Democrats who've made "Medicare for All" a top health care priority are running up against their toughest opponent yet: their own neighborhood hospitals.
The multibillion-dollar industry has emerged as the most formidable foe of single-payer health care. It’s helped assemble a coalition of health care lobbies that has launched social media campaigns attacking Medicare for All and its most high-profile proponent, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), while fighting narrower Democratic proposals to expand federal health coverage over concerns any change would slash hospital revenue.
That’s created a dilemma for Medicare for All champions who cast themselves as crusaders against a broken health care system full of greedy insurers and drug companies, yet remain wary of taking on hospitals that rank as top employers in many congressional districts and are seen by the public as life-saving institutions.
“We’re not cutting out hospitals, we are keeping the existing hospital system,” said Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.), a leader of Democrats’ Medicare for All caucus and fierce critic of corporate influence, adding “they’re very much going to be a partner at that table.”
The bill would all but end private insurance and regulate hospitals in a vastly different way, dramatically changing operators’ business model and costing community hospitals as much as $151 billion a year, according to one estimate published in JAMA.
The industry's stand against Medicare for All comes amid lobbying on separate and intensifying bipartisan efforts to address "surprise" medical bills, with hospitals fighting other parts of the health care industry to ensure they’re not the ones who have to swallow the bulk of the patient’s tab.
Hospitals now drive a significant share of the nation's health care spending, though the public doesn't see it because insurers wind up paying much of the bill. And hospitals make up for the relatively lower payments they get for Medicare and Medicaid patients by shifting some of the expense to patients with private insurance, which pays more than double Medicare rates, according to a new study that’s put the hospital industry on the defensive.
The calculus would change dramatically under Medicare for All, which would free millions more patients to seek no-cost medical care while slashing hospitals’ pay rates and putting up to 1.5 million jobs at stake.
"Every congressman has got a major hospital in their district, and that hospital is a major employer,” said Kevin Schulman, a professor of medicine at Stanford, who co-authored the JAMA article. “And so how hard we can push on hospitals given that is an open question.” (...)
For-profit hospital trade group Federation of American Hospitals led the formation of The Partnership for America’s Health Care Future — a coalition spanning the provider, insurer and drug lobbies formed solely to oppose major efforts to expand government coverage. Its 30 members include hospitals’ other lobbying juggernaut, the American Hospital Association, and a slew of big operators including Ascension — the nation’s largest Catholic health system — and Texas hospital management giant Tenet Healthcare.
The Partnership has spent more than $68,000 attacking Medicare for All on Facebook and Twitter this year, and plans to spend at least six figures targeting voters and Washington policymakers, according to a person familiar with its strategy. Its frequent email blasts deride Medicare for All as a costly government takeover that would destabilize the health system and cut access to care.
In recent weeks, The Partnership launched a series of broadsides at Sanders, a 2020 presidential contender, reflecting a conscious decision to directly challenge the top-tier Democratic candidate over his health care rhetoric, the person familiar with the strategy said.
Sanders’ campaign manager, Faiz Shakir, responded by calling the group “a partnership to protect America’s health industry profits” and a front for profiteering corporations.
by Adam Cancryn and Rachel Roubein, Politico | Read more:
Image: via
[ed. See also: It’s time to disrupt the existing hospital business model (Brookings).]
The multibillion-dollar industry has emerged as the most formidable foe of single-payer health care. It’s helped assemble a coalition of health care lobbies that has launched social media campaigns attacking Medicare for All and its most high-profile proponent, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), while fighting narrower Democratic proposals to expand federal health coverage over concerns any change would slash hospital revenue.
That’s created a dilemma for Medicare for All champions who cast themselves as crusaders against a broken health care system full of greedy insurers and drug companies, yet remain wary of taking on hospitals that rank as top employers in many congressional districts and are seen by the public as life-saving institutions.“We’re not cutting out hospitals, we are keeping the existing hospital system,” said Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.), a leader of Democrats’ Medicare for All caucus and fierce critic of corporate influence, adding “they’re very much going to be a partner at that table.”
The bill would all but end private insurance and regulate hospitals in a vastly different way, dramatically changing operators’ business model and costing community hospitals as much as $151 billion a year, according to one estimate published in JAMA.
The industry's stand against Medicare for All comes amid lobbying on separate and intensifying bipartisan efforts to address "surprise" medical bills, with hospitals fighting other parts of the health care industry to ensure they’re not the ones who have to swallow the bulk of the patient’s tab.
Hospitals now drive a significant share of the nation's health care spending, though the public doesn't see it because insurers wind up paying much of the bill. And hospitals make up for the relatively lower payments they get for Medicare and Medicaid patients by shifting some of the expense to patients with private insurance, which pays more than double Medicare rates, according to a new study that’s put the hospital industry on the defensive.
The calculus would change dramatically under Medicare for All, which would free millions more patients to seek no-cost medical care while slashing hospitals’ pay rates and putting up to 1.5 million jobs at stake.
"Every congressman has got a major hospital in their district, and that hospital is a major employer,” said Kevin Schulman, a professor of medicine at Stanford, who co-authored the JAMA article. “And so how hard we can push on hospitals given that is an open question.” (...)
For-profit hospital trade group Federation of American Hospitals led the formation of The Partnership for America’s Health Care Future — a coalition spanning the provider, insurer and drug lobbies formed solely to oppose major efforts to expand government coverage. Its 30 members include hospitals’ other lobbying juggernaut, the American Hospital Association, and a slew of big operators including Ascension — the nation’s largest Catholic health system — and Texas hospital management giant Tenet Healthcare.
The Partnership has spent more than $68,000 attacking Medicare for All on Facebook and Twitter this year, and plans to spend at least six figures targeting voters and Washington policymakers, according to a person familiar with its strategy. Its frequent email blasts deride Medicare for All as a costly government takeover that would destabilize the health system and cut access to care.
In recent weeks, The Partnership launched a series of broadsides at Sanders, a 2020 presidential contender, reflecting a conscious decision to directly challenge the top-tier Democratic candidate over his health care rhetoric, the person familiar with the strategy said.
Sanders’ campaign manager, Faiz Shakir, responded by calling the group “a partnership to protect America’s health industry profits” and a front for profiteering corporations.
by Adam Cancryn and Rachel Roubein, Politico | Read more:
Image: via
[ed. See also: It’s time to disrupt the existing hospital business model (Brookings).]
