Face the State headline provided false summary of Rocky story on health care legislation

Summary: Repeating its frequent past practice of providing misleading headlines for aggregated news reports, the "news" website Face the State linked to a Rocky Mountain News article about Gov. Bill Ritter signing 11 health care bills and falsely suggested that it reported concerns over the cost of the measures. The article, which summarized some of the new laws, did not raise the issue of their cost.

On June 4 the "news" website Face the State linked to a Rocky Mountain News article of the same day with a headline suggesting that the article had brought up the cost of 11 health care reform bills that Democratic Gov. Bill Ritter signed into law on June 3. In fact, the article, headlined "Ritter signs 11 'building blocks' of health agenda," summarized the substance of some of the new laws, but did not report any estimates regarding their cost.

From the "Latest Headlines" section of the June 4 Face the State home page:

Ritter signs 11 health care bills into law, but at what cost? RMN

From the June 4 Rocky Mountain News article by Jean Torkelson, "Ritter signs 11 'building blocks' of health agenda":

Gov. Bill Ritter hammered the first "building blocks" of his health care reform plan into place Tuesday, signing 11 bills into law, including an extension of benefits to thousands more uninsured children.

"We passed 100 percent of what we set out to do," Ritter told an approving crowd of about 100 health professionals and legislators at Children's Hospital in Aurora.

Applause and whoops erupted over the signing of a law that makes 50,000 more uninsured children eligible for federal Medicaid benefits and for the state plan, Colorado Child Health Care Plan Plus, known as CHP+.

The law expands the eligibility rules to include kids in families with incomes that are 225 percent above the federal poverty level. The old cutoff was incomes at 205 percent above the poverty line. The law also provides for more mental health benefits for children.

Companion legislation simplifies the application process to get on Medicaid and CHP+.

Among the other new laws:

* Insurance companies will be required to cover hearing aids for children from birth to age 18.

* Colorado will create a collection system for umbilical cord blood, the first of its kind in the nation. The Adult Stem Cell Cure Fund will be financed by gifts, grants, donations and revenue from a voluntary income tax checkoff.

* Children with special needs or birth defects will have access to expanded services through the state health department. The law will increase health department staff to handle the growing databases and screening of at-risk children.

* People with health insurance will be issued electronic cards by their providers containing all their current insurance information.

Face the State's use of a misleading headline to link to an article from another news source continues a frequent practice that Colorado Media Matters repeatedly has documented.

Face the State describes itself as "the 'go-to' news resource for Coloradans interested in state and local politics." The website's founder and managing editor, conservative political activist Brad Jones, defended Face the State's journalistic practices in a February 6 News guest editorial and in an article published in the February 7 issue of the weekly Westword, which stated that "Jones resents the insinuation that he'd sacrifice accuracy and journalistic credibility if given the chance to spatter political opponents."

—E.B.