Nate Silver: Health Care Industry Lobbying, Contributions Could Doom Public Option

FiveThirtyEight.com:

As I lamented yesterday, health care is one of those areas where both popular opinion and sound public policy seem to take a backseat to protecting those stakeholders who benefit from the status quo. But can we actually see -- statistically -- the impact of lobbying by the insurance industry on the prospects for health care reform? I believe that the answer is yes.

Read the whole story: FiveThirtyEight.com

Comments

[CanadianBeef]

Apparently, you the voters get the policies that your insurance companies paid for. Money and ignorance are the greatest allies of the status quo. You will need people, and lot of them, with loud persistent voices, to drown them out.

[Gunwing]

Then we need to get the best minds.......... Time to break out Ted K agian and have him voice his support publicly for health care for all. (IE the DNC Fincachal office is all for it that means we have people in washintgon who do care about the people! Back em up with real people with power!)

[mom2sons]

Donated $25 to Moveon.org today for healthcare. We have to give them something to fight with. We will remember all those who didn't support us when the chips were down. Bet they won't take our votes for granted when we vote them out.

[Gunwing]

Even $10 from those 72% polled would go along way to helping fight this War on Healthcare.........

[Savanna]

Gosh..I thought that those folks in Congress where there for the American people..but alas it
seems as if they are there for Bank of America, Citicorp, Wall Street, the Saudi's, oil companies,
defense contractors, war, and have I forgotten something? Maybe we need to go to the polls and through the whole bunch out and start over.

[Gunwing]

Well in most polls you can tell that the system is broken. (Fox news counts every person in an airport as a viewer even if they are not watching any of the TVs in the whole place) Whats that tell you about the current polling system used by the media?

[SangZe]

Precisely. We made a big mistake in turning congress over to the democrats. They have not acted in the best interest of the people any more than the republicans did, and to make matters worse, the man elected president seems incapable of making his own party work with him instead of with the interests you list here. Though I agree with you that we must throw these yahoos out for once and for all, I do not think we can do so with the current two-party system which has become so corrupt. This system has failed us. A potential remedy is a third party, but it will take more than a yearful of irate blogs to make that happen. I fear that by the time people actually wake up and act, it will be far too late to bring about change. In the end, sadly enough, though I supported Obama heartily, I fear he has failed us.

[Mahi Joe]

It should be made illegal for any politician to recieve any money from any lobbyist. This practice of getting money from lobbyists is so corrupt and evey single politician should be voted out if they received anything from a lobbyist.

[CanadianBeef]

So true. One of the reasons voters are so cyncical about politicians is that they know these representatives keep their offices through dollars, not votes.

[Gunwing]

We need Publicly funded elections! Thats how the forfathers did it! We need to do it that way! It would let the government do their job without corperations getting in the way! Time to break up the trusts!

[vagabondvet]

Show when elections were publicly funded, and also show how a system where entrenched politicians and bureaucrats would be fair in handing out money, given our system where third parties aren't allowed to debate and money and polling numbers are needed to even get on a ballot.

[Mixpixlix]

The one thing this debate clearly shows is the need for term limits. Our Congress, especially Senators, are too entrenched. As Howard Dean recently said Senators forget about the world outside the Capitol dome. They're only concern is the life in the Senate and the luxury and priviledges it affords them.

Amerians must, as we did to end the Vietnam War, fight for real healthcare reform and keep voting anyone who sides with the insurance industry against hardworking, taxpaying citizens, out of office. If we churn them out in 2010 and again in 2012 I Congress we start heeding the will of the people.

One more point, according to a medical economist who appeared on Bill Moyer's Journal two weeks ago, the vast majority of people satisified with their healthcare coverage haven't had to actually use it. They have yet to come up against denials, exclusions and exemptions. One a "satisfied" consumer gets some real world health insurance experience their attitudes rapidly change.

[metalpipe]

The replacements you are suggesting will almost inevitably vote their wallets and not their ethics. They emerge from the same breeding ground the original politicians were spawned from. I don't see an end to this any time soon.

[CanadianBeef]

Like I said earlier, ignorance and money are the greatest allies of the status quo. Those who have not yet suffered are ignorant of the suffering of others, and of the danger they themselves are in. Rather than "satisfied," we should categorize this group as "uninformed."
America needs a more communitarian culture, where people give a d*mn about each other and about the world. Sorry, that's my rant.

[LorettaSingbiel]

"the vast majority of people satisified with their healthcare coverage haven't had to actually use it."

The vast majority of people satisfied with their EMPLOYER-paid healthcare coverage haven't had to actually PAY FOR IT!

