Will medical industry support health reform?

Speaking March 9 at PHAN's "Getting Everyone Covered" conference in Harrisburg, representatives of the insurance industry, the hospitals, and business/commerce each said in turn that the health care system must be reformed.  Our current system is much too expensive and is unsustainable, they said.

But the discussion was very general and the commitments rather vague.  Are the big players in the healthcare industry so committed to reform that they are prepared to give up some of the advantages they enjoy under the current arrangement?  It's too soon to say.

President Barack Obama has proposed a $634 billion healthcare reserve in next year's federal budget.  This reserve would be paid for with targeted cuts in payments to insurers, doctors, hospitals, drugmakers and other providers.  The money would be used to expand coverage, invest in preventive services and more cost-effective treatment of chronic disease, and change the way medical services are paid for. 

During the early '90s, it was the health insurance industry that led the successful effort to scuttle the Clinton Administration's attempt at health reform.  This time around, insurers are making nice.  Karen Ignagni, CEO at America's Health Insurance Plans, the industry trade group, has said, "You have out commitment to play, to contribute and to help pass healthcare reform this year." 

But Michael Hiltzik, a columist for the Los Angeles Times and critic of the health insurance industry, is skeptical.  Writing in the March 9 edition of his paper, Hiltzik said:  "Briefly, the industry wants the government to asume the cost of treating the sickest, and therefore most expensive, Americans.  It wants the government to clamp down hard on doctors' and hospitals' fees. And it wants permission to offer stripped-down, low-benefit policies freed from pesky state regulations limiting their premiums. . . . . The insurers think government intervention is fine if it applies to customers they don't want." 

According to a March 5 article in The Washington Post, "the healthcare sector is one of the mightiest political forces in Washington, spending nearly $1 billion on lobbying and constributing $162 million to candidates of both parties over the past two years."