NY Post contradicts itself, misrepresents what Clinton said about proof of health insurance

A September 19 New York Post article on Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's (D-NY) proposed health-care plan bore the headline: "Hill Care-ried Away: Employees Must Prove Insurance" and reported that Clinton said "everyone eventually would have to prove they have health insurance when they apply for a job." But in the next sentence, Post correspondent Geoff Earle quoted Clinton saying that "she could envision a day when 'you have to show proof to your employer that you're insured as a part of the job interview,' " [emphasis added], not that workers will "have to prove they have health insurance."

The Post headline was similar to a September 18 headline on The Drudge Report, the website operated by Internet gossip Matt Drudge, which read: "HEALTH INSURANCE PROOF REQUIRED FOR WORK", as Media Matters for America documented.

From the September 19 New York Post article:

Hillary Rodham Clinton wants the nation's employers to help enforce her call for universal health insurance.

Clinton, who unveiled a sweeping $110 billion-a-year plan Monday to provide coverage to all Americans, says everyone eventually would have to prove they have health insurance when they apply for a job.

The former first lady said she could envision a day when "you have to show proof to your employer that you're insured as a part of the job interview - like when your kid goes to school and has to show proof of vaccination.

"At this point, we don't have anything punitive that we have proposed," she said.

She said the details of any plan would have to be worked out with Congress, and said there would be a "transition period," adding, "This is not going to happen immediately and be implemented immediately."

—S.S.M.