FATS & McCAUGHEY & BIG PHARMA

Yesterday Fats used McCaughey's article in Bloomberg to warn us about the imminent nationalization of health care. As I noted below, there is no such provision in the Senate's stimulus bill but that won't stop the wingnuts. I am little disappointed that Bloomberg ran with this crap and I'm going to send them an e-mail about it.

According to Jonathan Adler at The Volokh Conspiracy, McCaughey also fought against Hillary Clinton's health care reforms back in 1994 and her analysis then was also questionable. She also works at the conservative Hudson Institute.

Right on cue, Big Pharma is mobilizing against this move toward empirically-based care:

Drug Makers Fight Stimulus Provision
By ALICIA MUNDY
FEBRUARY 9, 2009, 8:55 P.M. ET
WALL STREET JOURNAL

WASHINGTON -- The drug and medical-device industries are mobilizing to gut a provision in the stimulus bill that would spend $1.1 billion on research comparing medical treatments, portraying it as the first step to government rationing.

The $1.1 billion in research funding would be doled out to the National Institutes of Health and other government bodies. "We should focus on producing the best unbiased science possible," said Rep. Henry Waxman (D., Calif.), a strong proponent of the House language.