Families USA and the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA) are joining forces to launch a multi-million lobbying campaign to convince Congress to increase Medicaid eligibility to 133% of the federal poverty level, offer income-adjusted subsidies, prevent insurers in the individual market for denying coverage to Americans with pre-existing conditions, and cap out-of-pocket expenses.

PhRMA may be exploiting the coalition to curry favor with the public and fend-off proposals for a new public health care plan, but proposals that expand affordable coverage to the neediest Americans should not be vetoed just because they bolster the profits of private industry. In fact, as Families USA President Ron Pollack pointed out during a recent interview with ThinkProgress, having industry stakeholders “engage in a way that is designed to enable… [reform] to take place in a way that fits their business model, but yet helps people who are currently shut out of the healtchare system — I think that’s a step in the right direction.”

The direction may be right but it’s unclear how this early cooperation bodes for comprehensive health care reform. In fact, Big Pharma, like the insurance industry, is willing to support government intervention that bolsters its bottom line. In this case, rather than lowering drug prices — in fact, “the prices of a dozen top-selling drugs increased by double digits in the first quarter from a year earlier” and Americans are still paying some of the highest prices in the world — the industry is urging the government to subsidize PhRMA products for Americans who can’t otherwise afford them.

It’s a sweet deal for the industry and lower-income Americans, but it doesn’t exactly demonstrate the stakeholder’s commitment to “shared responsibility.”

Today’s Politico notes that the GOP is “stumbling” to find new ideas for reforming the health care system:

There’s no Republican plan yet. No Republicans leading the charge who have coalesced the party behind them. Their message is still vague and unformed. Their natural allies among insurers, drug makers and doctors remain at the negotiating table with the Democrats. So Republicans now worry the party has waited so long to figure out where it stands that it will make it harder to block what President Barack Obama is trying to do.

To the extent that Republicans are discussing health care, they’re relying on trite McCain-campaign talking points and old-hands from the 1990s. In other words, they’ve outsourced the conversation to attack dogs Conservatives for Patients Rights, Betsy McCaughey, and Sally Pipes and have, for the most part, relinquished the serious debate about how to lower costs, increase access and improve quality.

The truth is, and what the Politico article hints at, is that the GOP leadership has little understanding of the health care issues. So much so, in fact, that Rep. Michael Burgess (R-TX), M.D. published a “Health Care Primer for Members” in the run-up to the general election. The document, whose only notable feature is the resemblance of its front page to Sen. Baucus’ white paper, is like a ‘health care for dummies’ introduction to Medicare, Medicaid, SCHIP, FDA, CDC, NIH etc… The package contains most of Burgess’ editorials, poll data, and talking points that instruct GOP members to stress that “freedom is the foundation of life in America” and “we must work to pass forward-looking, long-lasting legislation dealing with doctors first.”

So while Sens Max Baucus and Ted Kennedy just sent the White House a letter “affirming their commitment to marking up health care legislation in June,” most Republicans are busy recycling old free-market ideology that even elementary economic textbooks dismiss as impractical.