Timothy Noah wins this prize without serious competition. Responding to an analysis from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services that contained inconvenient facts about the House “reform” bill, he reminds us that the author of the CMS report works for … er … CMS:
On the other hand, let’s not forget who it is Richard Foster works for … Foster works for the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services, an agency within HHS that would lose funding under health care reform.
There’s only one minor problem with this brilliant insight—-CMS would not, in fact, lose funding under the House version of Obamacare. As Megan McArdle patiently explains:
HR 3962 actually increases the part of the budget that bureaucrats care about, which is the money to hire staff and expand their empire. CMS doesn’t lose power, influence, or important capabilities under health care reform. It gains them.
Noah also reveals the following information about the hapless Foster:
Foster was the guy whom Medicare administrator Tom Scully threatened to fire in 2003 if Foster made public his report predicting the new Medicare drug benefit then before Congress would cost $156 billion more than advertised by the Bush administration.
Noah apparently doesn’t understand that this information enhances rather than damages Foster’s credibility. It would appear that the man has been wielding his calculator in a pretty nonpartisan manner. Noah goes on as follows:
Foster’s estimate turned out to be 37 percent higher than the current cost estimate for the same period.
Noah evidently doesn’t understand the significance of this datum either. The Medicare drug benefit ended up costing less than some projections because it is administered through a market-based model that uses competition to drive down prices. There is no comparable provision in HR 3962.
In other words, Noah’s write-up on the CMS report combines a goofy conspiracy theory with a general cluelessness about his subject matter.
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