Health Insurance Industry Shifts Focus

By Wendell Potter
Even though Congress hasn't even taken final action on health care reform legislation, the special interests, i.e., Big Insurance and Big Pharma, are already shifting some of their considerable resources to state capitals to try to thwart the intent of whatever legislation Congress finally sends to the President. It's a big assumption that the President will get something to sign, of course, but insurance and drug companies are taking no chances, as reported by The New York Times today in "Health Lobby Takes Fight to the States." We've been predicting this would happen for some time, so it's about time the Times and other media started paying attention. As they have done at the federal level, the insurance and drug companies have made "investments" in state legislators, mostly Republicans, where they think they have a good chance of getting state lawmakers to circumvent some of the most important components of meaningful reform. So reform advocates will not have a minute to rest. The battle will just be shifting from one city to many after the first of the year.