Today's Dispatch editorial, "Unaccountable", was an example of sell-out journalism at its' worst. It was a strictly one-sided attack on the ACA (ObamaCare), focusing on the Independent Payment Advisory Board (IPAB). While claiming "widespread" public opposition to health care reform, the Dispatch editors work themselves into a tizzy about the IPAB and how it "won't answer to voters, Congress."
To back up their half-assed, we-hate-Obama points, they name-checked the Wall Street Journal, the Cato Institute, the National Review, Fox News Sunday, and U.S. Rep. John Fleming (R-LA), a "practicing physician". They even brought up Sarah Palin's "death panels". Wow! That's a regular right-wing rogues gallery -- and none exactly known for their objectivity. Hell, the Douchepatch should have just run Pat Boone's skeevy TV ad and been done with it. (See Buster's Archives, 11/30/11, "Lies, Damn Lies, & Political Ads -- Part II")
Congressman Fleming is the clueless idiot who swallowed whole a fake news story on Onion.Com about an $8 billion "abortionplex" in Kansas with saloons, restaurants, and movie theaters, then in total seriousness, righteously condemned the imaginary place on his Facebook page.
And while explaining how it was that he wasn't really a wealthy person, Fleming claimed, "The amount that I have to reinvest in my business and feed my family is more like $600,000 ... and so by the time I feed my family, I have maybe $400,000 left over ..."
Man, that's tough. Pardon me while I dry my my eyes. Such are the "experts" my local rag cites while trying to discredit health reform.
So I must, in my humble way, try to discredit their rampant bullshit with some truth:
As part of the ACA, the IPAB was created to help hold down wasteful Medicare costs. Its specific mission is to reduce the influence of special interests -- hospitals, doctors, big pharma -- on Medicare payment policies.
IPAB will begin in 2015. Its 15 board members are appointed -- not elected -- for 6 year terms. (This is the big bone of "unaccountable" contention for the right, but our elected Congress has been in charge of this swamp of graft for 45 years. A different approach is hardly a bad idea.) Appointees must be confirmed by the Senate.
If Medicare spending is projected to grow above target levels, the IPAB can make binding recommendations to reduce such spending. This is what the health care industry calls "rationing". The IPAB's recommendations can be amended by the Senate.
If Medicare costs don't reach mandatory-cut target levels, the IPAB will do . . . nothing. Last year, the CBO said that Medicare spending is unlikely to exceed target levels for at least a decade.
And bear in mind that any IPAB-recommended cuts, if implemented, would apply to providers, not those insured folks covered by Medicare.
So cut the crap, Dispatch!
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