Howard Baker and Universal Coverage
Add former Senate Majority Leader Howard Baker (R-TN) to the Church of Universal Coverage faithful:
Health care reform and universal coverage is [sic] indeed something [sic] whose time has [sic] come.
Baker joined fellow former Senate Majority Leaders Tom Daschle (D-SD) and Bob Dole (R-KS) to introduce a health care reform package. Daschle is already a high priest in The Church. For backing this proposal, Dole probably is too, but I don’t have any juicy quotes handy.
The Beginning of the End of All that Comparative-Effectiveness Research
In “A Better Way to Generate and Use Comparative-Effectiveness Research,” I predicted that taxpayer-funded research on which medical treatments work best would ultimately be defunded at the behest of those who make a living providing the less-effective treatments. Because, well, that’s what always happens.
Well, it turns out those folks have gone and formed themselves a coalition and launched a media campaign to ensure that comparative-effectiveness research doesn’t put a dent in their incomes. According to the Associated Press:
People’s lives and plenty of money are at stake when it comes to determining which medical treatments work best.
So some prominent health industry and patient advocacy groups are trying to reframe the debate over how such decisions are made in order to ensure their interests are protected…
It’s a big concern for drug and biotech companies too since they could lose out if a treatment they’ve developed is found to be less effective than a competitor’s. But a drug company’s bottom line isn’t likely to draw as much public sympathy as a disabled person’s needs.
That makes [former Rep. Tony] Coelho a good face for the Partnership to Improve Patient Care, which formed as the issue began to surface last fall and is funded by groups including the Easter Seals, Friends of Cancer Research, the Alliance for Aging Research, the Advanced Medical Technology Association and the powerful pharmaceutical and biotech industry lobbies.
It also makes the Partnership to Improve Patient Care the very type of “patient-provider pincer movement” of which Tom Daschle wrote in his book.
Filed under: Cato Publications; Health, Welfare & Entitlements
The Audacity of Spin
Regarding Tom Daschle’s withdrawal from consideration to be the next secretary of Health & Human Services, a front-page story in this morning’s Washington Post pulls off one of the most ingenious feats of political spin I’ve ever seen:
But some observing the debacle wondered if the capital’s ways were changing. The story of how [Daschle] fell in with the monied elite and out with the popular mood involves a longtime Democratic financier, Leo Hindery Jr., and his keen interest in currying influence with powerful politicians. The outcome caught many in Washington off guard.
“I think it’s possible this is some sort of bridge between an old Washington and the new Washington,” David Arkush of Congress Watch said of the initial backing of Daschle and the sudden reversal.
So you see, Daschle’s withdrawal is actually a victory for President Obama! He’s changing Washington already! Brilliant!
Actually, the brilliance is Arkush’s for getting the Post to adopt his spin both in the article and the subtitle (”Some See Failed Nomination as Harbinger of Change“).
For the record, I hope Arkush is right. I hope Obama does something about the revolving door that lets people like Daschle write complicated laws and then make millions of dollars helping people navigate and alter them. Of course, as they say, the only way to reduce the amount of money in politics is to reduce the size of government.
Sometimes, the Tax Code’s Complexity Helps Preserve Freedom
Click here for other ironies of Tom Daschle’s ill-fated nomination to head the Department of Health & Human Services.
Cato on Facebook
Cato on Twitter
Cato on YouTube
Cato Tweets