Reason.com
Health Lobbyists Hope For a Yet Another Deal On Medicare Cuts
Who could possibly have
predicted that big players in the health care industry are opposed
to Medicare cuts? Via
Kaiser Health News:
Medicare might fare better than other health care programs if the congressional super committee fails to agree on a deficit-reduction package and automatic cuts kick in, but even 2 percent is a big problem when it comes on top of other recent hits, warn Rick Pollack, executive vice president of the American Hospital Association, and Karen Ignagni, president of America’s Health Insurance Plans.
“Enough is enough,” Pollack said. “We feel we’ve stepped up to the plate and made a substantial contribution in the name of shared sacrifice,” which he said was $155 billion over 10 years as part of the health law. Under automatic cuts, he calculated, hospitals would lose another $43 billion over 10 years in Medicare payments alone, which he says translates into about 200,000 jobs.
That’s why some health care industry lobbyists are pushing hard for a negotiated deal.
The last line is especially amusing because many of the biggest health care players already cut payment deals. When Pollack says the AHA "stepped up to the plate," what he means is that the hospital association, after some negotiation, agreed to accept cutbacks as part of ObamaCare.
So did other big players. And those deals aren't working out so well either. The drug industry famously cut an ObamaCare deal with the White House too. And yet now the Obama administration is aggressively pushing for a big reduction in drug prices that would violate the terms of that agreement. Reports during the health care debate also suggested that physicians cut a deal as well, agreeing to support ObamaCare in exchange for a doc fix—a permanent override of a Medicare payment mechanism that now calls for dramatic cuts to physician payments every year. They got ObamaCare. But so far, there's no permanent doc fix, and despite some outward enthusiasm about the possibility of a permanent fix, congressional staffers I've spoken to think it's unlikely we'll get one this year.
When will these industries learn to stop cutting deals with the government? I suspect most would prefer not to, but believe the deals are better than the alternative—arbitrary cuts that they don't help shape. Perhaps they're right. But this is what happens when the government becomes a major player and partner in a massive industry like health care, setting subsidies, prices, and payments from on high, and using those payments as savings mechanisms whenever times are tight. Thanks to Medicare and Medicaid, however, it doesn't seem like this is the sort of situation that will change any time soon.
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Libertarian support regulation|10.19.11 @ 9:34AM|#
Free movement of free people is restricted by abstract lines drawn on Mother Earth. Stop libertarian regulation tyranny!
Officer, am I free to gambol across plain and forest?
Officer|10.19.11 @ 9:52AM|#
No.
Meagan|10.19.11 @ 10:37AM|#
Wheat is murder!
|10.19.11 @ 10:45AM|#
TIMECUBE!
|10.19.11 @ 11:11AM|#
GAMBOL AWAY
Heh|10.19.11 @ 12:34PM|#
That's the gag that keeps on giving.
Rev. Blue Moon|10.19.11 @ 11:41AM|#
BANHAMMER PLZ KTHXBAI
|10.19.11 @ 9:48AM|#
The idiots at the trade associations got railroaded by Obama. These days, the idea of getting railroaded by Obama is pretty risible. But, they're part of the go-along-to-get-some Beltway culture, where just saying "that's a terrible bill, and we're going to do what we can to kill it" just isn't done.
robc|10.19.11 @ 10:17AM|#
The idiots at the trade associations got railroaded by Obama
One of the main themes of Atlas Shrugged.
Suki|10.19.11 @ 11:15AM|#
Rearden Metal to the rescue!
Patricia McAllister|10.19.11 @ 11:07AM|#
Whatever you do, don't mention [whispering] the Jews!
NoVAHockey|10.19.11 @ 11:33AM|#
They thought there were negotiating with reasonable people.
NoVAHockey|10.19.11 @ 11:33AM|#
they were.
Almanian|10.19.11 @ 10:17AM|#
"Operation" - my friend had that when we were kids. I keep thinking we should have played that when I was smoking about a pound of weed a day back in my misspent yute - think that would be a fun game to play while stoned.
Wait - what were we talking about?
Tim|10.19.11 @ 10:32AM|#
"wrenched ankle" that one was a bear.
Rev. Blue Moon|10.19.11 @ 11:42AM|#
I hated the "connect the rubber band" one.
|10.19.11 @ 11:38AM|#
A pound of weed a day? You're either lying or...superhuman. I choose the latter.
Montani Semper Liberi|10.19.11 @ 10:32AM|#
It's like a real world Scorpion and Frog. The government will fuck you, and fuck you hard because it's the government and that's what it does.
|10.19.11 @ 10:33AM|#
When will these industries learn to stop cutting deals with the government?
Just as soon as we get a free market in health care services.
I crack myself up.
|10.19.11 @ 10:48AM|#
"I'm altering the deal; pray I don't alter it further."
Let's hope those who got double-crossed by BO acquit themselves as well as Lando did afterward.
Maxxx|10.19.11 @ 10:58AM|#
In the "real" world Vader buys off Lando with some newly created ducats.
And Lando gladly takes them.
Maxxx|10.19.11 @ 10:55AM|#
I suspect most would prefer not to, but believe the deals are better than the alternative—
And that is the Achilles heal of libertarianism.
The idea that businesses want to compete and don't want government "help".
It is ever bit as much of a reality free of a belief as the virgin birth.
Montani Semper Liberi|10.19.11 @ 11:03AM|#
Are you insane? If anything, the fact that many businesses would rather use government force to keep their place in the market than compete freely is an argument for smaller government. Without a government picking winners and losers, corporations would be at the mercy of the people i.e. consumers.
Maxxx|10.19.11 @ 11:25AM|#
Yes that is all true.
My point is that large businesses are not allies in the effort to shrink the size of government.
|10.19.11 @ 1:00PM|#
True. We really don't have any allies when you get right down to it.
jtuf|10.19.11 @ 11:06AM|#
Under automatic cuts, he calculated, hospitals would lose another $43 billion over 10 years in Medicare payments alone, which he says translates into about 200,000 jobs.
Eeeeexcellent. When hospitals unlock their psych wards, I'll donate to them with my own funds. www.mindfreedom.org
Suki|10.19.11 @ 11:16AM|#
More requirements for blood tests please? Suki needs new shoes!
|10.19.11 @ 3:56PM|#
Is that an updated version of "Operation"? 'Cause the one I remember had much smaller parts.