Alas, ambivalence does not abate

Please, for the love of God, will intelligent people stop claiming that the Democratic health care plan calls for accelerating the death of the elderly and disabled. It doesn't. Obama doesn't. It's a stupid accusation. Enough is enough. The bill proposes to extend Medicare coverage for voluntary, patient-initiated counseling sessions with private physicians regarding options for end-of-life care. That's it. When these sessions aren't covered by insurance, only rich people take them, and for everyone else there are fewer living wills, and less ability for people to make their own choices. It's a nice thing to offer, and it has just as much a chance of helping people to prolong their lives as not. So, really, enough.

When this is the story, it crowds out the real reasons to object to Obama's plan, such as it is. Like, for example, this one. As Tim Noah lays out, evidently in exchange for the pharmaceutical industry's support for the plan and promise to contribute $80B in drug savings and increased coverage, the White House committed not to press Congress to include provisions that allow the government to negotiate better drug prices through Medicare. Estimates vary, but those provisions could have been worth between $150B and $300B over the next ten years. So the $80B offered by the drug companies was a joke - one we'll have no way to monitor or hold them accountable for anyway. Again, here, the industries set the terms, not the voters.

I said it as soon as I entered this fray...it's trivial to extend coverage to all Americans if you don't care about cost. I know the real target here isn't the drug companies, it's the insurance companies, and I kind of get that. But still - public option or no public option, the biggest purchaser of prescription drugs is always going to be the government, and we're not going to negotiate for the best prices? That's crazy town.

It's a good thing the bill ain't written yet - we'll see what September brings. There appears to be at least a tiny chance that Obama and the Congress are planning on walking this back (let the drug companies keep their lousy $80B which we might never see). Robert Reich has a decent article today on what Obama needs to do to bring this home. Step 1 (in no particular order) - marginalize the crazies. Step 2 - start whipping the wet noodles in his own party. Step 3 - get specific about what he wants and justify it to the public.

Or maybe he should just wait until his second term...