Reading Comprehension For The Win, Again

The Wingers are trying as hard as they can to discredit the AHCA health care bill, with this breathless screed from the hard right Investor's Business Daily:

When we first saw the paragraph Tuesday, just after the 1,018-page document was released, we thought we surely must be misreading it. So we sought help from the House Ways and Means Committee.

It turns out we were right: The provision would indeed outlaw individual private coverage. Under the Orwellian header of "Protecting The Choice To Keep Current Coverage," the "Limitation On New Enrollment" section of the bill clearly states:

"Except as provided in this paragraph, the individual health insurance issuer offering such coverage does not enroll any individual in such coverage if the first effective date of coverage is on or after the first day" of the year the legislation becomes law.

So we can all keep our coverage, just as promised — with, of course, exceptions: Those who currently have private individual coverage won't be able to change it. Nor will those who leave a company to work for themselves be free to buy individual plans from private carriers.

OMG FASCISM REARS ITS HEAD IN WASHINGTON AIRSPACE! The entire Winger community has declared jihad this morning on Congress! TO ARMS! TO AR...wait a minute. You mean there's another 1,000 pages of this bill to read? Luckily, Instadork has readers willing to look at them before, you know, jumping to idiotic conclusions.

UPDATE: Reader Patrick Ying disagrees:

Investor’s Business Daily did not continue to read the bill to page 19. “Individual health insurance coverage that is not grandfathered health insurance coverage under subsection (a) may only be offered on or after the first day of Y1 as an Exchange-participating health benefits plan. ” It does not outlaw individual private coverage – you can still buy the plan on the Exchange where they will compete with the public option, not be replaced by it. The advantage of the Exchange, is that the coverage no longer has one of the problems of individual coverage – skyrocketing premiums should you become ill.

Hmm. We should have more time for all this stuff to be sorted out. Instead they’re ramming it through as quickly as possible. That makes me suspicious.

So, we should be suspicious about the bill because people who haven't read the entire bill are warning that there's evil afoot in the bill...they themselves...haven't...read...

Morons. Seriously.

And of course, how many Wingers will go with this "Page 16" story and skip "Page 19"?

(Obama is a Muslim, you know. I heard it on the internet. It must be true.)