The vast majority of them HAVE had to use it, and ARE FULLY AWARE that their pre-existing conditions would EXCLUDE them from coverage IF they lost their EMPLOYER-paid coverage.

The vast majority of them are ALSO FULLY AWARE that their EMPLOYER-paid coverage would be CAPPED or CANCELLED IF they suffered a CATASTROPHIC injury or CHRONIC illness.

LONG AGO we agreed to pay taxes for Fire Departments to SAVE our PROPERTY. WHY was SAVING PROPERTY more of a priority than SAVING PEOPLE?

[roseau]

I reject the assertion that a public option would require tremendous spending by the government. There are many uninsured people who can pay, just not as much as insurance companies charge. Not every family is as 'lucky' as mine to be able to afford $1200 a month for 4 healthy people on no prescriptions. If I were able to buy into the public option here in Massachusetts, the state would have (after paying for our yearly checkups) over $12,000 a year coming INTO the system from people like me. Instead, I have to give my money to BC/BS executives so they can go on junkets to the Caribbean and fund studies on how best to gouge me next year.

Bring on the public option.

[elbzee]

And imagine the bargaining chip! With a public option, pharmaceutical companies would have to negotiate. Our prescription costs are utterly obscene. The savings from doing so would undoubtedly contribute a great deal to the cost.

[CanadianBeef]

Yes, it's amazing how the high cost of private insurance is never acknowledged by those who would continue the system as it is. They forget that a tax-based public option with no insurance overhead would REPLACE the high-cost insurance you have now, thereby saving you money.
As someone who lives under single-payer, I enjoy knowing that my tax dollars are going only to medical care and not TV advertising or executive bonuses. With tax dollars, you actually have some CONTROL over how the money is spent, and people in the system are accountable to public accounts and elected representatives.

[LorettaSingbiel]

And you can be sure that treatment for my broken wrist WOULD NOT have cost $44,801.29 ...

Three hours Emergency Room
Three hours Outpatient Surgery "Open Reduction Internal Fixation Right Wrist Fracture"
Five visits to the Orthopedic Surgeon
Nineteen hours Physical Therapy on my wrist/hand
Twelve hours Physical Therapy on my shoulder

GOUGING the system with GREED! ... ONLY IN AMERICA!!!

[poco767c]

No one should wield that kind of power in our republic.

[mollyjackson]

The current level of spending is irresponsible and outrageous. We’re spending trillions that we don’t have. This could lead to hyper inflation, depression or worse. No country has ever spent themselves into prosperity. The media is giving Obama, Reid and Pelosi a pass because they love their agenda. But eventually the bill will come due and people will realize the huge bailouts didn’t work, nor will the stimulus package. These were trillion-dollar payoffs to Obama’s allies, unions and the Congress to placate the left.

[elbzee]

HAW! HAW! HAW!
*Funny!!*

[solid]

Let's hope you were just as outraged at the irresponsible level of spending during the past 8 years, much of which went to bankers, private contractor buddies and fake wars instead of the American people.

[CanadianBeef]

It's not the level of spending, it's what it's spent ON that is outrageous: bonuses for the architects of the financial meltdown, wars of choice, and tax cuts. Yes, tax cuts are spending. I don't notice "trillions" going to unions. Maybe you didn't notice that their employers going bankrupt. How does that serve the unions?
As for "the left", as someone who is actually on the left, I would say America has the weakest left of just about any industrialized nation. Whe Ralph Nader becomes president, you can start ranting about the left.

[rollingdivision]

Socialists want the US economy to fail. Economic panic is a bridge to the radical change. Remember the company our president has kept.

[CanadianBeef]

Scary boo! Hide your daughters!

[Chaimirija]

broken record GIVE IT UP THE USSR FELL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[FogBelter]

Reality check, RD, unregulated capitalism is what undermined the US economy, but your thought process is consistent. I believe the Republicans also responded to a terrorist attack against the US by invading a country, Iraq, that had nothing to do with the attack. Capitalists are responsible for the economic pain the American people are suffering ... Just to be clear.

[chiara12]

Were you outraged as our government was paying Blackwater almost $1 Trillion dollars over the last 4 years? Oh by the way, spent during an unnecessary war. That money spent did nothing, I repeat nothing, to stimulate our economy.

My guess is that no, indeed you have not said a peep about the $1Trillion paid to Blackwater.

[rollingdivision]

In his June 13 radio address, President Obama said, "I have made a firm commitment that health care reform will not add to the federal deficit over the next decade."

