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Politics : Stockman Scott's Political Debate Porch -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: mishedlo who wrote (37834)	2/14/2004 11:19:30 AM
From: Mannie	Respond to of 89467

Saturday, February 14, 2004 Potomac Watch: Score one for McDermott the administration critic By CHARLES POPE SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT WASHINGTON -- Rep. Jim McDermott, D-Wash., has developed a reputation for questioning -- in especially strong language -- the truthfulness of the Bush administration. Most times he's either ignored by Republicans or dismissed as just another liberal crackpot. But there he was again this week, suggesting during a Ways and Means Committee hearing that the Bush administration intentionally rewrote a report about disparities in health care for minorities to make it seem that the problem did not exist. And this time, the administration agreed. "I can explain it to you, but it's not something I am very happy about," Tommy Thompson, secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, said in response to McDermott's question. "Some individuals took it upon themselves and thought they were doing the right thing. They wanted to be more positive and when it came to me I said, 'No, we put it out the way it was. That's the way its gonna be.' ... It was a mistake made and it's gonna be rectified." The unexpected candor briefly knocked McDermott off his game. "I'm stunned," he told Thompson, whom McDermott later described in words he rarely uses when the subject is a senior White House official. "Tommy Thompson is a friend of mine, a man to be admired as a straight shooter, honest, dedicated, a patriotic public servant," McDermott said. Those qualities only go so far however, when the subject is close to McDermott's heart and the adversary is the Republican White House. The next day he went to the House floor to continue praising Thompson while shredding the unnamed political operatives who tampered with the report. "Political spin-doctors turned science and serious data about national health disparities affecting Native Americans, people of color and others into a whitewash that taints anyone near it," he said. At issue is an annual report the Department of Health and Human Services submits to Congress reporting on the disparities in health care among ethnic groups. The report also takes into account socioeconomic factors and other elements to provide a detailed portrait of health care to all Americans. Policy-makers and Congress use the report to figure out where problems are and where to focus money. When the draft report was issued last June, the first sentence said, "Inequalities in health care that affect some racial, ethnic, socioeconomic, and geographical subpopulations in the United States ultimately affect every American." But when the final report was submitted in late December, the opening sentence was rewritten to read: "The overall health of Americans has improved dramatically over the last century." Even when the alterations aren't so blatant McDermott charges that the report presents a misleading picture. "The thing that was most striking was they said Native Americans have a lower cancer rate," McDermott said. "That sounds like a good thing. But when you look behind that you find that the life expectancy of Native Americans is significantly less than other Americans and they have the highest infant mortality rate." In plain English it means that Native Americans often don't live long enough to get cancer. McDermott isn't the only one working to draw attention to the issue. He's joined by one of the nation's most powerful Republicans, Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist of Tennessee. Frist introduced legislation Wednesday aimed at eliminating the disparity in health care for minorities and poor people. "African Americans, Native Americans, Hispanic Americans are having mortality rates, infant mortality rates, serious complications after treatment at a much higher rate than others," Frist told National Public Radio. "These health-care disparities, these gaps are unacceptable in America today," he said. McDermott, however, wants more. While he said Frist's bill is a positive step, McDermott wants an investigation into how the HHS report came to be watered down. "Congress needs to find out who did this. The American people need to know who did this," he said from the House floor. "Significantly altering a report about health disparities in America is a betrayal of public trust." From McDermott's point of view, the tampering episode reinforces his belief that the administration is willing to distort reality to avoid dealing with issues it would rather ignore. The administration, critics point out, has been charged with altering other studies that looked at global warming and related environmental issues. "What's really troublesome is that it suggests that this administration is willing to simply overlook certain segments of the society because they don't figure that's in their base and their base wants tax cuts," McDermott said, warming up the rhetoric that has made him one of the administration's sharpest critics. "The folks who need health care because of the tremendous inequalities in this society are just simply being bypassed." Thompson assured McDermott and the committee that the report would be reissued and that it would contain the original language. P-I Washington correspondent Charles Pope can be reached at 202-263-6461 or charliepope@seattlepi.com seattlepi.nwsource.com