July 8, 2009
Who’s Got Your Back?
Hey, small business person! Yeah, you… the Startup CEO with less than 100 employees. You and I both know you’re paying the worst possible health insurance rates around. If you’re lucky enough to be able to afford to provide health insurance to your employees you’re lumped into a group insurance plan with absolutely no control over your rising premiums.
You want to do the right thing for your employees. You want to have at least a fighting chance to hire and retain your good employees, so they don’t run to the safety of a bigger larger company in these difficult times. So who’s lobbying for you?
“In a new report released [last month], the government watchdog group Common Cause found that major health care interests have spent upwards of $1.4 million a day to lobby Capitol Hill so far this year…”
According to Kaiser Health News, the National Journal reports that this political spending amount represents a 73 percent increase since 2000. The report also finds that campaign contributions to members of Congress jumped $40 million since 2000, to $94 million in the 2008 election cycle.
Health reform is “a historic confluence of issues that, as a consequence, has the Capitol swarming with lobbyists and awash with money,” NPR reports, “These days, just about every interest has a lobbyist. Drug manufacturers, hospitals, doctors, pharmacists, marriage counselors, chiropractors, unions.”
What? You don’t have a lobbyist in Washington? Uh oh…
Filed by Brad Hefta-Gaub at 9:00 am under Entrepreneurship, Healthcare
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