Medicare.gov

Seniors basically don’t like the Republican prescription drug plan. We’ve known that for a while (this graph shows why). This lack of enthusiasm explains why DHHS issued the infamous “video news releases” that purported to contain reporting from Karen Ryan on the myriad ways in which the new plan would be the greatest thing for seniors since high-fiber sliced bread. Except it turns out that Karen Ryan is an actress, not a reporter, and the “video news releases” were not news at all, but rather commercials bought and paid for with your tax dollars.

So, given the history, this news should come as no surprise:

A new Medicare Web site that allows people to compare drug prices is already drawing complaints that the information is incorrect.

The site (www.medicare.gov ) is designed to enable people using the new Medicare-approved drug discount card to search for the lowest drug prices.

“Everybody seems to be finding problems with inaccuracies with the posted prices,” Walgreens’ spokeswoman Laurie Meyer told the Associated Press.

How does this administration manage to mess up just about everything it touches? Ideally, researchers and policy professionals would come up with proposals likely to have benefits exceeding their costs. The administration could then choose to adopt those that are in line with, or at least not at odds with, its ideology. Then the policy would be administrated by the policy arm, not the political arm, of the Executive. The progression would be

1. Proposal based on serious science.
2. Accept/Reject based on political considerations.
3. Implementation by apolitical professionals.

Failing that, the administration could base decisions on political objectives but leave the implementation to professional, not political, staff. That is, the progression in this next-best case would be

1. Proposal based on political objective.
2. Accept/Reject based on political considerations.
3. Implementation by apolitical professionals.

With the current administration, it seems that at no stage is policy insulated from political considerations:

1. Proposal based on political objective.
2. Accept/Reject based on political considerations.
3. Implementation to achieve, or at least appear to achieve, political objectives.

The seemingly total disconnection of those with the expertise and experience to implement policy from the implementation of policy goes a long way toward, perhaps all the way, explaining why everything this administration touches goes awry.

Mark McClellan (yes, Scott’s brother, but an accomplished and, so far, still credible, economist nonetheless) is taking over Tom Scully’s (yes, the Scully who hid the true price tag of the Medicare Drug Plan from Congress) position as head of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS). Brad DeLong wrote the other day that

No one, absolutely no one, is getting out of this administration with even the shreds of a reputation.

If the political operation keeps their hands off of CMS under McClellan, McClellan could prove Brad wrong. But that’s a huge if and I’m not particularly optimistic.

AB