June 17, 2011 2:21PM 

# That’s Not Healthy: ‘They Said What?’ Edition 

By [Michael F. Cannon](https://www.cato.org/people/michael-f-cannon) 

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Some quick hits from today’s health care news:

- As [I predicted](http://www.kaiserhealthnews.org/Columns/2011/June/060311cannon.aspx), the physicians lobby [balks](http://www.ama-assn.org/amednews/2011/06/13/gvl10613.htm) at [ObamaCare](www.cato.org/bad-medicine)’s accountable care organization (ACOs) program, saying, obliquely: “Give us more money.”
- GOP presidential candidate Tim Pawlenty left AHIP members and some reporters [confused](http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0611/57166.html) about how a person can support ACOs but still want to repeal ObamaCare. He and they should have read [my column on ACOs](http://www.kaiserhealthnews.org/Columns/2011/June/060311cannon.aspx).
- Pawlenty also endorsed a public option when he said his Medicare reform proposal would preserve Parts A, B, and D. He should have read my papers on [a public option](https://www.cato.org/pubs/pas/pa642.pdf) and [Medicare reform](downsizinggovernment.org/hhs/medicare-reforms) (with Chris Edwards).
- Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D‑WV) says he will fight “[to the end](http://www.kaiserhealthnews.org/Multimedia/2011/June/Rockefeller-on-Medicaid.aspx)” to keep low-income Americans dependent on [lousy government health care programs](https://www.cato.org/nejm-study-obamacares-main-coverage-vehicle-makes-kids-wait-for-care/).
- Turns out, potential GOP presidential candidate Jon Huntsman [has endorsed an individual mandate after all](http://www.kued.org/productions/healthcare/interviews/jonHuntsman.php): “I wouldn’t shy away from mandates. I think if you’re going to get it done and get it done right, \[a\] mandate has to be part of it…I’m not sure you get to the point of serious attempt without some sort of mandate.”
- Former Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle (D) [gushes](http://www.medpagetoday.com/Washington-Watch/Reform/27110) over ObamaCare’s rationing board.
- Ezra Klein [enlightens](http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/better-medicaid-coordination-would-cut-costs-help-the-most-seriously-ill/2011/06/16/AGPlU3XH_story.html) *Washington Post* readers by telling them Medicaid could save money someday if the government somehow became really, really smart. Klein, too, should read [my column on ACOs](http://www.kaiserhealthnews.org/Columns/2011/June/060311cannon.aspx).
- According to one mother of a diabetic child, Washington state’s [death panel](http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2015332329_htech16m.html) members “knew nothing about type 1 diabetes. And they’re making this huge, important decision that affects all these people. It was mind-boggling,” while a death-panel defender non-ironically laments, “That’s what’s been driving health care — the whiteness of the hair, the more bravado, the more clout you have in politics — that’s what’s making health care not healthy.”

##### Related Tags 

[General](https://www.cato.org/general), [Government and Politics](https://www.cato.org/government-politics), [Health Care](https://www.cato.org/health-care) 

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