Laugh Riot of the Day — Crooks and Liars: 'Insurers and Employers, Not Government, Limiting Choice of Doctors'

I'm having a hard time even believing that Crooks and Liars would publish something this stupid.

Seriously.

"Insurers and Employers, Not Government, Limiting Choice of Doctors."

RTWT.

Particularly hilarious is the assumption that "government" has absolutely no influence on whether "insurers and employers" limit "choice of doctors." Or another way to put it: The government's here to help.

Right.

Crooks and Liars is upset with William Jacobson's post, "Moral of the Obamacare Story: Taxes In, Doctors Out." Quoting the New York Times:

As the Obama administration begins to enact the new national health care law, the country’s biggest insurers are promoting affordable plans with reduced premiums that require participants to use a narrower selection of doctors or hospitals.

The plans, being tested in places like San Diego, New York and Chicago, are likely to appeal especially to small businesses that already provide insurance to their employees, but are concerned about the ever-spiraling cost of coverage.
But large employers, as well, are starting to show some interest, and insurers and consultants expect that, over time, businesses of all sizes will gravitate toward these plans in an effort to cut costs.

The tradeoff, they say, is that more Americans will be asked to pay higher prices for the privilege of choosing or keeping their own doctors if they are outside the new networks.

That could come as a surprise to many who remember the repeated assurances from President Obama and other officials that consumers would retain a variety of health-care choices.

And while it's true that of course insurers and employers "limit" coverage, it's the government's "mandate" that's making them do so --- at an increasingly accelerated rate since the ObamaCare monstrosity passed.

It's bad law. Crooks and Liars is reduced to near-senility in trying to defend it.

OTHER SOURCES: "Side Effects: Like Your HSA? Enjoy it While You Can." Also, "Side Effects: Obamacare Shifts Costs to the Privately Insured."

RELATED: At Astute Bloggers, "ROMNEYCARE/OBAMACARE: DRIVING BUSINESSES OUT OF THE HEALTH INSURANCE ARENA AND FOSTERING SOCIALISM." And Robert Samuelson, "An Ugly Preview of ObamaCare."