In defending Obamacare, an academic may be missing the obvious, like giving the law credit for what was already in place. “A lot of people may have noticed their flu shot was free this year, but might not have credited it to the Affordable Care Act, so I think a lot of the effects may have gotten unnoticed,” Tim Jost ^[1], a professor at Washington and Lee University, told Paige Winfield Cunningham ^[2] of The Washington Times.

Cunningham identifies Jost as “a specialist on the health care law.” He may indeed have read it backwards and forwards.

As well, things may be different in his part of Virginia—Fairfax County—than mine—Prince William County. Nevertheless, we have been getting free flu shots from CVS long before the Affordable Care Act was enacted, even prior to Barack Obama’s presidency.

Malcolm A. Kline is the Executive Director of Accuracy in Academia ^[3].

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