Starting with a story by Washington Post economic policy reporter Jeff Stein, news in early December hit about a couple of Montana state legislators getting uncredited ghostwriting help from a lobbyist in writing “health care” op-eds. Stein’s story, and other copycats, provided links to the incriminating items, both the usual coma-inducing lobbyist mumbo-jumbo. Ghostwritten? What isn’t these days?
The Post’s story hook was the lobbyists work for Partnership for America’s Health Care Future, a two-year-old “multimillion-dollar industry group.” That, PAHCF certainly is – a conglomeration of Big Pharma, Big Hospital and Big Insurance, all of whom stand to “lose” their yummy slice of the $3.6 trillion-a-year health-care profits pig if “Medicare for All” ever happens (and I think it shouldn’t, by the way). Blue Cross/Blue Shield belongs to the partnership. And they have multimillions – Open Secrets reported this past May that PAHCF blew through $143 million lobbying against single-payer in 2018.
Gasp! Shudder!
Now, reporter Stein’s scoop is based on e-mails “obtained” by the Post. But buried in Stein’s story is an admission he didn’t obtain this dirt himself, but got it delivered on a silver platter by PAHCF’s blood enemy. Source “documents were provided to the Post by the nonprofit advocacy group Medicare for All Now (MFAN), which supports the single-payer system. The group obtained the documents through Freedom of Information Act requests.”
Does that count as ghostwriting, too?
The question Mr. Stein didn’t ask, but should have: What the heck is this “advocacy group,” who the heck funds and runs it, and why? Did anyone else bother? Oh, heck no. Associated Press’ “national” version of Stein’s story blandly parroted “advocacy group” and nothing else, as its descriptor for MFAN.
So, what’s up, really? Plenty. “Medicare for All Now” seems to be primarily a slogan. I couldn’t find a website for this “group” on Google down through 15 pages, strange considering how many groups are websites and little else, say staff people who play the Freedom of Information Act dirt-digging game.
But I found some other clues, like a short Daily Kos listing of MFAN members, all far-left. One example was the Center for Popular Democracy (which includes some chapters of the old ACORN) which saw its budget jump from $12 to $35 million after Donald Trump took office and #theResistance began. That qualifies as multi-millions, right? Also on board is the Strong Economy for All Coalition (New York state “labor and community” groups).
Then there’s MFAN placards photographed at multiple rallies, with National Nurses United stamped in the corner. NNU is 150,000 members strong, and has already endorsed Bernie Sanders for president in 2020.
I also found a “MFAN” sign-this-petition web page hosted by Public Citizen (also on the Kos list). Public Citizen is a legacy of Ralph Nader. The site is “shared by Public Citizen, Inc., (501c4) and Public Citizen Foundation (501c3),” and provides a helpful link about the “distinction between these two components of Public Citizen.”
In short, one lobbies and is political, while the other does research [say, FOIA requests], public education [through the nice Post reporter] and litigation [suing when lobbying Congress doesn’t work]. Both have the same mission, headquarters, and boss, who puts in 10 hours a week at Inc., and 30 hours at the Foundation for a measly $231,000 a year. The Foundation took in $21 million in anonymous tax-deductible donations last year (2017), up massively from an average of $10 million for each of 2013 through 2016 (more of that Resistance stuff, I guess). Inc. pulled down 4.3 million in 2017, 2.8 million of that raised from direct mail. More multimillions.
Bottom line? Right or left, both sides in the single-payer health care war are dumping millions into whatever narrative preserves or improves the position of THEIR constituencies, all of whom stand to gain or lose in terms of profits, wages, or benefits.
But no matter who “wins,” the ghostwriters of neither side will ever admit their shared goal, of making absolutely certain that you, yes, you yourself, will be the bozo who keeps right on paying way too much for health care.
So, Merry Christmas! Yes, I actually wrote that myself. Honest!