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HEALTH REFORMERS MEET THEIR ENEMY.
If I were a Republican, I'd be ready to slit my wrists at the prospect of former Columbia/HCA Healthcare CEO Rick Scott heading the conservative response to Obama's health reform effort. This is like liberals getting Franklin Raines to run their economic messaging or Bush tasking Donald Rumsfeld with a comprehensive defense of his administration's legacy.
In the 90s, HCA was the largest for-profit hospital company in America. As Forbes wrote, "it bought hospitals by the bucketful and promised to squeeze blood from each one." More than any other single company, it was responsible for the cruelty that turned the public against managed care. Indeed, remember when audiences began spontaneously clapping for Helen Hunt's anti-HMO rant in As Good As It Gets? That was the sort of ruthless cost-cutting pioneered by HCA they were shouting down. If Scott didn't exist, health reformers would have to invent him.
But it turned out that HCA's wild profitability wasn't all efficiencies. A seven-year federal investigation uncovered widespread fraud. According to Forbes, HCA has "increased Medicare billings by exaggerating the seriousness of the illnesses they were treating. It also granted doctors partnerships in company hospitals as a kickback for the doctors referring patients to HCA. In addition, it gave doctors 'loans' that were never expected to be paid back, free rent, free office furniture, and free drugs from hospital pharmacies."
When all was said and done, HCA agreed to pay the government $1.7 billion. It was the largest fraud settlement in U.S. history. Richard Scott, the CEO, was forced to resign in shame.
And now, he's back.
Conservatives for Patients Rights is a multimillion dollar initiative that plans to stand athwart health reform and yell, "stop!" They've hired the same PR firm that sold the Swift Boat veterans for Truth. Their first ads will come this week on conservative talk shows and cable news. Their media blitz has already started. Today, Scott was profiled by The Politico. “If we have more government involvement we’re going to have dramatically worse health care,” he told said.
So, to recap: The first major health care group fielded in opposition to Obama's initiative comes from a for-profit hospital executive who resigned amidst the largest fraud case in United States history and means to sell an anti-government message using the same PR firm that helped the Swift Boat veterans.
There's an old saying: It is good to be lucky in your friends. But it is even better to be lucky in your enemies. Health reform, it would seem, is lucky in its enemies.
Guess what? Jon Cohn has more.
COMMENTS (16)
As good in its way as Limbaugh becoming head of the Republican Party.
Posted by: citizenstx | March 3, 2009 5:39 PM
Ezra-- you're entirely rigiht.
Scott is a slimeball--and unless he's been to charm school, he won't help the Republican image.
I interviewed him back in the early 1990s when he had just become CEO of Colubmia/HCA. I remember going back to New York and telling my editor that he looked more than a used car salesman than a hospital executive.
I know that's a terrible cliche, but that's just the vibe that he gave off. He knew nothing about medicine; a former M&A lawyer from Dallas, he smelled the money to be made in for-profit hospitals.
I wrote about him at length in my book and just posted about him on HealthBeat . . .
When it come to healthcare, I just don't see bipartisan compromise.
Strategically, it's wise of Obama to extend his hand across the aisle, but I think this is going to be a very nasty fight. With people like Scott on the front lines.
Posted by: maggiemahar | March 3, 2009 5:44 PM
For profit medicine. The horror!
Poor Ezra . . . I think you need to better understand scarcity. If not by price, how will we allocate scarce healthcare resources? Bureaucratic rationing, you say?
Oh, to be one of the annointed . . . .
Posted by: Nick | March 3, 2009 7:10 PM
@Nick
Without a "for profit" system? It'd have to be better than now, where vast resources are wasted on treatments such as spinal fusion surgery and angioplasty, which are medically lucrative but shown to be no more effective than less invasive therapy and pharmaceutical treatment...
Posted by: Brandon | March 3, 2009 8:06 PM
Yes, Nick, because "bureaucratic rationing" is totally unknown in the for-profit health insurance arena!
