The disruptions at town meetings in August were not just the work of conservative hecklers and their corporate backers. The wave of anger also revealed that many Americans feel left out during the current recession. It is not just the 50 million people who are left out because they don’t have health insurance, or the tens of millions who are left out because they have inadequate health insurance, or even the many people who have been bankrupted by their medical bills (the most common cause of bankruptcy in the United States).

Notes on the eve of the President’s address by Andy Coates The election of Obama raised expectations for sweeping health reform sky high. But in spite of several self-imposed deadlines, Senate and House health reform bills were not ready by the time of the August Congressional recess, when passionate local debate erupted at Congressional home [...]

Medicare didn’t face a “chicken and egg” problem because it has always been the single insurer for the services covered under Medicare. Medicare has never had to compete with the insurance industry for “customers.” A pernicious consequence of the tendency of “option” advocates to describe the “option” as “just like Medicare” is that “public option” supporters and members of Congress have been lulled into thinking the “option” is bound to succeed just as Medicare did. The tendency of “option” advocates to ignore the daunting “chicken and egg” problem is one manifestation of the lazy thinking that has been induced by the constant comparison of the “option” to Medicare.

As we recall, a high-profile event at the White House in May 2009 brought together most of the major corporate stakeholders in the U. S. health care system in an effort to build momentum toward reform. The Obama Administration welcomed the cooperative spirit and combined pledges of some stakeholders to shave 1.5 percent off the [...]

I walked several blocks from the hospital at lunch time the other day. A basement storefront sign at a hair dresser’s read “walk-ins welcome.” Impulsively I went in. The young woman made pleasant small talk. I am a clod when it comes to small talk. I said that yes, the weather seemed suddenly hot instead [...]

Having considered four of the major corporate stakeholders in our medical industrial complex — the insurance, drug, and hospital industries as well as business — it is now time to turn our attention to organized medicine. Since physicians order almost all services that are provided within our health care system, they are obviously a key [...]

The politics and attitudes of business toward health care reform can be summed up in two words — fragmented and disunity. Unlike the insurance and drug industries, American business is by no means monolithic. There are big differences between the interests of big business, with its many multi-national corporations, and small business, which employs the [...]

Faced with increasing political momentum toward some kind of health care reform, the hospital industry, together with other major stakeholders, wanted to retain a place at the negotiating table and protect its interests in whatever legislation resulted. Urgency increased after the drug and insurance industries offered up their pledges to help with financing reform. Then [...]

In June, 2009, Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA), the drug industry’s trade group, followed up on its offer to help finance expanded health coverage within health care reform. PhRMA’s CEO, Billy Tauzin, was very familiar with politics and the drug industry. The former Republican turned Democrat Congressman from Louisiana had played a leading [...]

In May, 2009, President Obama held a high-profile event in the White House, convening leaders from the health care industry to a meeting to discuss reform of the U. S. health care system. Participants included representatives from the insurance, drug, medical device, and hospital industries as well as business, labor and organized medicine. This “alliance” [...]