What's a healthcare article without a touch of Levitty?

It is a fact universally acknowledged among healthcare reporters that there are two ways to structure an article.

The first is to give Kaiser's Larry Levitt the lead quote to articulate or validate an asserted trend.

The second is to use other authorities to assert said trend -- and deploy Levitt about two-thirds down to inject a note of skepticism or a reality check. Today offers a perfect specimen of plan b: Gaming Obamacare, by Politico's Paul Demko.  The thesis is brought to you by the nation's insurers:

Obamacare customers are gaming the system, buying coverage only after they find out they’re ill and need expensive care — a trend insurers warn is destabilizing the fledgling health law marketplaces and spiking premiums for everyone.

700 words in, we're well prepped for the Levitt Reality Check:

Will the ACA reduce the disability rolls?

Two years ago, I was riveted by TNR reporter Alec MacGillis' chat with a woman on line for a free REM medical clinic in rural Tennessee. Notwithstanding that she knew nothing about the ACA, she offered a stunning instant analysis, once the basics were described to her, of one likely economic effect:

..it it was hard to find visitors to the clinic who would not benefit directly from the law. Barbara Hickey, 54, is a diabetic who lost her insurance five years ago when her husband was injured at his job making fiberglass pipes. She gets discounted diabetic medication from a charity, but came to the clinic to ask a doctor about blood in her urine.

Under the law, she would qualify for Medicaid. Her eyebrows shot up as the law was described to her. "If they put that law into effect, a lot of people won't need disability," she said. "A lot of people go onto disability because they can't afford health insurance."

Lo, Ms. Hickey was a prophet (perhaps). In Arkansas, which has sliced its uninsured rate almost in half since ACA enactment, mainly by enrolling nearly 200,000 Arkansans in the state's "private option" Medicaid alternative, disability claims seem to be dropping.* Modern Healthcare's Paul Demko reports:**