Thought Experiment
By Steve PoftakJuly 14th, 2010
Substitute “Pioneer Institute” for “Health Care For All” in the following State House News report (subscription required) and ask yourself if there would be radio silence in the press and blogosphere (BlueMassGroup, call your office!!) on this:
Entry Filed under: NewsThe documents also reveal a cozy relationship between the Patrick administration and Health Care For All, a consumer advocacy organization that often support the administration’s health care policies. In an email exchange on March 24, Health Care for All official Georgia Maheras repeatedly asked Insurance Commissioner Murphy how the group can be “helpful” in responding to his pending decisions on health insurance rates for small businesses.
“If you expect to do anything ‘newsworthy’, can we be helpful with our blog or media at all?” she asked.
In his reply a half hour later, Murphy said, “I appreciate your offer and we may very well take you up on it.”
2 Comments Add your own
1. James | July 14th, 2010 at 12:11 pm
I thought about it, and I seem to remember radio silence when the majority of Board of Education members were affiliated with the Pioneer Institute.
Is it necessarily bad when think tanks and advocacy organizations cooperate with government agencies? Should the relationship always be adversarial?
2. Steve Poftak | July 14th, 2010 at 12:52 pm
Several questions and several distinctions:
- Was there a period when a majority of the BOE was ‘affiliated’ with Pioneer? May depend on your definition of affiliation, but if you consider staff, former staff, and advisors, I can’t come up with a majority.
- I’d draw a distinction between staff and directors as well — HCFA has an accomplished board of directors who are doubtless involved with the public sector on a variety of levels.
I think its something wholly different to have a policy staffer offering to provide cover to a state official on a decision that had yet to be decided.
Further, I agree that there are plenty of opportunities for think tanks and advocates to cooperate with the public sector that fall outside the relationship described above.
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