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| A full-page ad from a magazine, showing a smiling doctor using a stethoscope on his patient; text reads "Anthem Blue Cross Free Annual Checkups" with further copy below explaining how "annual checkups help keep you healthy and that's why Anthem Blue Cross covers them at 'no extra cost to you'." |
Well, this is awkward. Because those free checkups that they're talking about like it's some kind of magnanimous caring gesture on their part to take care of their customers? It's actually a requirement, part of one of the more popular provisions in Obama's health insurance reform bill that requires insurance companies to cover preventative care with no copay or other upfront cost to the patient. And it's a requirement that the insurance companies, including Blue Cross, fought viciously against.
Which makes it more than a little duplicitous to, once it turns out to be very popular with the unwashed masses, run big ol' ads saying "HEY LOOK HOW NICE WE ARE TO COVER THIS PREVENTATIVE CARE FOR YOU please ignore the fact that we had to be dragged kicking and screaming into doing so".
But I suppose, in this era of Faux News and Tea Party absurdity, it's perfectly logical to attempt to reap public goodwill by pretending it was your idea all along. After all, depending on where people get their news, all they know about "Obamacare" is that it's for commies and something about death panels.
Of course, we all know the "liberal media" won't bother to call them out on it. And thus, the cycle of misinformation continues...
