Fox reported that a new survey found that a small number of previously uninsured people have enrolled for health coverage on the new Affordable Care Act (ACA) online exchanges, but failed to report the cause: that many people who have avoided enrolling because of cost concerns were misinformed about the costs. 

On the March 7 edition of Fox News' America's Newsroom, co-host Martha MacCallum hyped new information that she said shows “big problems with Obamacare.” MacCallum cited a March 6 McKinsey & Company survey to report that one in 10 previously uninsured individuals who qualify for ACA coverage have signed up through the exchanges.

This framing hides crucial elements of the survey, which highlighted misinformation about the ACA as a key reason that potential beneficiaries chose not to enroll. According to McKinsey, the “most common reason for not enrolling cited by both previously insured and previously uninsured respondents continues to be perceived affordability challenges, ”and for most of those respondents, that perception was based on insufficient information. From McKinsey:

Over 80 percent of the respondents who cited affordability as the reason for not enrolling are eligible for subsidies; 66 percent of these consumers were not aware of their subsidy eligibility status or subsidy amount.

Furthermore, the survey showed a positive trend in enrollment numbers, which have “continued to increase, particularly among the previously uninsured.” 

It's not surprising that Fox hid Mckinsey's findings about the negative impact that misinformation can have on Americans' willingness to enroll in ACA coverage, since the network has consistently worked to stoke fears about the costs of ACA coverage. Meanwhile, this is not the first time the network has shamelessly twisted or cherry-picked a McKinsey survey to baselessly smear Democratic policies.