If you think that millions of Americans deserve to suffer and die when they get sick or injured because they're not wealthy enough to pay for healthcare, just say so.
Posted by: Pesto | March 3, 2009 8:29 PM
Health insurance companies play a major role in our current healthcare crisis. These companies make huge profits and their CEOs make millions, while the rest of us face skyrocketing healthcare costs, impossible bureaucracy, and life-threatening insurance denials.
HEALTH INSURANCE COMPANY PROFITS IN 2007:
1. UnitedHealth Group -- $ 4.654 BILLION. UnitedHealth Group owns Oxford, PacifiCare, IBA, AmeriChoice, Evercare, Ovations, MAMSI and Ingenix, a healthcare data company
2. WellPoint -- $ 3.345 BILLION. Wellpoint owns BLUES across the US, including Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Georgia, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Wisconsin, Empire HealthChoice Assurance, Healthy Alliance, and many others
3. Aetna Inc. -- $ 1.831 BILLION
4. CIGNA Corp -- $ 1.115 BILLION
5. Humana Inc. -- $ 834 million
6. Coventry Health Care -- $626 million. Coventry owns Altius, Carelink, Group Health Plan, HealthAmerica, OmniCare, WellPath, others
7. Health Net -- $ 194 million
The huge insurance company profits—BILLIONS EACH YEAR—could be used to provide quality healthcare for millions of people, and to pay physicians adequately for their work.
We need to get the insurance companies OUT of healthcare . The only solution is a NON-PROFIT SINGLE-PAYER HEALTHCARE SYSTEM – and the single payer should not be an insurance company or a group of insurance companies.
The solution? The United States National Health Insurance Act, H.R. 676. You can read about it here: http://www.healthcare-now.org/hr-676/
Posted by: FWalsh | March 3, 2009 8:49 PM
WHO’S LOOKING AT THE COMPENSATION OF THE HEALTHCARE INSURANCE EXECUTIVES?
The health insurance companies have played a major role in our current healthcare crisis. They make huge profits and their CEOs make millions, while the rest of us are denied care.
ANNUAL COMPENSATION OF HEALTH INSURANCE COMPANY EXECUTIVES (2006 and 2007 figures):
• Ronald A. Williams, Chair/ CEO, Aetna Inc., $23,045,834
• H. Edward Hanway, Chair/ CEO, Cigna Corp, $30.16 million
• David B. Snow, Jr, Chair/ CEO, Medco Health, $21.76 million
• Michael B. MCallister, CEO, Humana Inc, $20.06 million
• Stephen J. Hemsley, CEO, UnitedHealth Group, $13,164,529
• Angela F. Braly, President/ CEO, Wellpoint, $9,094,771
• Dale B. Wolf, CEO, Coventry Health Care, $20.86 million
• Jay M. Gellert, President/ CEO, Health Net, $16.65 million
• William C. Van Faasen, Chairman, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts, $3 million plus $16.4 million in retirement benefits
• Charlie Baker, President/ CEO, Harvard Pilgrim Health Care, $1.5 million
• James Roosevelt, Jr., CEO, Tufts Associated Health Plans, $1.3 million
• Cleve L. Killingsworth, President/CEO Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts, $3.6 million
• Raymond McCaskey, CEO, Health Care Service Corp (Blue Cross Blue Shield), $10.3 million
• Daniel P. McCartney, CEO, Healthcare Services Group, Inc, $ 1,061,513
• Daniel Loepp, CEO, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan, $1,657,555
• Todd S. Farha, CEO, WellCare Health Plans, $5,270,825
• Michael F. Neidorff, CEO, Centene Corp, $8,750,751
• Daniel Loepp, CEO, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan, $1,657,555
• Todd S. Farha, CEO, WellCare Health Plans, $5,270,825
• Michael F. Neidorff, CEO, Centene Corp, $8,750,751
This executive compensation could be used to provide quality healthcare for millions of Americans! We need to get the insurance companies and their lobbyists OUT of healthcare. NON-PROFIT, SINGLE-PAYER IS THE ONLY OPTION.
