Back when I worked with a major Northeastern health insurance provider, I observed that the health system in the U.S. is designed to make the insurers wear the "kick-me" sign. Congress, regulators, doctors, patients, hospitals, etc., never have any incentive to say "no" to any request, no matter how outlandish. They've set the system up so all of the tough decisions are left with the insurers. Of course, in return the insurers get 30% margins, so it's not exactly a hard-luck story but you did start every media interaction on the back foot.
The New York Times' Kevin Sack today indulges in a kind of reporting conservative pundit Jonah Goldberg called, "Conservatives in the Mist," in which reporters set out to study a foreign body (Goldberg was referring to young Republicans) and find, gosh, they are real people just like you and me!
Sack's article is about how workers at insurance companies deal with being the villain of every article about health care reform and has all the same tropes.
The article is a round-up of quotes from mid-level health insurance workers and the trauma they face daily for doing their jobs.
It comes across as sympathetic but only if you buy into the premise that the criticism was warranted in the first place. News-wise, it's suspect. This story is about as close to a beat-sweetener as you're likely to see on this topic as it doesn't tell you anything substantial about the health care debate. I start from the position that employees at any company have hobbies and families - why devote news space to that?
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