I didn’t know the 1965 Medicare statute said this (as reported by the WSJ editors).
… Nothing in this title shall be construed to authorize any Federal official or employee to exercise any supervision or control over the practice of medicine or the manner in which medical services are provided.
I guess the Obama campaign denials aren’t the first time we’ve learned that you can not put a huge, expensive bulldozer in motion and also guarantee it will not leave a trace of its presence. Well, you can guarantee it — even put it in writing — but it won’t matter.
BTW, the same article is also reporting on how members of Congress are hard at work trying to figure out how to make Obama’s health care plan “deficit neutral” for the first ten years. Then after that… Well, maybe it says something about the quality of health care we’ll be getting if we don’t need to think further than ten years ahead.