David Sirota asks three questions that all journalists should be raising about President Obama’s alliance with the health care industry to reduce costs and reform the system:
1) If the health industry is saying it can lower costs by $2 trillion over 10 years and remain highly profitable, isn’t the industry admitting that it was planning to absolutely bilk consumers, and has been bilking consumers in the past? Put another way, isn’t the industry admitting that it’s entire business model is based on outright profiteering?
2) Why should the American public believe the health industry is going to voluntarily do anything to cut into its profits? Health executives have a fiduciary responsibility to private shareholders to maximize profits. Voluntarily lowering those profits would violate that fiduciary responsibility. Are we really expected to believe these health executives will, out of the goodness of their hearts, violate their fiduciary responsibilities? What has actually changed to suggest that they will violate their fiduciary responsibilities and help health care consumers?
3) Isn’t President Obama legitimizing voices that will use that added credibility later on to try to derail serious health care reform? Today’s press conference has the President of the United States effectively saying that the health insurance industry should have a major seat at the health-reform table – and that it should be trusted. But any serious health care reform will need to take on the health insurance industry in a way that will make that industry unhappy. When that eventually happens, won’t the previous efforts to legitimize the health insurance industry’s voice add credibility to its opposition to reform?
