Obama cut deals with doctors, drug companies, insurance companies and hospitals to get Obamacare enacted.
1. The doctors were promised a permanent “doc fix” that was excluded from the bill finally passed;
2. The drug companies were promised 12 years of patent protection that Obama now has whittled down to 7 years.
3. Insurance companies were promised a mandate that would guarantee tens of millions of new customers, but Obamacare’s enforcement penalties (thankfully) were so tepid that millions of uninsured are expected to ignore the mandate since it would be way cheaper to just pay the penalty. Moreover, the mandate has been declared unconstitutional, so unless SCOTUS concurs with the FL judge that the entire bill should be scrapped, the insurance companies are going to end up with many expensive rules and mandates but without the healthy customer base they had hoped to shift these costs onto.
4. All that’s left is for the administration to announce how they plan to shaft hospitals.
It’s hard to feel sorry for these industries that knowingly made their deals with the devil. One might be tempted to point out they’ve gotten exactly what they deserve.
The insurance companies realized what was happening and adjusted prices accordingly, to reduce risk. The docs, however, can’t raise their prices so easily. They’ve been set by the govt. If they accept medicare, they have a maximum reimbursement. The insurance companies have negotiated rates with docs, as well.