I loved the Adam Smith interview because it focused on actual policy as well as political strategy. He made it clear that he doesn't oppose a public plan. He is trying to make the public plan better.
He is doing exactly what he should be doing. Fighting for effective policy. When you pay for inputs, you get a lot of inputs. I wonder what he thinks of the plan the give MedPAC the ability to make changes to Medicare's payments?
At some point in the past couple of months the press, Democrats, and Republican's decided that the only thing we were going to talk about was going to be whether a public plan gets passed or not. If it does pass Democrats "win" and if it doesn't they "lose". Did I take a crazy pill because I don't think this is the single most important feature of health care reform? How about the creation of the health care "exchange" or the requirement that the plans listed on it don't deny coverage based on pre-existing conditions? These features aren't even being debated because apparently we're already won those debates.
Personally, I think there's something disingenuous going on there. Of course a public plan has problems that have to be worked out in the legislation. But he was hired to work out those problems. And with 70% of the people wanting a "public option", i.e., government-managed health care rather than insurance company-managed health care, we don't want him talking about the other options that he and his corporate sponsors appear to be so fond of. We want him to address the problems with the public option and get it done.
Yes, he's a very smart man. He "talks policy" very well. He can sound very diplomatic, balanced, and informed while screwing you. I'm not saying that's what he's doing even though a large portion of his contributions come from corporations that are adamantly opposed to what the public wants. But I smell something unappetizing in his words, and I want his assurance that he'll do his job by doing what The People want him to do.
