When is “3x” not “3x”?   ◆

The Huffington Post, in a story about the Trump Administration’s attempt to “tweak” Obamacare rules:

Insurers would have more leeway to vary prices by age, so that premiums for the oldest customers could be 3.49 times as large as those for younger customers. Today, premiums for the old can be only three times as high as premiums for the young, which is what the Affordable Care Act stipulates. According to sources privy to HHS discussions with insurers, officials would argue that since 3.49 “rounds down” to three, the change would still comply with the statute. 

“Rounds down to three?” Seriously?

If I’m currently paying $300 a month, and this fake math raises it to $349, I’m paying more money. That’s no longer “three times as high”, it’s “3.49 times as high”.

By that logic, 3.99 also “rounds down” to 3, if rounding to whole numbers.

This adminstration is hostile to all truth, even mathematical truth.