Health industry pandering to Republicans to reverse portions of health care bill

Wednesday, November 03, 2010 by: Jonathan Benson, staff writer
Tags: health care bill, Congress, health news

(NaturalNews) The massive U.S. health care overhaul may undergo some substantial rollbacks following election day. Industry groups are hoping to work with a potential GOP majority in Congress to strike key portions from the health care bill that increase their taxes, tighten restrictions on insurance premiums, and mandate coverage for sick Americans, among other things.

Many Americans are upset with the state of health care in the nation, but nationalizing it threatens to exacerbate the problem. So in order to appease angry voters, a great portion of the Republicans' campaign rhetoric coming into election season has included promises of repealing the health bill altogether.

But the same industry groups that once teamed up with Democrats to pass the health bill are now focusing on Republicans to help get the portions of it that do not benefit them removed. Though they are concerned that the Republicans might go "too far" by trying to reverse the entire bill, these industry groups see dialogue with the other side as crucial to getting what they want.

"Obviously you need good relations with the people who are crafting policy, because when they're crafting policy, they're shooting with real bullets," said Chip Kahn, president of the Federation of American Hospitals, a for-profit hospital group.

Insurers seem overjoyed at the prospect of millions of new customers being forced to carry insurance, but they are not so thrilled that many of them will likely be diseased rather than healthy. And pharmaceutical companies are hoping that portions of the bill requiring an independent committee to regulate Medicare spending on drugs be eliminated, as it will cut into their profits.

No matter how you look at it, it is abundantly clear that the best interests of the people are not a concern among any of the players in the health care industry. Their goal to ally with Republicans in order to serve their own interests exemplifies the fact that nothing is actually changing for the better.

Sources for this story include:

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB100014240527...