Swiftboaters Are Back, This Time To Block Healthcare Reform
A BUZZFLASH NEWS ANALYSIS
by Christine Bowman
As the standard joke goes, we have some good news, and some bad news. The good news is that healthcare "industry leaders" told President Obama today they can find ways to slow the growth of healthcare costs by 1.5% or $2 trillion over 10 years. They're ready to embrace "voluntary" controls:
The president met with representatives of leading health industry groups, including hospitals, drug makers and doctors, who have agreed to slow the explosive growth of healthcare spending over the coming decade.
They have embraced several cost-saving strategies already being promoted by Washington policymakers, such as simplifying billing, restructuring the way hospitals are paid and improving information technology. Details on how the $2 trillion could be saved, however, are lacking in a letter they provided to the White House.
(LA Times)
The bad news is, "industry leaders" also have launched an ad campaign designed to torpedo comprehensive reform by turning public opinion against it. These ads have been paid for by healthcare industrialist Rick Scott and his misnamed group, "Conservatives for Patients' Rights." Which patient rights are they offering to protect exactly? The right to remain uninsured? The right to go bankrupt and lose their homes due to inflated, unpayable hospital bills?
The Washington Post describes Scott as "a multimillionaire investor and controversial former hospital chief executive" who was ousted as head of Columbia/HCA in the '90s -- a company that eventually had to pay $1.7 billion in fines for having overbilled the federal government and states for services it provided to sick and vulnerable Americans. Scott also was a George W. Bush partner in owning the Texas Rangers baseball team. The Post quotes Scott as uttering the conservative talking point that "free-market principles will solve our health-care problems."
Nice try. "Free-market principles ..." Is that the same as "voluntary" measures? Or does "free-market principles' refer to the bilking that Scott's company engaged in until brought to trial?
Now Scott has hired the same public relations firm that mounted the swiftboating campaign against John Kerry in 2004. More on that from The Washington Post:
The campaign is being coordinated by CRC Public Relations, the group that masterminded the "Swift boat" attacks against 2004 Democratic presidential candidate John F. Kerry, and is inspired by the "Harry and Louise" ads that helped torpedo health-care reform during the Clinton administration.
So we have a 2009 re-run in which a clique of wealthy conservatives is paying to put their manipulative, anti-democratic, anti-citizen message out on tv. They are dressing up their self-interested ads in the guise of good-old American free markets.
"Free" just sounds so good to American ears. But the reality of unregulated "free-market" healthcare could be about as charming as "free-market" air pollution or "free-market" banking monopolies or "free-market" nuclear weapons. And about as truthful as painting John Kerry as a feckless traitor.
The National Coalition on Health Care released this statement (excerpted):
We are very cautious about the particulars of the voluntary effort that groups proposed to the White House today. Most of the measures that they cited would help to make the healthcare system more efficient over time, but, as the Congressional Budget Office has indicated, should not be counted on to produce substantial savings soon.
Moreover, voluntary efforts -- without legislated requirements and enforcement -- have not worked well in the past.
Right-wing hero Ronald Reagan got it right when he embraced the concept of "trust, but verify." As our government attempts to craft a better healthcare approach, it's just fine to trust healthcare providers -- if they also legislate and advocate for citizen-taxpayers, not just for the industry.
Meanwhile, political messaging guru Frank Luntz has crafted a handy 28-page strategy guidebook for GOP lawmakers advising them to block healthcare reform not by opposing "reform," but by raising the specter of "Washington bureaucrats" getting in between healthcare consumers and their doctors. Ah, the irony.
Is the "Party of No" really going to force true healthcare reformers to drag out the list of Washington legislators who voted to intervene in Terri Schiavo's case?
"Free." "Voluntary." "I believe that free-market principles will solve our health-care problems." All high sounding words.
Beware the messengers, Americans. These guys also believe that a sucker is born every minute. They hope you are that sucker, just soaking up their extreme right-wing infomercial propagandized message.
A BUZZFLASH NEWS ANALYSIS
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