Choices czar
The 1,990-page health care bill unveiled by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, California Democrat, creates a new position that would give one government bureaucrat - the health care commissioner (HCC) - considerable control over how Americans get their health care.
If the bill passes, the HCC will lead a new Health Choices Administration that will function as an independent, executive-branch agency. According to the bill, the HCC will determine what “essential benefits” are in all qualified insurance plans, both private and public; administer “affordability” credits to help the low-income get insurance; and define marketing standards for all qualified plans. Most importantly, the HCC will create and operate the new Health Insurance Exchange, where individuals could shop for insurance plans, including a public-option plan. As a part of this, the HCC will obtain bids and negotiate contracts with private insurance plans available on the exchange.
The HCC, as written in the House bill, will be selected by the president and then confirmed by the Senate before assuming the position. Former Rep. Ernest Istook, Oklahoma Republican and current distinguished fellow at the Heritage Foundation, is calling the HCC envisioned in the bill a “czar.”
“This new, all-powerful ’health choices commissioner’ would be entrusted with more power than most superheroes,” Mr. Istook wrote on the Heritage Foundation blog “The Foundry.”
Studying it
Action is seldom taken in Washington before completing some kind of study, and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s health care bill is no different.
The bill authorizes dozens of studies to be carried out by various government agencies on everything from pharmaceutical marketing techniques to how Medicare should pay to provide limited-English speakers with special language services, to the way bone mass is measured.
Many of these studies will be done in order to make recommendations to Congress for more legislation. Several studies, for example, tell various government agencies to examine how the federal poverty level could be adjusted to reflect variations in the cost of living for Americans living in different parts of the country.
Not again
Matt Burns, former spokesman for Dede Scozzafava’s now-defunct campaign for Congress, said his old boss was wrong to endorse Democrat Bill Owens, in a conference call with conservative bloggers Sunday evening.
“That is not something I agreed with, henceforth, I’m participating on this call,” Mr. Burns said on a conference call that was arranged by the American Conservative Union political action committee.
“On Tuesday we only have one choice in selecting a candidate who will vote against Nancy Pelosi’s reckless agenda,” he said, speaking in favor of the Conservative Party candidate Doug Hoffman, whom Mr. Burns had campaigned against in the three-way race for New York’s 23rd Congressional District open seat.
Mrs. Scozzafava ended her candidacy on Saturday and threw her support to Mr. Owens, giving more fuel to conservative critics who said she was too liberal for the GOP.
Mr. Burns defended his reasons for working for the Scozzafava campaign, largely on grounds that “Republicans of all different stripes” were needed in order to regain the majority in Washington, but he indicated he wasn’t comfortable with the ire he received from conservative bloggers who called her a “RINO” (“Republican in Name Only”).
“That’s not necessarily a position I’d like to find myself in again,” he said.
Facebookin’ it
Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin has been awfully active on her Facebook account lately, posting several notes over the last week, using the social network to boost Republican candidates in the Tuesday elections and ramp up support for House Minority Leader John A. Boehner’s health care reform plans.
On Monday, she targeted Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr., her rival in the 2008 vice presidential race, with a post on energy reform. Mr. Biden said at an event for New York Democratic candidate Bill Owens that day that Mrs. Palin “thinks the answer to energy is ’drill, baby, drill,’ but it’s a lot more complicated, Sarah!”
Mrs. Palin responded on Facebook:
“Apparently the Obama-Biden administration only approves of offshore drilling in Brazil, where it will provide security and jobs for Brazilians. This election is about American security and American jobs.”
She then gave Mr. Owens’ Conservative Party opponent, Doug Hoffman, a shout-out by saying, “There’s one way to tell Vice President Biden that we’re tired of folks in Washington distorting our message and hampering our nation’s progress: Hoffman, Baby, Hoffman!”
Facebook has been Mrs. Palin’s preferred method of communication with the grass roots since she left her post as governor. She has nearly 960,000 followers on Facebook and has written 79 notes to date.
• Amanda Carpenter can be reached at acarpenter@ washingtontimes.com
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