A "Naive" or Blind Obama Administration Falls for the Current Health Care Industry Scam
It smells like another big scam pulled on the American people with the cooperation of this administration.
From the NYTimes: "Doctors, hospitals, drug makers and insurance companies will join President Obama on Monday in announcing their commitment to a sharp reduction in the growth of national health spending, White House officials said Sunday.
"The officials said the plan could save $2,500 a year for a family of four in the fifth year and a total of $2 trillion for the nation over 10 years. That could make it less expensive for Congress to enact comprehensive health insurance coverage, a daunting challenge facing the Obama administration.
As usual, these corporate shenanigans are long on Pinocchioisms and short on details.
And I'm not the only one who is distrustful.
M. S. Bellows, Jr. at Huffington Post writes: "...blind optimism is no virtue. Naive or overeager optimism can lead us to ignore the fact that most people have mixed motives, and to cling so tightly to our vision of an idealized future that we become blind to the practical challenges we need to overcome to reach it. Wiser optimists trust - but verify; they have faith in the better, without ignoring the worse, angels of human nature.
"On Sunday afternoon, two senior Obama Administration officials unexpectedly called a telephonic press conference to announce what they cast as a tremendous, positive new development in the healthcare reform effort. And they seemed genuinely, sincerely excited about this mysterious new development -- excited enough to buzz every national journalist's BlackBerry with an invitation to the conference call in the middle of Mother's Day. Because the President himself will be announcing this development officially on Monday, they embargoed the information (forbade reporters from releasing it) until 9 pm ET Sunday, and made the call -- arranged by the White House press office -- "on background," asking not to be identified by name or position.
"The big news, in other words, is that healthcare will continue to be increasingly expensive for consumers, employers, and governments, but not quite as quickly as it was going to be. 7% per year inflation will become 5.5% per year inflation -- that is, if the participants keep their promise. Which, according to the officials, they'll do, not because there's any kind of enforcement mechanism - there isn't one - but simply because they're "Americans." (Bold added.)
"(That's a quote from one of the administration officials, by the way: these for-profit healthcare industry groups are going to reduce costs, and potentially profits, simply because they're good "Americans.")
"The senior administration officials were hyperbolic about this news. One, focusing on the political battle to enact healthcare reform, called the trade groups' pledge "a game changer."
"Remember, we're talking about slightly reducing the rate of growth in health care costs, not a reduction in health care costs themselves. That's what's supposedly going to save both American families and the nation's fiscal problems "over the long term."
(Bold added.)
"...What's puzzling is the Administration's eagerness to accept it at face value. The group making this pledge includes private health insurers, medical device manufacturers, a pharmaceutical manufacturer, and the pharmaceutical manufacturers' trade group (PhRMA)
"If you want a sense of how loyal and reliable this group is, you may be interested to note that PhRMA is represented in these negotiations by former Congressman Billy Tauzin, who (as a Democrat) co-founded the anti-progressive Blue Dog Coalition, then left the party to become a Republican, fought for pharmacy industry interests while in office, and finally began working on PhRMA's payroll literally the same day he left Congress. PhRMA (pronounced "Pharma") has never in its existence made a concession without something being in it for them. Most (though not all) of the groups participating in this initiative historically have opposed health care reform, and most are large donors to the Republican and Vichy Dem politicians who are preparing to mount a political and rhetorical battle against health care reform, as evidenced most recently by the leak of Republican pollster Frank Luntz's crassly cynical talking points memo (teaching opponents of healthcare reform how to "spin" Obama's plan so it sounds like Mandatory Gay Nazi Communism).
"The biggest concern most members of this "patriotic" coalition have about Obama's reform plans is his intention to include a "public plan" -- i.e., a Medicare-style, government-run health plan that anyone could subscribe to, just like they can subscribe to Blue Cross, Kaiser or any other private insurance. That government-backed option terrifies the for-profit healthcare industry, because they know they can't compete with it. Medicare, for all its faults, still has the lowest administrative costs than any other health provider in the country; it has no need to deliver profits to shareholders, its executives are paid far less than their counterparts in the private sector, and it delivers competent care to millions of Americans who otherwise would go uninsured. Not only is a Medicare-style public health plan a competitive threat to the for-profits, but it's a political threat as well: for-profit providers know that if millions of Americans sign up for federally-run, nonprofit healthcare and see that it actually works -- that their fears of rationed care and needless deaths aren't borne out -- then the inertia towards single-payer healthcare for everyone may become an unstoppable juggernaut.
"For that reason, it's hard to believe that a coalition including PhRMA, Kaiser, the nation's largest hospital coalitions, and other for-profit providers aren't angling, at a minimum, to curry enough favor with the Administration that Obama feels obligated to drop the public plan option -- just as he "compromised" on aspects of FISA, healthcare components in the stimulus package, and other controversially progressive aspects of his original platform. But the senior Administration officials speaking to reporters on Sunday seemed genuinely nonplussed that anyone would think such a quid pro quo might be under, if not on top of, the negotiating table.
"The last question of the conference call, happily, went to me. I wanted, first, to confirm that the grand announcement was merely about a reduction in cost increases, not a reduction in cost, and second, to know whether Obama, himself, still considered a public health care option to be beyond negotiation. I figured, if Obama is unstinting in his support of the public option, it doesn't matter what the trade groups think they're buying with this concession, right?
"Anyone paying attention to the economic policies of industrially successful nations knows that single-payer, low-cost healthcare is key to America's future. By taking for-profit corporate lobbyists like Billy Tauzin at their word, by considering their unenforceable promise of future good behavior as if it were a tangible present good, is Obama setting himself up to deviate from the clear path to that future? Obama has, within his grasp, that once-in-a-lifetime rarity: a plan that is both nearly perfect, AND achievable. Will he give in when the for-profit healthcare industry, inevitably, asks that the public option be watered down or taken off the table altogether -- or will the president keep his word to the American people -- people who have put their trust in his commitment to collaborate, but not to compromise?"
And three questions from David Sirota at Campaign for America's Future:
"2) Why should the American public believe the health industry is going to voluntarily do anything to cut into its profits? Health executives have a fiduciary responsibility to private shareholders to maximize profits. Voluntarily lowering those profits would violate that fiduciary responsibility. Are we really expected to believe these health executives will, out of the goodness of their hearts, violate their fiduciary responsibilities? What has actually changed to suggest that they will violate their fiduciary responsibilities and help health care consumers?
"3) Isn't President Obama legitimizing voices that will use that added credibility later on to try to derail serious health care reform? Today's press conference has the President of the United States effectively saying that the health insurance industry should have a major seat at the health-reform table - and that it should be trusted. But any serious health care reform will need to take on the health insurance industry in a way that will make that industry unhappy. When that eventually happens, won't the previous efforts to legitimize the health insurance industry's voice add credibility to its opposition to reform? I think so, and agree with Ezra Klein who says, "The fact that the White House is making a big deal of [the health industry's] support means" the White House is suggesting that it "would be a big deal if they lost it."
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