Just four days after standing next to President Obama and declaring their commitment to control health care costs to the tune of $2 trillion over 10 years, the insurance industry, drug and medical device makers, and hospital groups are backing off their promise:
Hospitals and insurance companies said Thursday that President Obama had substantially overstated their promise earlier this week to reduce the growth of health spending.
Mr. Obama invited health industry leaders to the White House on Monday to trumpet their cost-control commitments. But three days later, confusion swirled in Washington as the companies' trade associations raced to tamp down angst among members around the country....
Health care leaders who attended the meeting have a different interpretation. They say they agreed to slow health spending in a more gradual way and did not pledge specific year-by-year cuts.
"There's been a lot of misunderstanding that has caused a lot of consternation among our members," said Richard J. Umbdenstock, the president of the American Hospital Association. "I've spent the better part of the last three days trying to deal with it."
By reducing the rate of growth in health care spending by 1.5% each year, the nation can achieve a savings of $2 trillion over the next decade. This effort will have a direct effect on the budgets of individuals and families and will also go a long way in ensuring that every American have access to affordable, high-quality health care. Stay tuned for more information on this important initiative in the weeks and months ahead.
He and other health care executives said they had agreed to squeeze health spending so the annual rate of growth would eventually be 1.5 percentage points lower....
One of the lobbyists, Karen M. Ignagni, president of America's Health Insurance Plans, said the savings would "ramp up" gradually as the growth of health spending slowed.
David H. Nexon, senior executive vice president of the Advanced Medical Technology Association, a trade group for makers of medical devices, said "there was no specific understanding" of when the lower growth rate would be achieved.
"It's a target over a 10-year period," Mr. Nexon said.
This just proves what the American people have known all along: You can't trust the insurance industry with health care reform.
Why have these commitments gone soft? It's about profits. Every dollar of health care "waste" in the system, every dollar that goes somewhere other than to your health, that's a dollar more in the pockets of a rich hospital administrator or insurance industry CEO. For health care costs to come down, somebody's profits have to come down as well.
Now, in a good reform plan, every player in the system would be squeezed a little bit to help alleviate the crushing cost on the patient. Doctors, hospitals, and other providers would charge a bit less for care and be paid based on quality, not quantity. Drug and medical device makers would be forced to sell their products at a discount in volume. And the insurance industry would trim overhead and profits to keep costs in line. Then, employers and government would pitch in to cover all individuals. It would be a system of shared responsibility.
Clearly, the insurance industry, hospitals, and drug makers aren't interested in shared responsibility. They don't want to be squeezed a bit. The want to protect their profits so much that they show their two-faced nature: Standing next to the President of the United States, promising responsibility, and then backpeddling as fast as they can four days later.
That's why we need to make them do it. Voluntary agreements are not enough. We need regulation and we need real cost control, and that means a public health insurance option that will force these awful companies to earn their keep through stiff competition, something they've avoided for far too long.
They're liars. They're cheats. They're greedy. They're untrustworthy. They cannot be trusted to come up with a health care reform plan that works for you and me. We must make them do it.
(also posted at the NOW! blog)
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Obama's Health Care Reform: An indecent proposal
In the White House marriage we watched last Monday between Obama and a coalition of health care groups, the sniping started barely after they left the chapel. Wise bloggers had predicted this outcome, but I admit that I was mildly shocked at the speed that the bride pursued an annulment. What went wrong? Did that prankster Cupid dip his arrows into a vat of single-pay
http://mdw
Unless people rally behind a nonprofit, private, people-fun
For an in-depth look at a nonprofit, private, single payer system you may do a free download of the book, Universal Health Care System for the United States of America, at http://uhc
Behzad Mohit, M.D.
It's all well and good to spout off these ideologica
Look I'm European and I am used to health care having a few problems, but basically working for the benefti of all.
The simple principe is that making a profit out of people's bad health is unacceptab
To use your "product" analogy (even though it is not a good one because health care should be a basic right not a means of making a fast buck), if use of a product is killing people, then the makers of that product need to be regulated to avoid the risk to the public. Ever heard of the tobacco industry?
Indeed, why should the government dictate prices/rul
I think the health insurance companies should charge whatever they want, let them exclude anyone they want.
The government
Allow the insurance companies to do what they do best--prof
If we had the Medicare option, we could just leave the insurance companies behind(if we chose to)--it's the ultimate form of competitio
Don't bother demanding these insurance companies to change their ways-- leopards do not change their spots--ins
It's time for the people's plan!
Sign Dr. Howard Dean's public health care option petition:
http://www
Also, to find out more about HR-676 see:
www.pnhp.o
Want to bring down heathcare costs? Push for Tort Reform and put an end to frivolous lawsuits.
Problem solved.
Consider a system (like in Switzerlan
The surgeon I work for operated on 3 patients from Canada WHO PAID CASH in the last year because their system because their system did forced them to wait 2 years to see a surgeon and another 18 months after that for surgery. They would not have paid their own hard-earne
You can't trust these insurance companies. You gave them the benefit of the doubt, now it's the People's turn.
Please support a public health care OPTION. Give us Americans the choice-- to keep private insurance for those who want it, or a public option for those of us who are fed up with the current system.
Those of you who want a public option, please sign Dr. Howard Dean's petition:
http://www
This will help the economy and take the burden off of the businesses both large and small.
Stop the liberal agenda
HealthCare isnt a God given Right!!!!!
Work and Pay for Your Own Policy....
As Einstein said, "one cannot simultaneo
Unfortunat
I just wrote a nasty post to you because I can't believe how callous you sound.I am angry but I thought it might be better to explain things to you rather than to lash out.
Are you not aware that hard working people do lose health insurance or have health insurance but become chronicall
I worked hard, I am a college graduate, but I got sick. I had/have insurance but that didn't solve the problems of mounting medical debt and fighting for coverage.E
Do you really believe if you just "work hard" everything will be ok? I used to believe that too until I got sick.
Please think about what you're saying, and think about it again--for you don't know what can happen to you, your health, and your insurance policy when you need it the most.Good hard working people are in battle with insurance companies-
I hope you don't end up sick. Then you will learn the hard way. Or will you?
Seriously what in the world do these companies really do? They collect money and pay bills. They don't provide the actual health service. IMHO paying bills isn't high value. Put them in their place with regulation and there you go Affordable Health Care.
Same goes for Wall Street. The companies that create earnings, and regulators
Dear Mrs. Smith, American Grocery Insurance Incorporat
This is no different. The Medical Insurance Complex is a useless toll booth between us and our health care that no one needs or wants. How long do we have to go on being fleeced like this before we rid ourselves of this albatross?
Imagine we have single payer healthcare with no requiremen
Remember, we currently PAY for what we take from a supermarke
Currently over 30% of Medicare money goes to treating diabetes and the complicati
1) Merge Medicare with Medicade into one single "Income Based" system.
2) Require insurance companies to provide the same basic coverage for Non-Medica
3) Allow insurance companies to offer additional benefits and options to those who qualify and are willing to pay for the coverage upgrades.
As for Funding...
1) Changing from an "Emergency Treatment" to a "Preventat
2) Small business will be able to compete globally and hire additional taxpaying employees!
3) Wealthy seniors will pay their fair share!
4) The tremendous burden on future generation
This is why single payer healthcare must be a serious part of the discussion and why progressiv
For me to hear or read neo-libera
To you politician