Without Ted, Will Enzi Lead The Charge Against Health Care Instead?

As the typical, inevitable Repug obstruction now begins in earnest on health care legislation, I should say that we shouldn’t be surprised that this is occurring.

However, I should point out that I’m a little surprised by the “point person” in their campaign, who would be Senator Mike Enzi of Wyoming (pictured).

You see, Enzi and Kennedy worked together here on the “Drug Safety Act of 2006,” which, among other things, accomplished the following…

• Establish(ed) a collaboration among the FDA, academic research institutions, and the biomedical research industry to improve the process of drug development and evaluation, and advance the FDA’s Critical Path Initiative;
• Establish(ed) a publicly available database of clinical trials to help enhance patient enrollment in clinical trials of drugs, provide a mechanism to track subsequent progress of trials, and ensure that the results of trials are made public, and that patients, doctors, and pharmacists have the most up-to-date information;
• (Made) improvements to the FDA’s process of screening advisory committee members for financial conflicts of interest to ensure that these committees provide independent expert advice, and to bolster the credibility of the product review process.

The bill also addressed a variety of other issues pertaining to the marketing of drugs, including safety monitoring, risk avoidance, and disclosure of clinical trial results.

And in this matter, Enzi said as follows…

“As Chairman of the (Health, Education, Labor and Pensions) Committee, I am deeply grateful for the cooperation and support of Senator Kennedy, as well as the dozens of stakeholders, who have worked tirelessly to make this bill a reality,” Enzi concluded.

And this tells us that Enzi, also along with Kennedy and former Repug Senator Pete Domenici, passed the Mental Health Parity Act of 2007 through the Senate (it never passed the House and, consequently, never became law). It would have required employers to cover mental disorders with the same health coverage as would be used for those suffering from physical disorders (with child mental disorders alone costing this country about $9 billion annually, as noted here – mental health was a particular cause for Domenici, as noted here Update: I meant to note earlier what the Time story tells us, that the Domenici bill was reintroduced and passed last year).

And on June 4th (concerning the health care legislation), Enzi said the following (from here)…

Senator Michael B. Enzi of Wyoming, the senior Republican on the health committee, said that there were also a lot of areas of agreement. “I think we have been surprised at the amount of agreement there is on a lot of it,” he said, adding, “There are still a lot of areas of disagreement, too. Now Senator Dodd has been given the role of taking the lead in the HELP committee, and I appreciate the way that he is doing that.”

However, on June 9th, we learned this (from here)…

Meanwhile, Enzi criticized the Democrats for trying to push health care reform through on, what they call, an “arbitrary deadline.”

“I am disappointed in the focus that some Democrats have placed on meeting arbitrary deadlines over getting the legislation done right,” Enzi said.

And worst of all, from here (last Sunday)…

The politics are getting uglier by the day as reform moves from abstractions to legislation. Republican leaders have moved into opposition, with moderates whom Obama needs to make the legislation bipartisan, such as Utah's Orrin Hatch and Wyoming's Mike Enzi, ridiculing proposals as "liberal gobbledygook."

All of these histrionics over the public option, cousins (and yes, I realize how ridiculous it is to consider Hatch as a “moderate”).

However, I have to admit that I expected better of Enzi here, someone who has done some legitimate good. Maybe he should stop his current posturing, though, and realize the great existing need for an end to the gamesmanship here.

Were he to do the right thing, I’m sure an elderly politician currently being treated for a life-threatening illness in Massachusetts would be “deeply grateful for (his) cooperation and support,” as would we all.

Update 6/18/09: Oh, and speaking of Hatch, to no one's surprise, he's reading from the same script as Enzi here (NY Times content).