Everyone has heard about the Bush administration's propensity to use public officials to advance its political agenda.
But it is quite another story to have this hit you in the face.
That occurred last week at America's Health Insurance Plans' Medicare & Medicaid conference when a host of administration officials used their appearances to promote the administration's agenda, terrified the attendees and mistakenly take total credit for the fact that the cost of the program is running "nearly $200 billion less than estimated."
The most blatant political pitch was by Julie Goon, special assistant to the president for economic policy.
In her ad-hoc comments, she warned her audience that Democrats in Congress have the Medicare Advantage program in their eyesight, which is true–but only to a limited extent.
But the way she handled it, including her statement that Sen. Hillary Clinton's new plan for universal healthcare would partly be financed through cuts to the Medicare Advantage program, left the clear impression to this observer that the only way her audience of people involved in the Medicare Advantage program can save it is to give campaign contributions and votes to Republican candidates.
Such is really not the case. Even such an advocate of revisions in the Medicare Advantage program as Rep. Pete Stark, D-Calif., chairman of the Health Subcommittee of the House Ways and Means Committee, has stated clearly he is not out to kill the program.
What Stark has said, as he noted at a March hearing, is that "America's Health Insurance Plans, Blue Cross Blue Shield and others have been falsely claiming that payment reductions will reduce health care access for lower- and moderate-income seniors–and decrying a goal they ascribe to me of wanting to get rid of the Medicare Advantage Plan."
