OBAMACARE ENDORSEMENTS: WHAT THE BRIBE WAS AND HOW IT
CAME ABOUT
By DICK MORRIS & EILEEN MCGANN
Published on TheHill.com on November 6, 2009
As the suicidal Democratic congressmen
proceed to rubber-stamp the Obama healthcare reform despite the drubbing
their party took in the '09 elections, the president trotted out the
endorsements of the AMA and the AARP to stimulate support. But these --
and the other endorsements -- his package has received are all bought
and paid for.
Here are the deals:
* The American Medical Association
(AMA) was facing a 21 percent cut in physicians' reimbursements under
the current law. Obama promised to kill the cut if they backed his bill.
The cuts are the fruit of a law requiring annual 5-6 percent reductions
in doctor reimbursements for treating Medicare patients. Bravely, each
year Congress has rolled the cuts over, suspending them but not
repealing them. So each year, the accumulated cuts threaten doctors. By
now, they have risen to 21 percent. With this blackmail leverage, Obama
compelled the AMA to support his bill...or else!
* The AARP got a financial windfall in
return for its support of the healthcare bill. Over the past decade, the
AARP has morphed from an advocacy group to an insurance company (through
its subsidiary company). It is one of the main suppliers of Medi-gap
insurance, a high-cost, privately purchased coverage that picks up where
Medicare leaves off. But President Bush-43 passed the Medicare Advantage
program, which offered a subsidized, lower-cost alternative to Medi-gap.
Under Medicare Advantage, the elderly get all the extra coverage they
need plus coordinated, well-managed care, usually by the same physician.
So more than 10 million seniors went with Medicare Advantage, cutting
into AARP Medi-gap revenues.
Presto! Obama solved their problem. He
eliminates subsidies for Medicare Advantage. The elderly will have to
pay more for coverage under Medigap, but the AARP -- which supposedly
represents them -- will make more money. (If this galls you, join the
American Seniors Association, the alternative group; contact sbarton@americanseniors..org.
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* The drug industry backed ObamaCare
and, in return, got a 10-year limit of $80 billion on cuts in
prescription drug costs. (A drop in the bucket of their almost $3
trillion projected cost over the next decade.) They also got
administration assurances that it will continue to bar lower-cost
Canadian drugs from coming into the U.S. All it had to do was put its
formidable advertising budget at the disposal of the administration.
* Insurance companies got access to 40
million potential new customers. But when the Senate Finance Committee
lowered the fine that would be imposed on those who don't buy insurance
from $3,500 to $1,500, the insurance companies jumped ship and now
oppose the bill, albeit for the worst of motives.
The only industry that refused to
knuckle under was the medical device makers. They stood for principle
and wouldn't go along with Obama's blackmail. So the Senate Finance
Committee retaliated by imposing a tax on medical devices such as
automated wheelchairs, pacemakers, arterial stents, prosthetic limbs,
artificial knees and hips and other necessary accoutrements of
healthcare.
So these endorsements are not freely
given, but bought and paid for by an administration that is intent on
passing its program at any cost.
