Who Got the Bribes for Obamacare Endorsements

In the following article, Dick Morris and Eileen McGann reveal the truth behind the AMA, AARP, and Insurance companies -- strange bedfellows -- endorsement of Obamacare. The AMA endorsement is disturbing because they represent one of the five groups of people who are classified as "professionals" and who by definition are not supposed to be placing money above ethics and responsibility to their profession and their clients. This AMA endorsement has added to the growing tarnish on all medical professionals.

As for the endorsement by the insurance industry, we can expect they might want to make money or even survive the changes being proposed for Obamacare. But, they are quite myopic failing to see that just because they line up under pressure to support Obamacare doesn't mean that they will not find themselves in the lines to ruin. With failure comes finger pointing which is going to fall heavily on the insurance industry as the government throws them under the bus to achieve becoming the single source for health insurance.

However, most disturbing is AARP who was supposed to be a nonprofit nonpartisan organization that advocated on behalf of seniors.  However, AARP has used its membership roster to line the pockets of the corporate AARP offices through kickbacks from service provided to seniors including medical coverage to seniors. The AARP is already experiencing reductions in their membership. Seniors may be slow to change but they are not stupid and when they are angry watch out. Maybe it is time for a class action law suit by seniors for a return of several years of dues from AARP for their deceptive actions.

I appreciate the Morris' identifying the medical device makers who have stood with their clients - those who use their devices. The medical devise makers would not endorse Obamacare and now may suffer or at least their clients will suffer because people of no conscious, like Pelosi and other liberal democrats, would tax people who need heath care devices to sustain their lives. So, when grandma needs a pacemaker, not only will grandma most likely have to wait in line to get approval from a bureaucrat verses her doctor, but once approved. she will have to pay more because medicare reimbursements have been reduced. Then to add insult to injury, she will have to pay a federal tax for the privilege of being allowed to have the pacemaker. Liberals do not really care about the needy; their goal is to control the lives of people from cradle to grave.

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by Dick Morris & Eileen McGann: As the suicidal Democratic congressmen proceed to rubber-stamp the Obama health care reform despite the drubbing their party took in the '09 elections, the president trotted out the endorsements of the AMA and the AARP to stimulate support. But these – and the other endorsements – his package has received are all bought and paid for.

Here are the deals:

• The American Medical Association (AMA) was facing a 21 percent cut in physicians' reimbursements under the current law. Obama promised to kill the cut if they backed his bill. The cuts are the fruit of a law requiring annual 5 percent to 6 percent reductions in doctor reimbursements for treating Medicare patients. Bravely, each year Congress has rolled the cuts over, suspending them but not repealing them. So each year, the accumulated cuts threaten doctors. By now, they have risen to 21 percent. With this blackmail leverage, Obama compelled the AMA to support his bill...or else!
• The AARP got a financial windfall in return for its support of the health care bill. Over the past decade, the AARP has morphed from an advocacy group to an insurance company (through its subsidiary company). It is one of the main suppliers of Medi-gap insurance, a high-cost, privately purchased coverage that picks up where Medicare leaves off. But President Bush-43 passed the Medicare Advantage program, which offered a subsidized, lower-cost alternative to Medi-gap. Under Medicare Advantage, the elderly get all the extra coverage they need plus coordinated, well-managed care, usually by the same physician. So more than 10 million seniors went with Medicare Advantage, cutting into AARP Medi-gap revenues. Presto! Obama solved their problem. He eliminates subsidies for Medicare Advantage. The elderly will have to pay more for coverage under Medigap, but the AARP -- which supposedly represents them -- will make more money. (If this galls you, join the American Seniors Association, the alternative group . . . .)
• The drug industry backed ObamaCare and, in return, got a 10-year limit of $80 billion on cuts in prescription drug costs. (A drop in the bucket of their almost $3 trillion projected cost over the next decade.) They also got administration assurances that it will continue to bar lower-cost Canadian drugs from coming into the U.S. All it had to do was put its formidable advertising budget at the disposal of the administration.
• Insurance companies got access to 40 million potential new customers. But when the Senate Finance Committee lowered the fine that would be imposed on those who don't buy insurance from $3,500 to $1,500, the insurance companies jumped ship and now oppose the bill, albeit for the worst of motives.

The only industry that refused to knuckle under was the medical device makers. They stood for principle and wouldn't go along with Obama's blackmail. So the Senate Finance Committee retaliated by imposing a tax on medical devices such as automated wheelchairs, pacemakers, arterial stints, prosthetic limbs, artificial knees and hips and other necessary accouterments of health care.

So these endorsements are not freely given, but bought and paid for by an administration that is intent on passing its program at any cost.

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