Obamacare Cronyism Makes Bad Medicine
By Mary Theroux • Monday June 18, 2012 3:15 PM PDT • 18 Comments
Emails released last week between representatives of major pharmaceutical companies (“big Pharma”) and top Obama administration officials, including White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel, reveal insider-dealing sufficient to kill any remaining Hope that Obamacare was designed to deliver on the promises of its official name: there is no Patient Protection or Affordable Care discussed therein.
The joint venture was forged in secret in spring 2009 amid an uneasy mix of menace and opportunism. The drug makers worried that health-care reform would revert to the liberal default of price controls and drug re-importation that Mr. Obama campaigned on, but they also understood that a new entitlement could be a windfall as taxpayers bought more of their products. The White House wanted industry financial help and knew that determined business opposition could tank the bill.
I urge you to read the two stories linked here and here to grasp their full, gory detail, but the upshot is that in exchange for, among other things, the Obama side killing the inclusion of drug importation in the bill, big Pharma threw millions of dollars behind its passage, including a $150 million advertising campaign coordinated with the White House, and $70 million on two 501(c)(4) front groups called “Healthy Economy Now” and “Americans for Stable Quality Care” to build public opinion support for Obamacare’s passage.
The closeness of the relationship extends to discussions of the President’s addresses to the American public on the subject. Following a speech in which the President made comments critical of the industry—subsequently blamed on a “young speechwriter”—Rahm Emanuel is quoted as telling the big Pharma reps: “I take personal responsibility for that error. As you know, this is out of character for what the President has been saying since we made our deal.”
Here is a video overview of the revelations:
While Obamacare was ostensibly the “fix” for a system we can all agree is badly broken, even if it were repealed, or struck down by the Supreme Court, a fix remains needed. Rather than continuing to strike political room back-deals and expecting different outcomes, our new book, Priceless: Curing the Healthcare Crisis, provides workable solutions to actually achieve Patient Protection and Affordable Healthcare:
Tags: Business, Corruption, Healthcare, Insurance, Politics, Presidential Power, Price control, Propaganda, Transparency 
We have the exact opposite of a free market in health care. In fact what we have today is more a government enforcement monopoly that has no relationship at all with a free market.
For example, a free market health care system would not have prescription laws or drug laws. Or government medical licensing. Or government licensed hospitals, drug companies, medical device makers. Or prohibition of importation of medical drugs for private use. Free market health care would be much more like the free market in retail trade. Competition for the customer would exist thus prices would be held down to the minimum. Nothing like we have now!
Jerome Bigge | Jun 18, 2012 | Reply
Obama inherited a huge mess there is no denying the numbers
Only Roosevelt got a worse one
Obama got 92% increase in Spending
(1830 9-30-01)–(3500 9-30-09)
112% increase in Debt
(5700 9-30-02) (11,900— 9-30-09)
237,000 jobs per month to 31.000
surplus (9-30-01) to 1400 deficit (9-30-09)
two 10 year wars—building roads schools with our money 7000 miles away
Contractors becoming millionaires
Huge Tax cuts to destroy a surplus of 10,000 projected for 2010
Smashed Housing Industry for many years
Smashed Financial industry but bailed out at hundreds of billions
Got a GREEEEET RECESSION still here 6-18-12
No one got such a darn mess. No one but Roosevelt
Muli-nationals are still sending industries to foreign lands for more profit even tho it is killing middle class America
I wish there were an easy fix. Oh! How I miss our many Mfg Plants that built our city a great city of 45,000. Plenty of jobs prior to 1980.
Obama is trying hard.
Health Care Reform in midst of a Great recession was wrong.
Stimulus was tooo low.
We have income to pay our way. Top 50% must be taxed more.
Defense Medicare must be cut cut cut
Cold War is over. We are loaded with weapons. WHY.? Who scares is?
Why keep on building bigger deadlier?
Profit for the Industry and jobs for Representative districts
Selfish Waste of our Resources
clarence swinney | Jun 19, 2012 | Reply
Fact Checking
clarence swinney | Jun 19, 2012 | Reply
WHO GOT CLINTON TO BUSH TO OBAMA
Who Dug the Deep Hole? Who Fumbled the ball?
Numbers rounded
Clinton left Bush an 1800B Budget
Bush Left Obama a 3500 Budget
Clinton left Bush a 240B Surplus as far as the eye can see
Bush left Obama a 1400B Deficit as far as the eye can see
Clinton left Bush 5,700B of Debt
Bush left Obama 11,800B of Debt
Clinton left Bush a 237,000 net new jobs created per month
Bush left Obama a 31,000 lowest number since Hoover.
Clinton left Bush 17 Million Manufacturing Jobs
Bush left Obama 11 Million Manufacturing Jobs
Clinton left Bush a 10,800 Dow
Bush left Obama an 8028 Dow
Clinton left Bush Peace on Earth Good Will From Most Men
Bush left Obama Hell on Earth Two disastrous wars. Enmity of 1500 Million Muslims
Clinton left Bush a President most highly rated of any peacetime President in Asia, Africa, Europe.