If you want to learn more, go to:
http://www.insurancecompanyrules.org/learn_more/the_roster/
Posted by: JBCollins | March 3, 2009 8:52 PM
Martin Luther King said, "Of all the forms of inequality, injustice in healthcare is the most shocking and inhumane."
Only a single-payer approach will end the inhumanity of our failed healthcare insurance system, where profits are more important than patients’ health.
Only a single-payer approach will end the current disgraceful practice of insurance companies refusing to pay for medical treatment, denying claims, and engaging in rampant price gouging that discourages patients from going to the doctor and has resulted in 50 million Americans without healthcare.
The solution? NON-PROFIT, UNIVERSAL, SINGLE-PAYER HEALTHCARE. It works well in many, many countries around the world.
HR 676, The United States National Health Insurance Act, would ensure that every American, regardless of income, employment status, or race, has access to quality, affordable health care services.
The solution? The United States National Health Insurance Act, H.R. 676. You can read about it here: http://www.healthcare-now.org/hr-676/
Ask your Representatives to co-sponsor HR676.
Tell Senator Baucus to put Single-Payer Reform on the table: http://www.change.org/ideas/294/view_action/sen_baucus_we_need_accurate_numbers_not_creative_figuring
HEALTHCARE SHOULD BE A RIGHT, NOT A BUSINESS.
Posted by: Jenny Roberts | March 3, 2009 8:57 PM
For profit medicine. The horror!
Poor Ezra . . . I think you need to better understand scarcity. If not by price, how will we allocate scarce healthcare resources? Bureaucratic rationing, you say?
Oh, to be one of the annointed . . . .
I think *you* need to understand inflexible demand and the cost of sick workers and ridiculous healthcare costs to the economy as a whole.
Grow up, you lame Michael P. Keaton clone.
Posted by: Anonymous | March 3, 2009 8:59 PM
Anonymous, I think it's time for your medication.
Posted by: Klaus | March 3, 2009 9:56 PM
A NEW STUDY SHOWS THAT SINGLE-PAYER REFORM WOULD BE MAJOR STIMULUS FOR THE US ECONOMY and would provide:
** 2.6 Million New Jobs,
** $317 Billion in Business Revenue,
** $100 Billion in Wages, and
** $44 Billion New Tax Revenues
You can find out more about this study here: http://www.CalNurses.org/
The press release is here: http://www.calnurses.org/media-center/press-releases/2009/january/nurses-to-congress-expanding-medicare-could-reverse-job-losses-and-repair-our-broken-healthcare-system-and-safety-net.html
Posted by: A Nurse | March 3, 2009 11:47 PM
"For profit medicine. The horror!
Poor Ezra . . . I think you need to better understand scarcity. If not by price, how will we allocate scarce healthcare resources? Bureaucratic rationing, you say?"
Actually, price systems are just another form of rationing. The question is not whether we ration, but whether we ration rationally--that is, with the greater good in mind--or just let those who can't afford health care suffer, with whatever repurcussions (social and/or economic) that entails.
There is not a question of whether there are enough people to possibly be trained to practice medicine. There is only the question of whether you want one more doctor or one more derivatives trader.
Posted by: anonymous | March 4, 2009 8:36 AM
Also, FWIW, anyone who knows anything about market theory knows that large profits are an indicator of inefficiency. As markets become more efficient (which in Free Market Capitalism's terminology means "better"), profit goes toward zero.
Posted by: anonymous | March 4, 2009 8:42 AM
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Posted by: wow gold | August 5, 2009 9:53 PM
Good post,thanks a lot.There is not a question of whether there are enough people to possibly be trained to practice medicine. There is only the question of whether you want one more doctor or one more derivatives trader
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