2009 article by Warren and her co-authors, the Sanders aide added: “Research attributed 62% of bankruptcies to medical problems in 2007 and found them rising since 2001. And according to reports from the federal judiciary, the total non-business bankruptcy appears to hover around 1 million cases annually since 2006. Over 40% of Americans, or 79 million people, are struggling with medical debt, which is why Bernie knows we must pass Medicare-for-all.”

When we asked Himmelstein whether Sanders was quoting his study accurately, he said yes.

Himmelstein wrote: “37 percent of filers said medical bills ‘very much’ contributed to their bankruptcy. Even if you use that restricted definition, then Sanders’s statement is accurate — or an underestimate. There are about 700,000 bankruptcy filings each year. Many filings are joint husband/wife filings, and based on our past research, we estimate that on average 2.71 persons reside in each debtor’s household. So the total number of persons who undergo bankruptcy is about 1.9 million annually.

“37 percent of 1.9 million is a bit over 700,000. Even if you only count the husband and wife in a filing, the number suffering a bankruptcy to which medical bills ‘very much’ contributed is about 500,000.”

https://www.washingtonpost.com/poli...s-flawed-statistic-medical-bankruptcies-year/

This is fucking ridiculous. They should rename the Washington Post to the Jeff Bezos Newsletter. I guess that greedy cocksucker doesn't have enough money yet. $124 billion isn't enough. He needs to get back that $36 billion he gave to his ex-wife in their divorce. The lengths these corporate Democrats will go to to slander Bernie and other real progressives.

 

[Trotsky]

Washington Post. Is normal.

They'd give Sanders five pinnochios for using "who" instead of "whom."

Really, though, this is pedantry of the highest order. If you read the WashPo article, they whittle the conversation down to bankruptcies that were due to hospitalization or were otherwise directly caused by medical emergencies, rather than those that would have been avoided without medical expenses. It completely discounts medical expenditures arising from chronic ailments that don't require hospitalization.....which is the majority of medical expenditures, i.e. doctor visits and drugs.

 

[Mr Holmes]

Seems like it wasn't too long ago I felt like I could read the news without worrying about it being propaganda.

 

[Hollywood Jack]

Seems like it wasn't too long ago I felt like I could read the news without worrying about it being propaganda.

I used to read the Washington Post every day and thought it was the best newspaper in the country. It's sad to see what they've turned into since oligarch Jeff Bezos bought them.

 

[Hollywood Jack]

Washington Post. Is normal.

They'd give Sanders five pinnochios for using "who" instead of "whom."

Really, though, this is pedantry of the highest order. If you read the WashPo article, they whittle the conversation down to bankruptcies that were due to hospitalization or were otherwise directly caused by medical emergencies, rather than those that would have been avoided without medical expenses. It completely discounts medical expenditures arising from chronic ailments that don't require hospitalization.....which is the majority of medical expenditures, i.e. doctor visits and drugs.

If you watch the video I embedded, the presenter, Canadian David Doel, says "we don't have medical bankruptcies in Canada". Great argument for a single payer system. Canada isn't even that great of an example of a single payer system. But it sure beats what we have here.

 

[xcvbn]

The ruling elites are petrified of a Sanders presidency.

Keep resisting.

 

[Gregolian]

I used to read the Washington Post every day and thought it was the best newspaper in the country. It's sad to see what they've turned into since oligarch Jeff Bezos bought them.

Isn't this the damn newspaper that brought Nixon down too?

Season 5 of The Wire:
Oh, this dude fabricated his story about meeting a serial killer that turns out to be a fabrication from an alcoholic Irish homicide detective that has a serious obsessive streak? BAH, bury it and give the cocksucker a Pulitzer.

 

[Trotsky]

If you watch the video I embedded, the presenter, Canadian David Doel, says "we don't have medical bankruptcies in Canada". Great argument for a single payer system. Canada isn't even that great of an example of a single payer system. But it sure beats what we have here.

Yeah, there stopped being a good faith argument against single payer years ago imo. Obamacare was an astounding success and exceeded all expectations, and we're still where we are: the amount of time and money wasted on private insurance, its administration, and dealing with it on the consumer end is still astounding and millions go without coverage and into medical debt. Private health insurance is archaic and parasitic, and the sooner that we rip off the bandage and institute compulsory public coverage, the better.

