Obamacare?

Health Care Stakeholders In Favor of Doing Something

The amazing thing about Obama's approaches to almost everything is that they are multifaceted.

This meeting, for example, delivered very little of substance .. or did it?

Obamacare is a stealthy effort to create universal healthcare by creating an efficient government run alternative to the huge mess we have now. Getting there is the problem.

Even if all these funders could agree on how they can cut a trillion or so, the underlying issues with our very complex pattern of incompatible health care systems would still persist. My guess is that That One's strategy is to get these guys (yep guys) to sign onto a longer term view that lets their investors survive by adding value as we evolve toward a sing payer system. It si interesting to me that the crew is largely insurers, not hospital or healthcare system admins. That One may be trying to get the insurers to see that if they and the guv work together, to simplify how we deliver health care there will be room for private services and profit while the hugely expensive base line of health care services are brought under control.

I am sure the guys are very aware that That One has already squirreled away a billion dollars in research money for outcomes. My bet is that this will be the sort of research that facilitates consolidation of the system, providing the evidence needed to guide creation of a system that will lead to rationalization of how we deliver health care. That money and its predetermined outcomes as "research" ought to be a big club for CEO's responsible for the long term profitability of their firms.

The fly in the ointment here is that I am very suspicious of how that billion will be spent and worried about a continuation of the drain for such "research" on much needed dollars for science at the NIH.