Obama yet to challenge insurers for punking – another lie

A week after insurers and the American Hospital Association told the world, and President Barack Obama, they had NOT promised The One 1.5 percent per year in health costs savings, Obama has yet to comment further or challenge them.

Paul Krugman kindly reminds us of this and other recent healthcare-related limitations of post-partisanship.

Back during the Democratic primary campaign, Mr. Obama argued that the Clintons had failed in their 1993 attempt to reform health care because they had been insufficiently inclusive. He promised instead to gather all the stakeholders, including the insurance companies, around a “big table.” And that May 11 event was, of course, intended precisely to show this big-table strategy in action.

But what if interest groups showed up at the big table, then blocked reform? Back then, Mr. Obama assured voters that he would get tough: “If those insurance companies and drug companies start trying to run ads with Harry and Louise, I’ll run my own ads as president. I’ll get on television and say ‘Harry and Louise are lying.’ ”

We’ve yet to see one of those ads.

Meanwhile, Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Carolina is whipping out an ad campaign attacking a single-payer option (which Obama already seems to have abandoned anyway).

So, The One is going to eventually feed us some gussied-up neoliberal bullshit called “healthcare reform.”

Followed by some big campaign contributions, no doubt.

We’ll NEVER get real reform, let alone national coverage. Yesterday I and thousands of other bloggers noted how the American Hospital Association Pre

We’ll NEVER get real reform, let alone national coverage.

Yesterday I and thousands of other bloggers noted how the American Hospital Association President just punked Obama on Obama’s claims on how much in annual cost savings hospitals would provide under healthcare reform.

Well, it turns out there’s even more to the situation. White House staff “aren’t even sure whether or not Obama misspoke on the AHA’s original statement.

Nancy-Ann DeParle, director of the White House Office of Health Reform, said “the president misspoke” on Monday and again on Wednesday when he described the industry’s commitment in similar terms. After providing that account, Ms. DeParle called back about an hour later on Thursday and said: “I don’t think the president misspoke. His remarks correctly and accurately described the industry’s commitment.”

Here’s my guess.

DeParle spoked correctly the first time. But, Obama can’t admit he goofed this badly, first, and second, he still hopes he can browbeat the AHA. Alternative suggestion is he knew from the start he was misstating the AHA position and was determined to use this as a world-moving lever.

In either case, he had to tell DeParle she needed to go out and “respeak.” And she did.

In the first case, we have a president flying by the seat of his pants. Wunderbar.

In the second place, we have a president who thinks that, without the threat of legislation or regulation, he can beat down one of the top players in the medical-industrial complex. And I wouldn’t bet on that.

And, I haven’t even touched the issue of Obama’s Senate water-carrier, Max Baucus, ruling single-payer healthcare off the table.