Healthcare Digest 5/31: Healthcare Poll Useful as Any Other Poll (Not at All)

CNN, patting itself on the back for inserting itself into the healthcare debate, reports that it’s “latest health care poll, released Monday, has been in the political crossfire all week.” Good for you, CNN!

It’s the same political issue that confronts all fundamentalists: each side sees a text — in this case, a poll — as categorically supporting its point of view: “Conservatives are using it as proof the policy is unpopular while liberals say it is an example for more aggressive policy on national health care.”

The first way of reading CNN’s poll: “a majority of Americans still oppose the nation’s new health care measure, three years after it became law.”

The second way: “more than a quarter of those who oppose the law, known by many as Obamacare, say they don’t support the measure because it doesn’t go far enough.”

(Cynically, I might also suggest that a lot of people who don’t support the Affordable Care Act are unsupportive without having actually, you know, read the Affordable Care Act or really took time to understand it.)

Friday’s Headlines:

All Your Old Friends Will Talk About Healthcare!: “Nearly 400 industry experts will share best practices on harm reduction, population health management, improving the patient experience and more at the Premier healthcare alliance’s annual conference.” [press release]

Mississippi Governor Phil Bryant is Just Terrific: “Gov. Phil Bryant rarely misses a chance to bash the federal healthcare overhaul as an unaffordable intrusion. But Thursday, he announced the state is giving $1 million to a federal contractor that will hire 1,000 Mississippians to help implement it.” [Washington Post]

What Happens When Darth Vadar Gives Advice: “To Reduce Health Care’s Costs, Destroy Its Jobs” [Bloomberg]

Maybe it Really Wasn’t Medicare’s Fault Though?: “Sound Shore Health System Inc of suburban New York City filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, blaming government spending cuts, and plans to sell its business to Montefiore Medical Center for $54 million.” [Reuters]