What was Max Baucus thinking at his appearance at the “newsmakers” breakfast of the Kaiser Family Foundation Thursday when in the space of a few minutes he made the following two statements about healthcare reform:

“Everything’s on the table. Everything. All proposals. All ideas that groups may have are on the table. And they’re going to stay on the table. We are going to discuss them.”

And, then two minutes later, pressed to explain why he continues to gag discussion of the option most favored by nurses, doctors, and tens of thousands of consumer activists, single payer, Baucus can say:

“We can’t squander this opportunity. We can’t waste capital on something that’s just impossible.”

No doubt Baucus is getting a bit testy about having to explain his rather inconsistent positions, and activists and some in the media who continue to pester him about why are you shutting out debate about an approach that just happens to work in the rest of the industrialized world.

The latest to pose the question is the legendary Bill Moyers whose show this week features the blackout on single payer.

Moyers has warmed up for the show by writing today:

 Is it the proverbial tree falling in the forest, making a noise that journalists can’t or won’t hear? Could the indifference of the press be because both the President of the United States and Congress have been avoiding single payer like, well, like the plague? As we see so often, government officials set the agenda by what they do and don’t talk about.

So if single payer remains out of bounds for those who are supposed to represent us, what does it leave as the option other than more reinforcements for the same insurance based system that has created the present disaster.

Need a reminder? Two more examples today:

A study in Health Affairs that documents physicians spend an average of 142 hours annually dealing with insurance plans — at a cost of $31 billion. Primary care physicians spend even more, 165 hours per year, a sobering number for those advocating more reliance on primary care.

Nurses, as can readily attest, are also forced to waste an additional 23 weeks per year per physician battling with insurers. All those hours, for nurses and doctors alike, are hours stolen from bedside care taking care of patients.

Then there’s the new survey from the American Academy of Family Physicians

who report a big drop in patient visits — care delivered — because of cost. Nearly 90 percent said their patients are worried about being able to pay the high costs, 58 percent cited an increase in appointments cancelled, and 60 percent cited a jump in patients skipping preventive care.

Not to worry, according to Max Baucus: “we’re going to try to get as close as we can” to “universal” coverage.

By forcing everyone to buy private insurance so more people can go broke with the high costs, skip preventive care and end up in emergency rooms when they get sick, and ensure that our nurses and doctors can spend more time with the bean counters and claims adjustors rather than patients.

Somehow, I don’t think that’s the public’s vision of real healthcare reform.  

If you agree, why don’t you fax Max Baucus, maybe a couple times, and let him know that we need real healthcare reform, not lobbyist-driven pablum and nonsense statements.

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