 

[JonesBones]

You really think Bezos is pulling the strings here? You sound EXACTLY like Trump.

 

[Mcountry]

I do agree that big pharma is a yuge problem that needs to be addressed and am disappointed that Trump hasn't done more to tackle it.

That being said, Hillary is balls deep in big pharma so I don't think she was going to touch this either.

 

[JonesBones]

The ruling elites are petrified of a Sanders presidency.

Keep resisting.

You're a conspiracy nut. Go vote Trump.

 

[Hollywood Jack]

Isn't this the damn newspaper that brought Nixon down too?

Season 5 of The Wire:
Oh, this dude fabricated his story about meeting a serial killer that turns out to be a fabrication from an alcoholic Irish homicide detective that has a serious obsessive streak? BAH, bury it and give the cocksucker a Pulitzer.

Yeah. That was a little before my time, but that's the best example of what they used to be. I was a daily reader during the mid-2000s and they were still an excellent paper then, although I would imagine they probably peaked around Watergate.

 

[Trotsky]

I used to read the Washington Post every day and thought it was the best newspaper in the country. It's sad to see what they've turned into since oligarch Jeff Bezos bought them.

Isn't this the damn newspaper that brought Nixon down too?

It's still very good and produces some of the best content in the country. You just have to take their editorial-style pieces with a grain of salt, particularly when they involve Bernie Sanders. Same with the New York Times, although NYT is generally higher quality analysis imo.

The publication that has most notably declined is The Wall Street Journal under (Fox News') Rupert Murdoch. Their reporting, analysis, and editorials are garbage now.

 

[Gregolian]

Yeah. That was a little before my time, but that's the best example of what they used to be. I was a daily reader during the mid-2000s and they were still an excellent paper then, although I would imagine they probably peaked around Watergate.

 

[Hollywood Jack]

I do agree that big pharma is a yuge problem that needs to be addressed and am disappointed that Trump hasn't done more to tackle it.

That being said, Hillary is balls deep in big pharma so I don't think she was going to touch this either.

Hillary was a horrible candidate. Biden would also be a horrible candidate. Sanders or Warren would be much better. I hope Bernie beats her out, but it definitely looks like one of them will be the nominee...

 

[HockeyBjj]

Oh, so now leftists can say fact checkers can be biased and not applying rules fairly?

2016 we were told that made us conspiracy theorists

 

[Mcountry]

Hillary was a horrible candidate. Biden would also be a horrible candidate. Sanders or Warren would be much better. I hope Bernie beats her out, but it definitely looks like one of them will be the nominee...

If Warren goes up against Trump he wins. I could see Bernie beating him, but not Warren.

You are going to be hard pressed finding any political candidate that will challenge big pharma. They just have too much money gripping the system.

And the DNC wields too much power to filter out any fringe candidates before they even get to the finals.

 

[JonesBones]

Oh, so now leftists can say fact checkers can be biased and not applying rules fairly?

2016 we were told that made us conspiracy theorists

They have turned into conspiracy theorists. Most already were. They are using the same exact language Trump does. The Washington Post called Bernie a conspiracy theorist. His followers clearly are. @Trotsky was just chiding another Bernie bro in a thread about this the other day, now he is agreement with the conspiracy with the same guy he was arguing against. lol.

 

[Trotsky]

Oh, so now leftists can say fact checkers can be biased and not applying rules fairly?

2016 we were told that made us conspiracy theorists

...except conservatives were consistently unable to substantiate or basically explain their claims, and, with Trump's lead, just started railing against the facts themselves. The burden is still on the person claiming bias or misinformation. You'll notice that Jackie Blue isn't citing a report of Sanders doing something bad and then saying it's fake news just because it reflects poorly on Sanders.

 

[JonesBones]

I used to read the Washington Post every day and thought it was the best newspaper in the country. It's sad to see what they've turned into since oligarch Jeff Bezos bought them.

You realize that Bernie even reeled back "Bezos is behind it" because he realized how stupid it was. Yet here you are...