Healthcare Daily Digest for 13 February 2013: No One Can Agree on Which Political Party is Hurting American Healthcare

How much of junior United States Senator (and unofficial Poland Springs spokesman) Marco Rubio’s rebuttal to President Obama’s state of the union address was on the money with regards to healthcare?

That’s a bit of a gotcha question, isn’t it? It depends on how you feel about President Obama going into the State of the Union, and the after-party that was the Republican response. We’re not so much a nation of thinkers, it appears, as we’re a nation of “What he said!”-ers.

Still, George Zornick at TheNation.com feels that Marco Rubio’s response presented an inaccurate picture of the Affordable Care Act. (Zornick actually calls Rubio’s response “lies.”) His most damning point: “[Rubio's] case here is that Obamacare is hurting middle-class Americans—but then he specifically describes companies who would cut workers’ hours so they aren’t entitled to health insurance.”

For a nuanced alternative, here’s draft-dodger Ted Nugent.

Wednesday’s headlines:

• North carolina’s Medicare System is Too Troubled to Expand: So says republican Governor Pat McCrory. “The current system in North Carolina is broken and not ready to expand without great risk to the taxpayers and to the delivery of existing services to those in need.”

• Sorry About Ruining Your Life. And Business: “Dr. Leonard Morse was pursued by Elliot Spitzer because Morse was one of the top Medicaid billers in the state, his suit claimed. The dentist ended up losing his practice and credibility in the field, and the verdict garnered $1.6 million more than expected.”

• Esquire Magazine: Not as Bad as Vanity Fair, Not Ready to be Mother Jones: “Yes, Bin Laden’s Killer Will Get Healthcare Benefits.”

• Forbes.com Blogger Believes “Healthcare Industry is Sick”: “The healthcare industry is sick – really sick, according to Moody’s Investors Service, which downgraded a record $20 billion of U.S. not-for-profit healthcare debt in 2012.”

• Asking and Answering Some Tough Questions About Doctor Pay: An FAQ from Kaiser Health News uses “Why Is It [Medicare Doctor Pay] So Hard To Fix?” as its jumping off point.