Health Care Reform for the Big Interests

Our elected officials in Washington are currently scrambling to pass Obama's health care reform legislation before the Christmas holiday. This should be cause for celebration, and for some, it is--namely, the health care and insurance industries. For people like ourselves, however, it is nothing to cheer about.

Gone from the bill are most of the reforms that would have made this legislation truly historic. In place of these are giveaways to special interest groups like health care companies who, according to the latest issue of Harper's, spent $1.5 million per day lobbying Congress in 2009. The insurance industry, thanks to Sen. Ben Nelson, is another winner, with their exemption from anti-trust laws still intact. Holdouts like Nelson and Joe Leiberman can now be counted on to vote for this law, but at what cost?

Howard Dean, politician and physician, pointed out that the current bill is no friend to American taxpayers. Calling it "an insurance company's dream", he noted that not only will everyone be required to buy health insurance or face fines, but that insurance carriers will retain the right to deny those with pre-existing conditions. The White House, through spokesman Robert Gibbs, denied that insurance companies came out on top, saying that they "spent hundreds of millions...lobbying against this legislation". Just goes to show what that amount of money can buy.

The lack of a public option, combined with a requirement to buy insurance or face penalties, makes this legislation a losing proposition for the American public. We may wind up with a system that is actually worse than what we started out to reform. I don't know about you, but this is not the kind of change I bargained for when I voted for Barak Obama last November.

Health Reform in Jeopardy, Thanks to Big Insurance

Once again, just as it looks as if this country might actually enact some semblance of health insurance reform, special interests restart their interminable bleating. Of whom am I speaking? Why, the health care insurance lobby, of course!

A Washington Post article by Ceci Connolly reports that, on the eve of a Senate Finance Committee vote on the $829 billion, 10-year health care reform bill, big trouble has erupted. Not among legislators, but between the Obama administration and the insurance industry lobby. They are claiming, for the hundredth time, that enactment of the bill will cause private insurance premiums to skyrocket. How can they possibly know that? Because they set the rates, that's how. Oh, and by the way, who made them such an integral part of this discussion, anyway?

The article says that Obama has spent much time and energy bargaining with various special interest groups. The carrot has been the promise of nearly 50 million new subscribers. That, apparently, is not enough. Lobbyists are complaining that not enough of these additional customers will be young and healthy (read: pure profits). They are worried because the bill would reduce penalties on those who don't immediately participate in the new insurance "requirements". To them, this means more older, sicker people will sign up, thus driving up costs (read: drive down profits).
Oh! Not that! Excuse me, but where is is written that government is required to guarantee private industry high profits?

Why are these lobbyists being given a spot at the bargaining table? Why are they privy to information that we, the taxpayers, are not? Here's the reason: Money. According to the Center for Responsive Politics, the health care industry has stepped up its charitable giving to legislators and won the number one lobbying spot. Nearly $134 million has been donated to the cause of the moment, health care reform. Or, more specifically, ensuring the failure of same. Well, I guess that explains their having such influence! Meanwhile, the rest of us poor stiffs, who surely have contributed more en mass to the federal coffers than those guys, get no say, it seems.
What a country!

It's common knowledge that the health care lobby, which include pharmaceuticals and insurance, was the reason for the Clinton's failure at health care reform 15 years ago. Have we learned nothing? Apparently. We are going down the same road, once again. The health care industry will preserve its stranglehold on this country and continue to collect obscene profits in the bargain. Millions of people will continue to suffer needlessly over the inability of this nation to create a workable health care delivery system. Now, that's what I call a victory.