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High marks to both ABC and CBS for backgrounder explainers on specific aspects of the healthcare debate. CBS' Sharyl Attkisson looked into "very private negotiations" between Big Pharma and the White House in mid-June. Attkisson reported that the resulting deal consisted of a promise to cut pharmaceutical costs by $80bn--she did not say over how many years--in exchange for a ban on prescription cost controls and the administration's opposition to discount drug imports from Canada. Attkisson wondered whether it will stick: "News of a backroom deal riled fellow Democrats including key committee chairman Henry Waxman." The Congressman declared: "We are not bound by that agreement."
ABC's healthcare Fact Check was Kate Snow's A Closer Look into the legislation's proposals for so-called end-of-life care. Snow contradicted claims that the legislation's proposed cost-cutting solutions amounted to compulsory euthanasia as "shocking, inflammatory and incorrect." Snow pointed the finger at a couple of politicians--Betsy McCaughey and Sarah Palin--for disseminating the euthanasia scare, quoting Palin's dread of standing "in front of an Obama death panel." Proposed legislation "would create no such panel," Snow asserted. Yet the cost of care for terminally-ill patients is enormous, with medical expenses in the last year of one's life averaging $25,000. Cities such as La Crosse Wisc, which offer doctor-patient counseling about terminal healthcare, have cut that annual average by $7,000.
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