On health care, lobbyists flex muscle

The Boston Globe ^ | 5/31/10 | Christopher Rowland

[Gothmog]

A $3 million campaign by doctors, scanner operators, manufacturers, and groups devoted to women’s health helped persuade lawmakers to overrule Medicare administrators this year and restore much of the reimbursement for osteoporosis tests. In a little-noticed provision buried deep in the sweeping new health care bill, Congress decreed that Medicare shall pay $97 for each test, instead of $50.

It was a stark instance of a narrowly tailored, special-interest political victory in a law trumpeted by President Obama and Democrats as putting America on a path to a more rational health care system, where decisions are made on medical evidence and patient outcomes.

[paragraphs excerpted]

GE HealthCare, a global giant in production of many types of imaging machines, spent $540,000 on this and other issues. A spokesman for GE HealthCare, Jeff DeMarrais, said the company openly participates in the public debates and is “focused on consumer access to life-saving and life-enhancing solutions.’’

[Gothmog]

Just adding to the exmaples of government interference in healthcare included in ObamaCare, prepare to get yourself a well-connected lobbyist if you want to get good healthcare.

[Hoodat]

Those who have the most influence and pull will get healthcare.

[browniexyz]

Fine, Medicare can pay $97, but why not let seniors pay $50 cash and get the test when they and their docs think they need it, instead of when the bureaucracy determines they get it?