Reform in Health Care makes Strange Partnerships

Welcome to this installment of the Weekly Health Insurance News Roundup. This week we will look at one article, entitled, “Health care reform’s strange bedfellows” from CNN Money. This article looks at the changes that have been made from lobbyists and politicians alike, and how they’ve now decided to work together in a bipartisan manner to bring about health care reform. While just about everyone agrees that health care reform is needed in this country, not everyone agrees with how it should be brought about.

Back in 1993, then First Lady Hillary Clinton also proposed a health care system overhaul that would have made a mandatory, government run health insurance pool wherein everyone would be required to have insurance. Lobbying groups like the National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB) and the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) were opposed to the plans back then, launching a series of commercials starring “Harry and Louise” denouncing the health insurance reform bills, which worked well enough to derail the entire endeavor.

Now, however, the NFIB is singing a different tune, and even brought back “Harry and Louise” for new commercials during last year’s presidential elections. Their new message: Reform health care now. This is a far cry from their stance nearly two decades ago. While these unions are in favor of reform, there are some things they will still take lawmakers to task. While they do favor a national health insurance pool, they don’t want small businesses to be required to provide health insurance as they say it would be too costly. However, their new willingness to work with lawmakers and other lobbyists is fairly astounding given their history.

What does this show us? Maybe when the situation gets bad or desperate enough, former enemies will indeed become at least temporary allies in order to work toward a common goal that helps everyone. Maybe the business owners that lobbyists represent are tired of the current system and hunger for a change, and their lobbyists are responding accordingly. Whatever the case, it’s honestly very nice to see, and one can only hope it continues long enough to bring about health insurance reform that helps everyone.