[gdpawel]

According to the Columbia Jouranlism Review, there was a virtual press conference where health care experts were to discuss the ramifications of a public plan. The real purpose, by CMPI Advance, a newly-formed advocacy offshoot of the Center for Medicine in the Public Interest (CMPI Advance), was to introduce the new Hands Off MY Health campaign aimed at spotlighting the risks of government-run health care. The moderator Robert Goldberg, explained that the campaign consisted of a “labyrinth of sites” which examine single-payer systems around the world and give some thoughts on what a public plan can and cannot do.

APCO Worldwide is a super influential PR consulting firm that specializes in grassroots organizing, coalition building, and using political campaign tactics to create an environment that supports their clients’ legislative and regulatory goals. A 1995 APCO Associates pamphlet entitled “Political Support Services” says that “APCO applies tactics usually reserved for political campaigns to target audiences and recruit third-party advocates.”

The Center advocates a free-market approach to health care, especially when it comes to drugs and medical devices. In 2006, according to Politico, its biggest contributors were Pfizer and Pharma. Sourcewatch says its advisory board includes such right-wing think tank luminaries as Sam Kazman of the Competitive Enterprise Institute, Dr. Merrill Mathews from the Council for Affordable Health Insurance, and Grace Marie Turner, president of the Galen Institute.

Could insurance company and Big Pharma fingerprints be found on the Hands Off My Health campaign, whose goal seems to be stopping a public plan? According to Sourcewatch, APCO’s clients have included Novartis Pharmaceuticals, Pfizer, Roche, and Pharma. And after all, insurers and drug companies are not exactly friends of a public plan option.

And is CMPI Advance the kind of third-party outfit APCO says it specializes in recruiting—a surrogate for insurers and drug companies to spread their messages far and wide throughout the conservative and mainstream media?

Dr. Gary Puckrein, president of the National Minority Quality Health Forum, said “we have tremendous reservations about government plans,” and Dr. Val Jones, founder and CEO of Better Health Network, said that a public plan would force physicians to treat people as codes, not patients. (Presumably she meant the medical billing codes that doctors use.) Their comments mirrored the tone of the content found on the campaign’s labyrinthine Web sites, which—sleekly designed, supplying tons of information in short, digestible bites—have clearly been done by a pro.

The sites are awash with stuff that raises doubts about a public plan and the possiblity of stifling medical innovation, such as op-eds by Goldberg from outlets like the American Spectator and the Detroit News. There are quotes disparaging or questioning such a plan from academics like Princeton economics professor Uwe Reinhardt, elected officials like Sen. Joe Lieberman and Michael Enzi, and editorial boards of newspapers like The Washington Post and the Chicago Tribune. There are links to articles by people like Family Research Council senior fellow Ken Blackwell, who casts doubts about the actual number of uninsured folks in the country.

Page after page urges site visitors to join the fight against government-run health care by signing a petition telling politicians to do no harm to our health care system, and noting that the public plan is a poison pill for patients, doctors and the entire American health care system.

Doesn't smell good, does it?