With their apparent abandonment of the “public option” in favor of yet another program of government-endorsed private insurance, Democrats in the White House and Congress have revealed their health care “reform” as corporate welfare benefiting health insurers and drug makers rather than a populist assault on a greedy industry.
President Obama has portrayed his fight for new health care regulations, taxes, mandates, and subsidies as a reform battle waged against powerful industry lobbyists who want to preserve the status quo and obscene profits.
Despite early evidence that contradicted this narrative — such as Obama’s record fundraising from insurers and drug companies and his backroom deal with the drug lobby — the news media have largely swallowed the White House’s “people-versus-the-powerful” line.
Obama’s campaign, for instance, said Republicans who opposed the health care bill in the House had “voted to put insurance companies first.” This echoed Obama’s rhetoric pitting himself against “those who are profiting from the status quo.”
While many liberal journalists and activists grew upset with the corporate-welfare trajectory of the legislation, other leading liberal advocates of “reform” denied that the president and the health bill were doing the insurers’ and drug makers’ bidding.
For example, liberal blogger Matt Yglesias at the Obama-friendly Center for American Progress wrote Sunday: “The simple fact of the matter is that corporate America is doing what it usually does — attacking progressive legislation, and promoting obstruction by conservative politicians.”
But this fa?ade of Democrats-versus-industry is crumbling now that the final bill is being crafted. The measure still contains the insurers’ grand prize, the individual mandate — a federal requirement that every individual buy sufficiently comprehensive health insurance.
By late Tuesday, all signs pointed to Democratic abandonment of the one major “reform” policy that the insurers’ hated: a government-run insurer, known as the “public option.” Sen. Joe Lieberman said that in Senate negotiations, Obama didn’t even bring up the public option as a bargaining point, which shows it’s not a White House priority.
Liberal and moderate Democrats early this week were lining up behind an alternative “public option” that is not public at all, but just another government program to funnel Americans into private health insurance. As the Associated Press put it, “instead of Medicare-for-the-masses, it would be Blue Cross Blue Shield or Kaiser Permanente, albeit with a government seal of approval.”
And the drug makers? They cut their deal with the White House early. Obama promised not to go after their government favors such as the ban on reimportation of drugs and high Medicare payments and, in exchange, the drug makers offered $150 million in “Harry & Louise” ads rallying the public behind “reform” together with some discounts for Medicare patients.
Even outside of this deal between White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel and top drug lobbyist Billy Tauzin, the drug companies stand to profit from Obama’s plan, which subsidizes prescription drug purchases and will likely mandate prescription drug insurance.
Despite the president’s rhetoric, the industry never seemed to believe Obama was their scourge. In the 2008 election, according to data from the Center for Responsive Politics, Obama raised more from the health sector ($19.4 million) than any candidate in history — by a long shot.
Obama also set records for raising funds from the drug industry and the health insurance industry. In fact, Obama’s health-insurance haul was more than the industry gave to the last five Republican presidential nominees combined.
These numbers don’t show that Obama was bought off by drug companies and health insurers. The numbers suggest that these “special interests” knew they could make Obamacare work for them — and they have. The health lobby appears to be on the brink of victory.
Although Democrats overwhelmingly control all corners of the legislative process, liberals will not want to have this bill pinned on them or their president. But blaming Lieberman or the Republicans ignores the facts of life in Washington: Once Obama undertook to overhaul the health sector, it was almost inevitable that his “reform” would be captured by the industries affected.
If Obama signs a bill that looks like the current Senate deal, it will be a bitter pill for the Left. The lesson: Sticking the government’s hands into new aspects of the economy triggers a lobbying free-for-all — and he who has the best lobbyist wins. Despite all the hope, that fact hasn’t changed.
Timothy P. Carney, The Examiner‘s lobbying editor, can be reached at [email protected]. He writes an op-ed column that appears on Friday.
