Ben Nelson was bought all right, to the tune of $2M in contributions to his last three champagnes - a boatload of money in a low campaign cost state like Nebraska - from the insurance and pharmaceutical industries.
They like this bill - with mandatory purchase of insurance, weak cost control and a three-quarter trillion dollar transfer of taxpayer money to the industry - just fine.
And don’t kid yourself that this is “Socialism” - this “State-Capitalism” on a grand scale, and Nelson one of the best investments they ever made.
“They like this bill - with mandatory purchase of insurance, weak cost control and a three-quarter trillion dollar transfer of taxpayer money to the industry - just fine.”
I work in the insurance industry. The industry does NOT want ObamaCare to pass. Where did you come up with your comment that there will be a “three-quarter trillion dollar transfer of taxpayer money to the industry”? Even assuming, arguendo, that your comment is correct, if the insurance industry must accept ALL applicants, and cannot restrict or deny pre-existing conditions, the industry will collapse within 24 months — unless it is allowed to raise rates to cover that exposure, a rate increase the government would never allow; then, the left will get its wet dream of a single-payer. Insurers cannot arbitrarily raise rates. They must apply to the government (vis-a-vis state insurance commissions) for the approval of any rate increases, and the federal bureaucracy created by ObamaCare will trump local commissions.