Bush left Obama the most hated President in history
Bush left Obama an Housing Tsunami and Financial Volcano
Bush left Obama, in 2008, an 8500B Bail out commitment Yes! 8500 not just 700
Bush left Obama his Takeover of Fannie/Freddie, AIG, and first bailout of Chrysler
Bush increased maximum loan by Fannie/Freddie from $153,000 in 2000 to $300,000 then to $729,000
That is how F&F got stuck with so many toxic mortgages. Bush gift to Big Bank pals.
Bush increased FDIC maximum deposit coverage from $100,000 to $250,000. Help the rich.
clarence swinney–political historian–lifeaholics of america burlington nc
author-Lifeaholic–Life story of Workaholic failure to Lifeaholic success
Best seller list in haw river nc population 200 and growing
comments welcom facts -numbers not opinionTHE TSUMANI
clarence swinney | Jun 19, 2012 | Reply
Want a Job better hire a democrat!
JOBS PER PRESIDENT
wall street journal 1-9-09
Per Year-(Rounded)
Clinton—-2,900,000
Carter—– 2,600,000
Johnson—2,300,000
Reagan—-2,000,000
Nixon—– 1,700,000
Ford——– 745,000
Ghw Bush– 625,000
Gw Bush— 375,000
DEMOCRATIC PRESIDENTS—7,800,000
REPUBLICAN PRESIDENTS—-5,445,000
clarence swinney | Jun 19, 2012 | Reply
Where does Obama fall on this list?
impertinent question man | Jun 19, 2012 | Reply
Clarence:
The President doesn’t create jobs, nor does he drive a healthy economy. Public policy as crafted or revised by an administration establishes an environment within which private entrepreneurs will either expand or contract. Current policies, including the huge and unknown of Obamacare, are creating “regime uncertainty,” under which businesses are not hiring or investing.
Please see these links for articles which address the various points you raise:
“Important New Evidence on Regime Uncertainty”
“Why ‘Stimulus’ Doesn’t Stimulate”
“Cessation of Labor Force Growth since 2008″
Agreed that the current explosion of government spending and debt dates from the Bush administration—which policies we also vehemently informed against—and it must be severely curtailed. Taxing the top 50%—or even 100%—more will not resolve the problem. There is not enough wealth creation to cover these levels of spending, and even confiscatory taxation would not support them.
See, for example, Britain’s experience this year:
And:
Higher Taxes Won’t Reduce the Deficit
Finally, for an assessment of all U.S. Presidents and their relative records on peace, prosperity, and liberty, see, Recarving Rushmore: Ranking the Presidents on Peace, Prosperity, and Liberty. The rankings might well surprise you.
With best wishes,
Mary
Mary Theroux | Jun 19, 2012 | Reply
More doctors would likely help, but how to produce them?
richard | Jun 19, 2012 | Reply
Since Obama is so great, why are there more Americans unemployed today than ever before in America’s history?
Joe Larson | Jun 19, 2012 | Reply
Take a look at Article 1, Section 8, of the Constitution to find the duties of Congress.
Depending on how you count them, there are 17-20; THAT’S IT!! The have very few lawful duties! Now think and see if they are even doing the one’s they are supposed to do??
The Federal Government isn’t supposed to be messing with healthcare, and look what has happened since they did. Anyone who reads it will find that they do not respect human life, and those above 73 years of age are DISPOSABLE.
Maybe they hate their mother’s and father’s, but I LOVE mine and won’t tolerate them being abused by Obamcare DEATH Panels!!!
onceproudamerican | Jun 19, 2012 | Reply
I wish you liberals would take a look at the real facts instead of regurgitating the propaganda being constantly spewed by the emperor and his regime. Yes, Bush left Obama a deficit, but look a little closer and find out that the Clinton “SURPLUS” was not a real surplus at all.
Under Bush’ 8 years and the 40 odd presidents before him we accumulated a debt of 4+ Trillion. Obama has spent that much in 3 years, PLUS, another trillion and if reelected he will spend another 10 Trillion in his second term.
Did he bail us out of this mess? No he bailed out his Wall Street buddies. We borrowed trillions of dollars from the very banks we gave it to in bailouts. Did he bailout GM? Sure, if giving it to a french company is a bailout. The banks “artificial crash” came from the Clinton administration forcing them into making bad loans because of their housing act. Yet none o the banks who got the brunt of the bailout money were required to participate in that fiasco. They just chose too. Bill Clinton deregulated the banks and led us to this mess.
Obama is not for the middle class. If he was your god he would have bailed out the middle class and not squandered trillions of our grandchildren’s money on big business. You want to see Obama’s Eutopian Dream society, take a look at where all the socialist and fascist countries have ended up. Oh maybe you can’t because the dems like to hide history from us. I am sure Greece has a place for you to live and maybe you should go there to be with your socialist comrades, because the rest of us, and WE ARE THE MAJORITY, are sick of you bleeding heart liberals not taking responsibility for taking a perfectly good country and turning it into a heap of trash.
