NY Times Details the Convergence of Lobyists and Democrats Over Health Care

As documented here among other places, the health care industry and their lobbying arms have been deeply involved in the negotiations and generally in support of some bill passing. Of course this exposes the sheer lunacy of left wing talking points who have been claiming that corporations have funded the town hall protests, but the reality based community would rather gin up momentum by creating an alternate world view where they, the Davids of our story fight heroically against the sinister corporate Goliath. Its all so freaking crazy, I mean surely Pelosi, Reid, Durbin, Obama know how much support they have gotten from industry all the while screaming people over profits? Of course Industry is making its Faustian bargain in the hopes that bagging 40million new customers, along with Federal subsidies that will result in a truly captured market. Additionally these groups are playing it safe while average Americans are out in the street fighting the battles industry is scared to engage. By the way we are the ones who will suffer after all this over.

The drug industry, for example, struck a deal with the Obama administration and is now waging a major advertising campaign to help push the health care overhaul. But the drug makers also abhor one of its cost-cutting components: a government initiative to study the effectiveness of treatments that the companies fear could mean lower payments for certain drugs.

So drug lobbyists have enlisted the help of Tony Coelho, a former Democratic congressman who cites his battle with epilepsy to make their case.

“I don’t want some government folks making a decision because of a cookie-cutter approach to health care saying, ‘We will only approve the three most common drugs,’ so then my drugs are not approved, and I am going to have seizures,” said Mr. Coelho, the chairman of an industry-backed group called the Partnership to Improve Patient Care. “And it is going to cost people a lot more money because I am going to be in an emergency room.”

Tony Coelho by the way is a big wig in the Democrat elite, how big, well.....

President Reagan had not had a good first debate against Walter Mondale in 1984. Tony Coelho, the slashing House Democrat from California, wasn't about to let that go. Reagan had "looked old and acted old," he told the press. How old, exactly? "Well," said Coelho, "he didn't quite drool."

The next day, under attack from his Republican colleagues on the House floor, Coelho explained himself, as only he could. "I rose to the defense of the president," he protested. "I said he wasn't drooling."That's the legendary Tony C.: partisan, aggressive, harsh, mischievous, sort of fun, and in love with the game of politics

And that is the man whom Al Gore has tapped to run his presidential campaign. Gore turned to Coelho in the second week of May, worried, it seems, that his campaign was faltering. Bill Bradley was biting at his heels, and George W. Bush was creaming him in polls all across the country. Tipper Gore, too, was concerned, having waited too long to be First Lady to see it slip away through a lack of political discipline. So Tony it was, baggage and all.

And what baggage. Coelho is the father of the vast and ethics-flouting Democratic money machine that has, from time to time, landed Bill Clinton and his vice president in hot water. As boss of his party's Congressional Campaign Committee in the 1980s, Coelho set a new standard in fundraising and strong arming, becoming the very model of a political shakedown artist. He made the party rich, but in 1989 was forced to leave the House under a cloud of financial scandal. Thereafter, he concentrated on making himself rich, earning piles and piles at a New York investment firm, trading on his countless connections, keeping a hand in politics, exuding his typical joy. Coelho is a happy warrior, in all he undertakes.

Big fish indeed, and not the only one involved in these dealings with the white house. Then there is the AMA which came out in opposition to parts of Obamacare, but on paper has tried to play both sides of the fence:

The American Medical Association, a pivotal player because of its credibility with patients and voters, has made the most sweeping endorsements of the administration’s efforts, restating its support in a letter released Wednesday before President Obama urged Congress to pass a bill this year.

But the A.M.A.’s lobbyists are also working to extinguish the idea of a government-run insurer, which doctors fear could eventually push down their fees. The lobbyists are also using the organization’s support as leverage to persuade Democrats to roll back steep cuts in future Medicare payments to doctors (the House bills eliminate the cuts, and the A.M.A. is still at work on the Senate).

Meanwhile, the A.M.A. has also raised no objections to a dissident faction, led by a former association president, that is lobbying much more vocally against the proposed public option, among other issues. “Nobody from the A.M.A. has sent me a nasty letter,” said Dr. Donald Palmisano of New Orleans, the former association president who has become the public face of the dissidents, the Coalition to Protect Patients’ Rights. “What I am advocating is just A.M.A. policy.”

So we have these groups working with the President, trying to cut what they don't like and achieve some type of legislative victory. Then of course there is the Hospital Industry which along with the pharmaceutical industry has provided political cover for the president with cost savings that might not really exist, but it doesn't matter because the President constantly points out savings that doesn't exist:

Hospital lobbyists, like the drug makers, have a deal with the White House to limit their costs and are pushing hard to pass a bill. But the hospitals are haggling with the Senate Finance Committee over another proposal: a newly empowered Medicare oversight board that could impose payment reductions.

Two hospital lobbyists, speaking anonymously because the discussions are confidential, say their deal should protect them from further cuts the board might seek. White House officials dispute that, though when asked about the matter recently, Rahm Emanuel, the White House chief of staff, said the hospital deal included cuts it might have taken a decade to achieve.

Even the lobbyists for the insurers — the favorite villain of Democratic health care rhetoric — say they, too, strongly support reform, including new restrictions on their own underwriting. But that does not mean they have laid down their arms.

As for the insurance industry, I am coming to the conclusion that they may be the biggest winners from all this, a captured market, invincibles forced to buy health care, the poor subsidized to purchase private insurance,all at the cost of accepting a massive regulatory burden in exchange for guaranteed profits. So there it is, industry in collusion with Obama attempting to avoid damage and possibly coming out the winners from this "reform effort".