Congress showers health care industry with huge victory after wagging finger at it for much of 2019

[BeyondGeography]

Vilified by lawmakers from both parties for months, the health-care industry this year appeared to face an existential threat to its business model. But this week, pharmaceutical companies, hospitals, insurance companies and medical device manufacturers practically ran the table in Congress, winning hundreds of billions of dollars in tax breaks and other gifts through old-fashioned lobbying, re-exerting their political prowess.

“It’s the ‘no special interest left behind bill’ of 2019. That’s what it feels like this is,” said Andy Slavitt, a former health administrator who served in the Obama administration. “There’s no other explanation.”

Support came from virtually every corner of Congress. A bipartisan push to curb the practice of surprise medical billing was delayed until next year, with Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) working behind the scenes to raise objections to the package, according to three people familiar with the talks who spoke on the condition of anonymity to share details of private negotiations.

A bipartisan bid to rein in prescription drug prices failed to advance, as Senate Finance Committee Chairman Charles E. Grassley (R-Iowa) blamed Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) for blocking the effort. Pharmaceutical firms also won extended protections for select patents, as lawmakers tucked 17 words into Page 1,503 of a bill that critics allege could amount to billions more in profits for the industry.

And through a flurry of letters and targeted meetings with freshman House Democrats, the health-care industry ginned up broad support for repealing taxes that were central to the 2010 Affordable Care Act. Even House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), one of the law’s architects, agreed to go along.

The success shows how formidable the health-care industry remains, able to overwhelm Democrats with well-honed talking points and splinter Republicans through a concerted push. The unexpected victories could also serve as a wake-up call to political leaders who have vowed to completely upend the health-care system after the 2020 elections. It showed how the industry, even when it is targeted, can emerge politically and financially stronger...

https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/congress-showers-health-care-industry-with-multi-billion-victory-after-wagging-finger-at-it-for-much-of-2019/2019/12/19/9422aa6a-2028-11ea-9146-6c3a3ab1be6c_story.html

[blm]

1. This nation needs reform that ends the corruption in the healthcare industry

[BeyondGeography]

3. We're being laughed at

Everything EW has been saying was just validated.

[rickyhall]

2. USA - United State of Avarice

The Greediest Country on the Planet

[ritapria]

4. Gee , I wonder why people are so cynical about Politics ?

[blm]

5. This will go unread by many, even here.

Easier to repeat comfortable jingoisms.

[BeyondGeography]

8. See the posts below for more detail on the surprise medical billing piece

[BeyondGeography]

6. Private equity-backed groups helped kill the surprise medical billing provision

and they are re-writing it with the help of both parties:

When the legislative process heated up this summer, so did a fierce lobbying effort from doctors and hospitals. Doctor Patient Unity, a dark money group funded by two large private- equity-funded physician staffing companies, spent tens of millions on television advertisements and direct mail, urging lawmakers to oppose the bill. Lobbyists for doctors, hospitals, air ambulance companies and private equity funds also began making the rounds. Doctors have argued for a different solution to the surprise billing problem that would not cut their pay.

...The surprise billing legislation in the recent deal would set a default payment to doctors for situations in which they were not in an insurance network, with the ability to appeal larger bills to an independent arbitrator. According to the Congressional Budget Office, the approach would tend to lower pay for doctors in those specialties by an average of 15 percent to 20 percent, because it would shift negotiating leverage in favor of insurers.

Although most lawmakers who have written legislation on the issue endorsed the proposal, a few did not. The bipartisan leaders of the House Ways and Means Committee said last week that they hoped to introduce a competing bill in the future, and released a one-page paper last week describing a framework that is more aligned with the preferences of doctors’ groups.

In a final meeting last week, leaders in the House and the Senate met to decide what legislation would end up in the year-end spending bill. Surprise medical billing didn’t make the cut. Several people close to the negotiations said it did not have strong enough support from the Democratic leadership...

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.nytimes.com/2019/12/17/upshot/surprise-billing-democrats-2020.amp.html

[BeyondGeography]

7. Blackstone owns one of the dark money groups

and they are donating big bucks to D Ways & Means chair Richard Neal who is rewriting the surprise medical billing provision for re-submission next year:

Link to tweet

[Humanist_Activist]

9. Fuck everyone involved in this bullshit, how many more people need to die because of our...

horrendous health care system?