Public Option Enemy No. 1

By GottaLaff

Here we go again... Now they're SwiftBoating health care reform:

The ads are the product of a multimillion-dollar ad campaign designed to derail health care reform—especially what's been dubbed the "public option," which would set up a government-run plan to compete with private insurers. The man behind this ad blitz is the person who might be Public Option Enemy No. 1: one-time hospital executive and longtime Republican donor Richard Scott.

Back in March, Scott spent $5 million of his own money to set up a nonprofit called Conservatives for Patients' Rights. The group aims to be the command center for the right's fight against Democratic reform efforts. With the major interest groups—including hospital companies, pharmaceutical companies, and doctors—that have opposed reform in the past holding their fire this year in order to have a seat at the legislative table, Scott's group has filled the anti-reform void. [...]

Scott isn't foolish enough to say he opposes reform outright. Instead, his group says it wants to promote health care reform that focuses on "choice" (of doctors), "competition" (between private insurers), "accountability" (standardized insurance claim forms and tax reform), and "personal responsibility" (of patients). [...]

"What Rick Scott is doing is talking about protecting the status quo, which is bankrupting businesses and bankrupting families," says Peter Harbage, a fellow at the Center for American Progress, which supports the public option. [...]

Rep. Jerry Nadler, a New York Democrat, was more blunt: "Rick Scott pushing health care reform is like Bernie Madoff attempting to regulate the financial industry," he told Mother Jones.

Scott certainly is an odd spokesman for the right's health care agenda. The giant hospital company Scott led in the 1980s and 1990s, Columbia/HCA, was the subject of a seven-year federal investigation. The probe concluded with the company pleading guilty to 14 felony counts of criminal misconduct and paying $1.7 billion to settle civil charges relating to overbilling of state and federal governments—the largest settlement of its kind in American history. Scott, claiming ignorance of what was going on, was booted by his own board in 1997 and received a $10 million golden parachute with $300 million in stock options for his troubles.

So typically Rushpublic. Incompetent, unethical, unscrupulous... unbelievable.

Stephen Meagher, a lawyer who handled some of the first suits against HCA:

"He says, 'I was never accused of any wrongdoing,' which is technically correct—but his company was accused of tremendous wrongdoing," Meagher says. "He claims vast experience" in the health care field "but no knowledge of his own company."

And true to form, these tactics are having an effect:

Eric Burns, the president of liberal media watchdog Media Matters for America, says Scott's advocacy is having an impact. "Scott is spending an enormous amount of money to influence the debate over health care reform. He's essentially cornered the market on providing false and misleading information on the health care reform debate." [...] And it is not just Media Matters that has criticized the ads—the Annenberg Center's FactCheck.org also found the group's ad "very misleading."

To disseminate its message, CPR has hired the same public relations company that handled the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth. [...] But Burns says CPR's ties to CRC are no coincidence. "CPR is essentially the conservative Swift Boat operation for the health care reform debate," Burns says.

The media have certainly aided Scott's efforts to dodge his history and his conflicts of interest. CNN and Fox News, among others, have interviewed Scott without questioning him about HCA or his new company's dependence on the uninsured. [...]

It's all about protecting the health care industry's bottom line, says Nadler. "Scott and his ilk are dead wrong in their opposition to the public option and are particularly suspect in their motivations. The health care industry doesn't see kids with colds; they see dollar signs."

Scott may be fighting a losing battle. Most polls show that the public option is very popular, and this week Sen. Harry Reid, the majority leader, encouraged Sen. Max Baucus to stop seeking GOP votes on the health care legislation he's writing and move forward with a bill with a public option.

Keep calling and writing your representatives. We can't afford to lose this one.

Apparently, the Rushpublics have replaced their favorite little ditty, "Drill Baby Drill". Now, when it comes to Health care, the new refrain is "Die Baby Die".