The hospital’s top lobbying group gave Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-California) an award on Monday for “her incredible efforts to advance healthcare.” Medicare for All or other major reforms to insurance-based healthcare systems.
The American Hospital Association (AHA) says it is “dedicated to providing quality care to all patients,” but in reality, lobbying groups are taking huge chunks out of the country’s private health system. It contributes to the financial interests of the members of the profitable hospital chain.
AHA President and CEO Rick Pollack said in a press release announcing Pelosi’s acceptance: “She is an advocate for better health care, an advocate for patients, and continues to work hard to expand opportunities for children, seniors, students, veterans and the poor.”
of lever On Monday night, I was denied access to the awards ceremony event at the AHA’s Annual Meeting at the Marriott Marquis in downtown Washington, DC. When our researcher arrived at the event, AHA staff said they would connect him to a communications officer, but instead the hotel manager approached and threatened to arrest the researcher if he didn’t leave. event.
Raising $129 million in 2021, the AHA is Washington State’s powerful lobbying force, representing large hospital chains such as CommonSpirit Health, Ascension and Tenet Healthcare.
Hospitals are a major contributor to exorbitant medical costs in the United States. Hospitals often criticize the health insurance industry for unfairly denying patient claims and creating financial barriers to care, but hospital lobbyists work with insurers to maintain an insurance-based healthcare system. I am working to This is because private health insurance companies pay hospitals far more than they receive from the government-run Medicare program.
The AHA is part of a healthcare industry coalition of insurance, pharmaceutical and hospital companies that spent $81 million on television from 2018-2021 to build a comprehensive and universal healthcare system. and lobbied against Medicare for everyone. Eliminates the need for private insurance. The coalition also opposed more limited proposed reforms, such as public health insurance and efforts to lower the Medicare eligibility age from his age of 65.
When Pelosi spoke at the 2019 AHA annual meeting, the organization’s top lobbyist, Tom Nickels, predicted that Pelosi would work to block the progressive-backed Medicare for All Act. .
“She’s trying to stick a needle here. She understands the difficulties Medicare for All poses for her caucus and some of its members who have to be re-elected,” Nickels said. “And my guess is that she’s pretty good at keeping members out of harm’s way.”
he was right In his four years that Pelosi was chairman again—the first two of which were the Republican Senate and President, and the second of which the Democrats held his three-coalition—the House was Medicare for All. Never voted on the law.
House Democrats also voted for a bill that would create a “public option” or government-run health insurance plan, or lower the Medicare age, as promised by Republicans and President Joe Biden during the 2020 election. there is no. .
Instead, Democrats used the first two years of the Biden administration to get more Americans into private health insurance plans and to make health insurance companies even better. They did this by expanding subsidies available to individual market plans that were plagued with high out-of-pocket costs and periodic denials of claims.
The AHA’s 2021 advocacy agenda included “ensuring stability and affordability in the health insurance market by expanding subsidy eligibility and levels.” Last year, the group called for these subsidies to be expanded permanently.
On Monday, Pelosi received the AHA’s 2023 Honorary Award. This award is given to “an individual or organization that has recognized exemplary contributions to the health and well-being of our country through leadership in major health policy or social initiatives.”
The organization praised Pelosi’s role in passing the Democratic Affordable Care Act of 2010, the Health Care Act of 2010. made prescription drug prices negotiable for first time.
According to the AHA blog post, “Pelosi defended the work of AHA members during her speech. ”
Primus, who recently retired, opposed Medicare for All as Pelosi’s senior health care advisor. washington post The concept is “too expensive” and “absolutely unusable”.
In February, Primus received an award for “outstanding government service” from the American Medical Association, a physician lobby group.
Sen. Mark Warner (D-VA), Maggie Hassan (D-NH), Roger Marshall (R-Kansas) and Todd Young (R-IN) at the three-day AHA event. Representatives Larry Bouchon (Republican-Indiana), Madeleine Dean (Democrat-Pennsylvania) and Adrian Smith (Republican-Nebraska) also attended.
Then there was entertainment. Journalists, pundits and political operatives often pay tens of thousands of dollars or more to speak at such industry events.
Karl Rove, a longtime Republican strategist and chief of staff to former President George W. Bush, and David Axelrod, a CNN commentator who served as a senior adviser to former President Barack Obama, have been on AHA politics. I spoke at the Action Committee luncheon.
on the other hand, lever The meeting was attended by several prominent representatives from the corporate media, as attendance at the AHA awards ceremony was blocked.
Jim VandeHei and Mike Allen are co-founders of the news site. Axiosspoke at the AHA luncheon for “government officials,” which means lobbyists. washington postJonathan Capehart of AHA hosted the AHA Leadership Awards Luncheon.