Healthcare Hullabaloo: Clash of the Titans

Finally, the 2010 elections are behind us. Once again, our televisions will be free of the mud-slinging commercials, at least for the next 18 months or so.

With the Republicans re-taking control of the House and making major gains in the Senate, many people are wondering how this will affect much of the legislation that was passed during the last two years. Health care reform is definitely one thing in the crosshairs of the new Congress.

The National Health care initiatives passed during the first half of Obama’s presidency are an interesting example of how our government really works. While many Americans believe that public opinion is what drives legislation, it is really something much simpler. Want to know what it is? Here’s a hint. It’s paper-thin, 2.61 inches wide, 6.14 inches long, and grayish green in color. I’m referring, of course, to the once-great American dollar.

Like it or not, money is what drives our government. Bills are introduced and passed almost solely on how much money is spent by those favoring the bills versus those opposing them. Usually, the side spending the most money wins.

This dynamic is especially interesting when it comes to health care reform. You see, two of the biggest spending lobbies are standing on opposite sides of the health care reform fence. On the side opposing National health care, we have the insurance industry. To them, National health care would kill the fattest cash cow that they have ever seen – health insurance. Without health insurance policies to sell, they would be forced to make money the old fashioned way – selling boring, low-margin policies for property and casualty as well as life insurance. Yuk. Selling these type of policies are too much like work – that’s why many large insurance companies, like Aetna and Cigna, abandoned them years ago and now strictly sell health insurance.

On the other side of the fence, we have the pharmaceutical giants who are salivating over the prospect of National health care. A National health care system would certainly include prescription coverage, which would mean at least another 30 million Americans buying their over-priced chemicals. That’s why they reportedly spent 80 Billion dollars lobbying for National health care the last time around.

Of course, we all know who won that first battle – 80 billion dollars is a huge sum for any opponent to overcome. To put things in perspective, when corrected for inflation, this is close to the amount NASA spent on the entire Apollo/Saturn program.

While big pharmacy may have won the first battle, they did not win the war. Battle lines are being re-drawn, and it looks like we’re in for a real doozy of a rematch.

The dynamics have certainly changed for the rematch. The insurance companies, who were preparing to lose a major portion of their business, have been raising rates and cutting staff for the past few years. They’ve managed to stockpile quite a war chest in the interim. Having lost the first battle, they are probably ready to do whatever they have to in order to take advantage of this rematch. On the other hand, the pharmaceutical companies have already exhausted a huge sum of money winning round one. With some of the major players such as Pfizer and Merck facing expiring patents on some of their superstar drugs, one must wonder just how much fight is left in them.

It’s Ali-Frasier all over again.

The fireworks won’t be restricted to just CSPAN and the Nightly News – they are sure to spill over to television commercials that were carefully designed to win the hearts and minds of the American public. In fact, I’ll wager that the number of mud-slinging commercials will approach that of the last election. Sadly, the one person that could have provided a decisive victory for either side has departed this planet some 18 months ago. Rest in Peace, Billy Mays.

No one could sell the American public a load of crap like Billy. Instead, we’ll just have to be resolved to sit back and watch the two giants spend billions of dollars assaulting our senses. Thank God for the DVR.

So, my fellow Americans, sit back, relax, and enjoy the show. After all – be it through ridiculously high health care premiums, or $6.00 prescription pills, you’ve financed this shooting match.