Wilson Smith | Jun 19, 2012 | Reply
Richard:
You have hit on a key issue. Supply is currently being held artificially low, as a result of a number of factors:
The number of American medical schools, and therefore the number of doctors, is legally controlled through licensing laws supervised in each state by the American Medical Association. Those who favor limitations on the number of doctors do so because they fear an “oversupply,” which would presumably lower the income and power of individual doctors. These restrictions to entry and other factors, such as the lengthy and expensive testing procedures required by the Food and Drug Administration, have pushed up costs. (See also this history of restrictions on drugs and medical devices by the FDA on our website, FDAReview.org)
Regulations also control who can perform many routine “medical” procedures—which can range from simple tasks like treating hangnails, to childbirth—restricted to fully licensed physicians. Many of these tasks could well be performed by nurses, nurse practitioners, Physicians Assistants, midwives, etc., with M.D.s on call in the event of complications only.
Once again, when we scratch the surface of the healthcare “crisis,” we find government controls and regulations underneath. Thus our calls for freeing up patients, doctors, and other healthcare providers to discover and offer a wide range of healthcare options instead of the extremely tightly constrained industry of today.
Not to sound like a broken record, but I again commend all to our new book—hot off the presses today—Priceless: Curing the Healthcare Crisis, and the great deal of topical commentary by its author, all available through our website, here.
With best wishes,
Mary
Mary Theroux | Jun 19, 2012 | Reply
Clarence, your brainwash with liberal lies has been complete. Based on the deep & dark stats you cited don’t you think Americans ought to start another ‘Occupy Movement’, to ban the party that has been consistently making the country worse off — the Republicans? That way the majority will no longer risk being called ‘stupid’ every time they vote a Republican into office. You may want to call the good Dems to start that, toward the dream of Dem-Dictatorship in America. :)
Ed Munir | Jun 19, 2012 | Reply
Wilson Smith:
Thank you for pointing out the root cause of the “artificial crash”; not sure why it seems to escape many. Is it attention deficit, or rather, due to propaganda 24/7 telling us that which it wasn’t? We have lived through the nineties when Clinton resurrected the 1977 Carter-era dinosaur–the noble-intentioned but fiscally irresponsible CRA. We remember how Clinton, with help from the Federal Reserve, pushed banks to make high risk loans. How many folks do we know that jumped on the bandwagon of ARM loans?
Our govt also marketed those to foreign investors: Europeans and Japanese, in particular. Predictably, when the mess began to unfold, those markets were also affected.
Hitler wrote in Mein Kampf (1925-26): “All propaganda must be so popular and on such an intellectual level, that even the most stupid towards whom it is directed will understand it.” “Through clever and constant application of propaganda, people can be made to see paradise as hell, and also the other way around, to consider the most wretched sort of life as paradise.” His NAZI party was short for National Socialist Party.
Propaganda thrives today. Indeed, mass media are exploited 24/7 with propaganda to manufacture consent, just as Chomsky noted. Round the clock we are fed “Dems are saviors of America, Republicans are just crazy religious bigots” which strips us of independent thought and seduces us to believe facts are redundant. Even Bill Maher, a comedian I used to like, has become an advocate for the Dems on his show!
On one hand the Dems champion democracy but on the other hand they’re also quick to disrespect the majority by calling their choice ‘stupid’, every time people elect a Republican to the WH.
Is that hypocrisy confirmation that they really want a dictator pushing socialist agendas that have failed everywhere else simply because their propaganda of a Utopia still seduces, or that the Dems actually respect democracy?
In 2008 the Dems pooh-poohed The Patriot Act & Guantanamo Bay. Then in 2011 Obama signed to extend both, when NO Dems raised a peep.
The facts of Obamacare matter because its details will affect not only all of us but also our future generations. So why the cognitive dissonance among its backers? Why has party loyalty been liberally put ahead of the well-being of Americans? By evidence more than one, liberalism has become a godless religion aka blind faith, in America! It started out as anything-but. Regards.
Ed Munir | Jun 19, 2012 | Reply
Obama’s plan is not to create jobs. His plan is going along and the media is not reporting what he is doing behind stage. He is dismantling our immigration laws, taking over our health care and destroying it. Trying to intimidate our courts to favors his socialist agenda. He is giving the power of our military to NATO and U.N. and complaining of our decision to them to trump our own laws. He is stepping on our Constitution. He picks and chooses what laws to defend, or to enforce. Keeping unemployment high is one of his agendas. Empowering other countries with billions of dollars, for Muslims, Indonesia, Kenya, and Palestinians.
CARMEN | Jun 19, 2012 | Reply
Get rid of medical licensing of doctors and their schools. I’ll bet you didn’t know the AMA limits the amount of medical schools and licenses that are able to be obtained, thus ensuring high salaries for these “doctors”.
DP | Jun 21, 2012 | Reply
Thank you, DP.
Yes, if you look above at my response to Richard, I so noted this point. Again, both licensing restrictions, and restrictions on what procedures require a full M.D. vs. alternative medical practitioners would do much to alleviate the supply-side cost driver of healthcare.
With best wishes,
Mary
Mary Theroux | Jun 21, 2012 | Reply