AARP and AMA Endorse House Health Reform Bill (and pharma-supported writer offers a critical "news" story on it)

The AARP has endorsed the House Health Reform Bill (labeled by some political spinners as the "Pelosi" bill).

What does this mean? It means some very smart analysts have carefully looked over the House version of reform legislation and decided it is good from the point of view of on seniors on Medicare (and acceptable for their kids and grand kids).

AARP Vice President Nancy A LeaMond said the House Democrat's measure met the organization's top goals for reform, including strengthening Medicare. The AMA also endorsed the bill.

Update: already (and it makes sense since the House version of reform reduces profits slightly for drug makers via allowing Medicare to negotiate prices), the backlash begins. To counter the spin from the pharma-supported writer of this "news" story, let me point out the corrupt current law that Medicare cannot negotiate drug prices (did you know that?), that it's reported that so-called Medicare Advantage programs pay only about half of their federal subsidies out as health care benefits (the other half of the Medicare Advantage subsidies to private insurers are kept by those insurers to line their pockets), that the AARP working to review and coordinate supplemental health insurance policies (Medigap) is a great idea and highly beneficial to its members, and finally point out that the AARP board members receive no compensation. But did you expect this instance of backlash to appear in a "news" section of the Tribune, to be on the Tribune news service? Consider the byline at the bottom of the story, and reader comments.


How close are we to the day when you can only get the straight story from certain writers, and cannot rely consistently on your local newspaper to be honest?

We are already there.

Meanwhile, the fringe is becoming more and more disassociated from reality. This makes sense since health care reform is the ultimate social issue.