Big Health Care’s deep pockets

Most people I talk to agree that our health-care system is in dire straits and that reform is crucial. Not everyone agrees on how that should be done, but that’s pretty normal in a democracy like ours.

However, The Washington Post recently had an article that said the health-care industry is spending $1.4 million a day — a day! — to lobby in D.C. as the health-care debate builds. This amount is so unprecedented that it has called attention to itself in a city where huge lobbying efforts are common. Three out of every four major health-care firms (hospitals, insurers and medical groups) have hired a total of 350 former government staffers and retired members of Congress to lobby in their interests.

The phenomenal amount of money being spent by the health-care industry is a perfect example of why the system needs to be fixed. That they have this kind of money to spend on lobbying tells us the health-care industry is more interested in making huge amounts of money than in providing solid, benevolent health care for all U.S. citizens.

Sheilah A. Philip
Overland Park

Comments

[Gary]

Sheila, start asking the people you talk to, to describe just how our health care system is in "dire straits." In fact, since you're so sure it's true, please take a whack at that yourself.

[Marctnts]

"Most people I talk to agree..."

I always get a kick out of the emphasis that people place in their arguments on their own homespun polls. In this case, more accurate ACTUAL polls seem to back up the letter writer's claim, but it's still humorous to see people assume that their small network of contacts is a scientifically accurate sampling of the population as a whole.

"That they have this kind of money to spend on lobbying tells us the health-care industry is ..."

...spending a whole lot less than you think. Total health care expenditures in 2007 (the latest year available) were $2.26 trillion dollars. Even if the $1.5 million dollars per day the letter writer claims were spent for an entire year, the total for the year would represent about 0.02% of the total health care spending. I agree that the amount sounds like a lot when looking at the raw numbers, but when evaluated in context, the amount becomes much less shocking.

Again, I still think that much of the current argument over health care is misplaced. We're arguing over who will pay the bills (when in the end it will be US either way) instead of REAL discussion about why the bills are as high as they are (health care costs have outpaced inflation by a 3/1 margin). By shifting the argument to the periphery issue of who's writing the checks, we're ignoring the more important issue of the causes of, and potential solutions to, the rising cost of health care.