Krugman Versus The NY Times (And The AP, And More)

In his Friday column Paul Krugman decides to bail out Hillary on her flawed health care story; his conclusion:

And if being a progressive means anything, it means believing that we need universal health care, so that terrible stories like those of Monique White, Trina Bachtel and the thousands of other Americans who die each year from lack of insurance become a thing of the past.

But wait - per the NY Times, Ms. Bachtel had health insurance:

But hospital administrators said Friday that Ms. Bachtel was under the care of an obstetrics practice affiliated with the hospital, that she was never refused treatment and that she was, in fact, insured.

Seems like the NY Times editors ought to pick one side of this and stick to it - did she have insurance or not?

Let's ask Clark Hoyt, the public editor, at "[email protected]" - either the story or Krugman's column needs a correction.  And the terrible stories of people who die from lack of insurance will never become a thing of the past if columnists persist in inventing them.

Let's offer Mr. Hoyt some help. The AP says Ms. Bachtel had insurance:

The AP then spoke with Bachtel's aunt, Susie Casto of Middleport, who helped raise the woman. She said Bachtel, who worked at a pizza parlor, did in fact have health insurance when she and her baby died.

The Columbus Dispatch tells us that Ms. Bachtel had insurance and was receiving regular care:

As it turns out, almost none of what Clinton said was accurate. Bachtel was insured through her job managing a pizza restaurant, she was under the regular care of an obstetrics facility in Athens, and she had been part of the O'Bleness Health System in Ohio.

... 

In 2005, she joined the O'Bleness Health System in Athens, according to Linda Weiss, a spokeswoman for O'Bleness. 

During her pregnancy in 2007, Bachtel was under the care of River Rose Obstetrics and Gynecology, which is part of the O'Bleness system and across the parking lot from O'Bleness' hospital in Athens. 

According to Jane Broecker, an obstetrician at River Rose, Bachtel made 14 visits between Feb. 8 and July 31. "She came regularly for appointments," Broecker said. 

In addition, records made available by O'Bleness show that Bachtel visited the hospital seven times in 2007 on an outpatient basis. Six of those visits took place on the same day she had been at River Rose. 

On Aug. 1, Bachtel was admitted to O'Bleness, where her baby boy was stillborn. Two days later, she was transferred to Riverside Hospital in Columbus and finally to Ohio State University Medical Center, where she died Aug. 15.

I can't imagine the Times letting this drift.  And while they are correcting the record, Paul Krugman incorrectly attributes a passage from the AP story to the Washington Post: 

After all the fuss, The Washington Post eventually conceded that “Bachtel’s medical tragedy began with circumstances very close to the essence” of Mrs. Clinton’s account.

Those are two inarguable errors, but more are noted in this earlier post.

Comments

[MayBee]

Well, over at Talk Left, Armando says you are wrong. Not because you are a righty, but because you are wrong.
He doesn't really go into why you are wrong.

[TMF]

I would surmise that very, very, very few people die due to "lack of health insurance".

If you get lung cancer from smoking, do you have the right to have the taxpayers pay for your chemo?

If you get heart disease from eating cheeseburgers for 50 years, should I pay for your quadruple bypass?

[bgates]

Huh. You know, that last quote really makes Hillary sound basically correct. And yet with two simple substitutions:

After all the fuss, The Washington Post eventually conceded that “Iraq's nuclear weapons program began with circumstances very close to the essence” of Mr. Bush’s account.

-it sounds like LIES from a LYING LIAR who tells LIES. I guess because it's more reasonable to expect someone to know details about the inner workings of a secretive police state on the other side of the planet than about a hospital in Ohio.

[meep]

And, of course, they don't want to hear the horror stories of people not being able to get proper healthcare during pregnancy due to socialized medicine (Canada, UK) or who can't even get proper emergency care (cf before).

It's not like we didn't notice the high-risk pregnancies of Canadians get treated in the U.S...... hmmm, wonder why.

[B Moe]

He doesn't really go into why you are wrong.

Apparently the 27 miles she had to drive to the clinic was important. I don't really understand why, since she drove about 25 miles or so to work everyday. Hillarycare will be a big boost for us in the construction industry, though, if everyone is going to be required to have hospitals within a couple miles of their homes.

[Chris]

It's actually irrelevant whether or not she was insured. If she was turned away because of unpaid bills, that's monstrous.

Also, many people who have insurance still can't afford medical care, the remaining copays and hidden fees are still beyond their budget.

TMF you should step out of your middle-class suburb for a bit and hear some health care stories.

[Neo]

Near the end she did have insurance, but earlier on she didn't.

[MayBee]

Chris: It's actually irrelevant whether or not she was insured. If she was turned away because of unpaid bills, that's monstrous.
She wasn't.

[B Moe]

TMF you should step out of your middle-class suburb for a bit...

She managed a Pizza Hut, she was middle class with a full benefits package and a 401k. Are you under the impression that with enough medical attention pregnancies never go bad, that mothers and babies never die? The Holzer Clinic she was "afraid" to go to in her home town couldn't have treated the complication, and Holzer Hospital was as far away as the one in Athens. However truthy you spin this story, it is still a lie. Why is it so hard for Hillary to come up with real examples, what I want to know.

[SteveMG]

If she was turned away because of unpaid bills, that's monstrous.

Well, you do add the "if" qualifier.

But here:
[H]ospital administrators said Friday that Ms. Bachtel was under the care of an obstetrics practice affiliated with the hospital, that she was never refused treatment and that she was, in fact, insured.

There may be (okay, there are) instances of Americans being turned away from basic or preventitive health care (not emergency) due to lack of insurance or financial problems.

But this doesn't appear to be one of them.

[Tom Maguire]

TMF you should step out of your middle-class suburb for a bit and hear some health care stories.

I am hearing stories. Would it be asking too much of a highly paid Times columnist to restrict himself to *true* stories?

Ad link-followers will note that I am not really bashing Hillary for a thematically defensible story, although with 27,000 deaths per year finding a true one ought to be doable.

[Jim Miller]

Tom - One more thought: Some times Krugman's columns are based on articles from a leftist magazine, or maybe even blog post.

Some times he gives credit; often he doesn't. And once or twice in the latter cases, I have been able to figure out, without much work, where he got the material. So, there may be a single source out there for all these mistakes.

(I don't read Krugman regularly, and stopped studying his columns years ago. Someone who pays more attention to him might have able to spot many more of the sources for his columns.)