The Milwaukee Vukmir-Sentinel

Bruce Murphy had an interesting item last week about how Dave Riemer, one of the godfathers of Healthy Wisconsin, protested to the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel about its giving opponents of Healthy Wisconsin a weekly forum in the paper -- that'd be WMC Board Member and Sunday business columnist John Torninus -- with no rebuttal.

That may have been the reason the JS hosted a debate between the two -- a debate in which any neutral party would have declared Riemer the winner despite Torinus' posturings to the contrary -- and gave Riemer a column in Sunday's business section.

Then, proving the JS has a sick sense of humor, it gives rightwinger Leah Vukmir a prominent platform in the Crossroads section.

At a minimum, the JS should have run the columns side by side. If the JS really cared about its image, it would have run the Vukmir column on the comics, perhaps under "Zits." Because this column is straight out of the funny pages.

The column is an ideological screed, a pile of unsubstantiated assertions, starting with the headline, "Consumer control is the best course." The Brawler dearly hopes that the JS and other news outlets will consider placing the adjective "so-called" before the words "consumer driven health plans." The term gives the plans a connotation of being pro-consumer, when, in fact they're not.  "Caveat emptor health plans" -- guess wrong and you're screwed -- might be a better term.

Vuk prattles on about "an army of consumers with information and tools," provides a dubious history of health care, and talks about how the system is broken. She goes on to say how putting consumers in charge would be a "significant paradigm shift" as "consumerism" would foster competition, leading to better quality, lower costs and a pony.

"Consumers evaluate cost, quality and value in every segment of our economy -- except in health care -- because the consumer has never been in charge." Besides being punctuationally challenged, the sentence repeats the old GOP saw that health care is a market like anything else when, in fact, it's not.

She talks about the miracle of HSAs then goes on about how "consumers also must have access to relevant and objective cost and quality information about hospitals and doctors." She notes Wisconsin is a pioneer in "promoting health care transparency."

Yes, if you're going to have a consumer-driven system, you need transparency in prices. But that doesn't exist right now -- and the Assembly GOP isn't proposing anything to meaningfully change that. Weird!

She goes on to say that opponents falsely claim that consumer-driven health care is only for the healthy (Leah, you could've gotten some serious rhyming going if you had added "and HSAs for the wealthy" -- keep working on that flow!). She  denies it.

Her evidence? "At Marshfield Clinic and other places, focused, integrated health care teams are changing their approach to  comprehensive care for illnesses such as diabetes and heart disease -- significant cost drivers."

Well, if they're doing that at Marshfield Clinic "and other places," sign me up!

She then lurches to a big government is bad conclusion, including the objectively false claim that "Big government plans may temporarily address the issue of access, but they do nothing to control costs." She warns of a loss of personal freedom, though people can choose their doctors under Healthy WI. She -- fine, her staff -- offers a pithy throwaway line as conclusion and, mercifully, it ends.

Will it be all Vuk all the time in the JS on health care? The Brawler fears it may be. Leah -- fine, her staff -- has a blog in the Jsonline's backroom blog section. In Friday's installment, she demonized Healthy Wisconsin and also took shots at a fact-based critique of HSAs published by Citizen Action Wisconsin:

The document is riddled with falsehoods and myths with the clear intent of scaring those who might even consider options other than government control of health care. In future postings, I will dispel the myths and biases of the supposed "Seven Deadly Sins of HSAs."

Quite the cliffhanger! So far, she hasn't dispelled any of these "myths or biases." Presumably the WMC or WPRI or someone else is still working on that.

Does the JS believe publishing Leah Vukmir's propaganda on health care serves the public discussion on this important issue? Really believe it?

Comments

[vita]

HSA's are the biggest scam since the turn away from pensions towards "self-regulated" retirement accounts.

1) This country has one of the lowest savings rates in its history. We are a consumer "spend, spend, spend" nation. Few people have the extra money to place in tax sheltered HSA's for that moment when they most need them.

2) I look at my folks who have worked 40 years each. Now in retirement, my Dad works a job so they can afford to pay the monthly premiums until Medicare kicks in. NEITHER ONE will go to a Dr. though because the deductible is $3000.00! They cannot afford to pay 3 grand of anything.

3) The stock market's tumble has cost them thousands of their retirement. My Dad a once stern Democrat has been turned into a raving conservative. Why? Because as the the market goes so goes his future.

This is how HSA'a and 401k's are connected (in my mind) You get the masses to "belive" that they have control over their destiny. While in reality they have even less control than before. Now with your entire life wrapped up in tax sheltered market driven accounts one cannot afford to look at any other alternative because once again as the market goes so goes your future.

This is the hook. A very smart one I might add. Our futures are connected with the very corporations that demand we spend money with them so that the market will continue to improve so that our futures will be stable. There is no station for this train to stop at!

[Frogger]

Didn't Dave have a piece in the paper yesterday?

http://www.jsonline.com/story/index.aspx?id=645330

[Ben Masel]

Vukmir's "Consumer control" does not apply when the consumer, and physician, deem cannabis the appropriate treatment. She's vowed that any medical marijuana legislation won't get so much as a hearing while she chairs the Health Committee. Doc Hines has promised at least a hearing if the Speaker steers the bill, scheduled for introduction Sept. 18, to the Public Health Committee.