Major CEOs Warm To Obama On Health Care
Here’s something else that bodes very well for President Obama’s efforts to overhaul the health care system.
With soaring health care costs dragging down major corporations like anchors, more major players in the business community are looking to get on board with reform this time. The key question is whether the business community can find enough common ground with labor and other stakeholders to unite behind a plan.
And this is a good sign: We just spoke to the Business Roundtable president John Castellani, who represents CEOs across the country and is a major player in the health care debate, because he’s playing a lead role in articulating what the business community needs to get on board.
Castellani tells our reporter, Ryan Derousseau, that he finds the scale of Obama’s commitment to reform ($634 million) and his rhetoric “very encouraging.”
What does big business want from reform? Among their priorities: Making medical delivery more efficient; reform markets so each state doesn’t have its own rules; have government shoulder some of the costs.
There’s a long way to go, of course. But for now Castellani says he likes Obama’s overall approach. “They are looking at this through the lens of fiscal responsibility,” he says, a suggestion that that Obama’s approach is on its way towards creating common ground for big business and labor, a key step towards getting reform done.
The homepage of this blog is here. Its RSS feed is here. And its Twitter feed is here.
Frankly, it seems like a no brainer to me. Health care costs are a huge burden to companies and any relief from the cost would be welcoming.
sure seems that way. I assume the big corps will at first appear hesitant to get on board if only to extract more concessions…
If you’re a CEO and your business in not in the medical field, what’s not to like? Obama’s plan doesn’t cost you anything, does it? Does it require you to provide for your employees? Why would they be asking for concessions?
Danp, I think it’s the big government thing that has made corporations leery of the government getting into health care, and this has been true since the huge uproar when Medicare was first enacted. So for corporations to be more concerned about their economic interest than about their fears of (shhh) socialized medicine is a big deal. I think it also signals that Obama’s willingness to talk and listen to everyone with an idea is showing benefits.
Dental. Dental. Dental. It has to include dental.
If the $634 Billion is any indication of Obama’s health care plan, Obama is planning a radical change in the health care system. The plan has not yet been laid out and already Obama is earmarking more than half a trillion for it and explaining that it will just be the beginning of what will be necessary.
One of the reasons that health care seems to be so expensive (among many others) is the cost of research and development in order to procure new treatments and drugs.
At the moment the health care industry has a significant incentive to pour money into research and development because of the possibility of making money. What will happen when this incentive is marginalized when the government has taken over the health care system? Will our advancements slow down or even cease?
http://www.weeklypoint.com/2009/02/26/obama-budget-plans-634-billion-down-payment-for-health-care-reform/
Thank you for writing and sharing this. It
http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/08/07/weekend-opinionator-a-sick-debate/
August 7, 2009, 8:13 pm
Weekend Opinionator: A Sick Debate
By Tobin Harshaw
Comments:
12. August 8, 2009 1:57 am
I have lived in Europe, the USA (NYC and FLA) and currently live in Canada. I am a reasonably well-informed financial executive. I make my living as a capitalist.
I wouldn’t know where to begin re: the health care debate but I will make a couple of observations:
1. The USA has the finest health care in the world — bar none — provided that you have a no-limit gilt-edged money is no object health plan. Or you are rich. In my experience the 2 go hand in hand.
Failing such insurance or such boundless wealth how any rational human being with an IQ over 75 and an income below, say, $250k (forget the social compassion argument) could defend the existing system is beyond comprehension.
2. The outright lies — yes lies — that critics of health care reform spew is disturbing. The intentional misrepresentation of the Canadian and European models is outrageous. The Canadian model is flawed. There needs to be greater access to ‘private-delivery’ alternatives (which currently exist in some fields.) Having said that, since I returned to the province of Ontario in the late 1990’s until now the improvement in standards and care is staggering and in most cases matches anything I witnessed or experienced in NYC. Yes, health care is rationed here (hence a need for ancillary private care) but it is rationed everywhere — including the US. The exception being as per point #1 above. Per capita Ontario spends approximately 65% of what the consumers/taxpayers of the US/NY spend. However Ontario delivers 90% — or more — of the US standard. That is one very big financial/efficiency/productivity gap. That money gap goes to the US insurance companies, doctors, malpractice lawyers and lobbyists. The common canard about Canada etc is that “faceless bureaucrats make life or death decisions” (as opposed to, say, faceless HMO clerks). The truth is that in Canada the ‘gatekeepers’ who allocate critical care are the physicians themselves — the specialists.
3. Aside from private-payment plastic surgeons it is true you will not see many doctors in Canada driving a Rolls Royce. But you will see an awful lot driving a Benz or a Jag. Doctors here work hard and are well compensated. What we lack here is the concept that a medical degree should be attributed Venture Capitalist returns.
4. Lastly, a general observation/question (again, I really am a capitalist). Why is it that in the USA (a country I genuinely love) millions of people who barely make a living or are working class and/or just holding on to the ‘middle class’ are the most vocal — hysterical wouldn’t be an exaggeration — in defending the privileges of the rich and the corporate? Against their own self-interest I might add. Anywhere else in the western world the existing US health care tyranny would have people in the streets demanding reform — not ‘debating’ it.
— jon c