'Good Morning America' Thinks You’re Not Smart Enough to Buy Health Insurance

September 9th, 2008 5:51 PM

ABC's "Good Morning America" isn't afraid to call 'em like they see 'em.

On health care, Chris Cuomo set up his resident health expert to deliver an outright insult to the American people. Republican Sen. John McCain (Ariz.) advocates more patient choice and flexibility in buying health insurance, but ABC’s medical editor, Dr. Tim Johnson, scoffed at that notion in a September 5 story.

“The idea that individuals are going to have enough knowledge and enough savvy and enough insight and, frankly, enough guts to make choices all by themselves is pretty much a pipe dream,” Johnson said.

ABC’s Web site touts Johnson as “one of the nation's leading medical communicators of health care information.”
Cuomo also misled viewers about McCain's plan for tax credits, yet his coverage of Obama's plan wasn't very illuminating, either.

But Cuomo showed he, like Johnson, is worried about people making decisions: “Is there a risk in putting the Joneses in control of their own health care?”

Amy Menefee is director of communications for the Galen Institute