A question that reporters must not forget to ask

Recently opponents of a public plan to compete with private insurers held rallies around the country. An article about one in Bradenton quoted a participant as saying she wanted to keep the government out of health care, mentioning that she had undergone a triple bypass operation. Maddeningly, the article didn't say who paid for her operation. Apparently the reporter didn't ask.

Unless the woman paid for her own operation, an unlikely event, it was probably covered either through an employer-sponsored plan or by Medicare. If the former, then she's among the privileged and the lucky; the reporter should have asked what she would propose to help others get coverage, too. 

If her operation was paid for by Medicare, the reporter should have challenged her hypocrisy.

Whichever it is, readers want and deserve to know what kind of health-insurance coverage individuals have when they express opinions about the health-reform debate. They also deserve to know the sources of money behind the groups working to pass or kill these proposals.

Reporters need to make such questions standard. The answers may be illuminating.

--Carol Gentry, Editor, can be reached at 727-410-3266 or this e-mail.