Health care industry wins another week's news cycle

CURRENT EVENTS

It was big news. It was really big news. Details were scarce and the source was anonymous, but it was Sunday and things were likely slow. Besides, that hadn't held them back before. So the Washington Post put it on Monday's front page: "Health groups offer $2 trillion in cost savings." They even matched it with an analysis piece that showed some admirable skepticism--just not about the leak itself.

If you picked up the paper the next day, Tuesday, you might have been excused for double checking the nameplate. It was a different paper. The doubts in a piece on Obama's full-throated endorsement of the pledge first sounded in a subhead ("Despite Fanfare, Experts Say Plan Lacks Key Details"), was echoed in the lede ("the industry's promises fell well short of the White House's expansive claims") and reached full pitch by the nut graf ("Many offered a cautionary note that warm words from the industry cannot be mistaken for enforceable policy changes"). And don't missthis gleeful quote: " 'An unrivaled set of abstractions and posturing,' said Alan Sager, a professor of health policy and management at Boston University."

Not content with a merely factual skewering, the editorial board also delivered the paper's opinion (half of which consisted of rehashing their reporters' criticisms without the qualifiers). But it wasn't until Friday that the whole mix-up confronted head on--in a completely different paper. The New York Times laid it out plain and simple:

Hospitals and insurance companies said Thursday that President Obama had substantially overstated their promise earlier this week to reduce the growth of health spending.

The article goes on to detail, point by point, how there are no points on which Obama's perceptions and the health care industry's intentions coincide. Plus, we see a little inside hardball:

Nancy-Ann DeParle, director of the White House Office of Health Reform, said “the president misspoke” on Monday and again on Wednesday when he described the industry’s commitment in similar terms. After providing that account, Ms. DeParle called back about an hour later on Thursday and said: “I don’t think the president misspoke. His remarks correctly and accurately described the industry’s commitment.”

Is the administration still trying to spin this into life? Or is the message just confused? And should a reporter just throw this into a story without noting that it flatly contradicts the actual state of affairs?

But let's step back. On Monday, as everyone ends their weekend and gets back to reading the newspapers (those few that still do), there was a big anonymous announcement that the health care industry is going to take one on the chin for the good of everyone. But by Friday it is revealed that the administration is only hearing what it wants too. Awfully convenient that it took the health care industry until the week's deadest news day to step up and say, 'Actually, you've got that all wrong.' Ugh.