Thursday, White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said, "The President is not going to sign a health care bill that increases the size of the deficit."

Great! Health care reform will be fully paid for! Anyone know the expiration date on this Obama promise?

[marinade]

Why are insurance companies fighting so hard? Are they concerned about the welfare of the people?

Obviously not! They are concerned about pocketing 30% of every premium dollar spent.

[CanadianBeef]

Ìt is so frustrating for me, as a Canadian living under "socialized medicine", to see how controversial this issue is in America. The benefits of single-payer are just so obvious, and the aruments against it so silly, narrow, and always about money, not about care.
Single-payer in America must go up against the two greatest human forces on earth: money and ignorance. Money, the the form of industry propaganda and the buying of your politicians, and ignorance, a libertarian ideology that reject all social action, even if it saves people's health.

[lilpeg]

Same ole same ole. Look what is happening to the banking reg. legislation. No surprise here at all!!! DC still has no idea what is going on on Main Street..... Where is our CHANGE!!!! The one we had HOPED for for sooooo long.

[uglygnome]

I love Nate, but the statistics are on the side of choice if people will simply fight for their right to choose.

[quiviran]

Take to the streets, like France or Iran? Prolly not.
Bitch on the internet? Prolly so.
Organize an internet campaign to get the Congressmen and Senators who stab the voters in the back defeated at the next election? YES WE CAN!

[Malkin71]

Nate Silver is great and any reform without a public option is BS.

BUT I just have a question for HUFF PO and don't know how else to ask?

Why is there never ANY coverage of Supreme Court rulings?

There have been a few big ones this week and instead I get Megan Fox and Kate Gosselin.

Please cover these rulings on the front page.

Thanks.

[joecoolconservative]

According to a recent ABC News/USA Today/Kaiser Family Foundation survey, 89 percent of Americans are satisfied with their health care. That could mean up to 250 million people are happy. So why is it that we need Obama’s big-bang health-care overhaul in the first place? I suggest we all take a deep breath and then get down to business. We need to evaluate the current health care system and improve it - not destroy it for socialized healthcare.

[uglygnome]

Regardless of how many are "happy" - 72% would like a CHOICE - meaning the choice of a public option. In addition, though these people may be "happy" now, they also fear what will happen if they lose their job and their coverage. In addition to the "happy" there are the 50 million decidedly "unhappy" who have no health care. There are the "unhappy poor" who cannot afford health care. Despite this overwhelming "happiness" our country ranks 17th in quality of care. 17th! The poll does not ask them if they are "happy" paying out the nose.

Our health care system is a train wreck. The cost to taxpayers AND the government of the current system is far greater than what it would cost to move to single payer AND healthcare would improve. You cannot cherry pick statistics and, if you are going to quote them, look at the narrowness of the question asked.

[lornejl]

How about a link bullSh*t boy ?

[CanadianBeef]

I see a problem of basic math here. The 47 uninsured Americans can't be happy with their insurance, and the 27 million underinsured, hard to see how happy they would be. And yet 250 million Americans are? That's more Americans than have full insurance!
You gotta question these kinds of statistics.
Why don't the people who support the existing system seem to have studied the health systems of other industrialized nations, where everyone in insured and no one goes bankrupt because of an appendectomy?
I have no doubt that many Americans have stellar insurance and great service. But in way are the 26 underserved at the bottom getting good service, Let's agree together that this can't be tolerated in a civilized society.

[elbzee]

Remember the stat that 60% of bankruptcies are due to medical expenses of people WITH INSURANCE. That screams the current health insurance system does NOT work. Cold hard proof.

[nanorich]

http://pajamasmedia.com/instapundit/80618/

I am sure Glenn Reynolds loves that people plagiarize him without linking to his site.

[CanadianBeef]

And even once you arrive at the link, it's just a quotation for a conservative pundit quoting from a survey, again without the survey itself.

[marinade]

Kaiser is a health insurance company. No bias there....

[nanorich]

I am a Kaiser customer, and let me assure you, they really want health reform...and the public option. They are a nonprofit provider.

[sandals]

Keep writing our Congress and Senators, they take so much from these industry's it is time they stood for the American People, the polling shows that 72% of Americans want this, and I believe that President will get this through, he has a mother who died due to the Insurance industry and their manipulation of coverage.
To the insurance industry it is only about making a profit, to them they could care less if about you it is just about padding the pocket. Because we are a greedy society.

[solid]

The only thing 99.9% of Congressman and Senators understand is the sound of the big oak congressional door smacking them on the @ss on their way out of congress.