On Monday, along with others, I raised
questions about the
mystery $2 trillion in savings that the health care industry
pledged in a deal with Obama. At the time, despite the absurdity,
the agreement nonetheless seemed like a public relations coup for
the White House, evidence of the grand alliance among insurers,
doctors, hospitals, drug companies and unions for national health
care. But now I see this New York Times
report:
WASHINGTON — Hospitals and insurance companies said Thursday
that President Obama had substantially overstated their promise
earlier this week to reduce the growth of health spending.
Mr. Obama invited health industry leaders to the White House on
Monday to trumpet their cost-control commitments. But three
days later, confusion swirled in Washington as the companies’
trade associations raced to tamp down angst among members
around the country.
After meeting with six major health care organizations, Mr.
Obama hailed their cost-cutting promise as historic.
“These groups are voluntarily coming together to make an
unprecedented commitment,” Mr. Obama said. “Over the next 10
years, from 2010 to 2019, they are pledging to cut the rate of
growth of national health care spending by 1.5 percentage
points each year — an amount that’s equal to over $2 trillion.”
Health care leaders who attended the meeting have a different
interpretation. They say they agreed to slow health spending in
a more gradual way and did not pledge specific year-by-year
cuts.
“There’s been a lot of misunderstanding that has caused a lot
of consternation among our members,” said Richard J.
Umbdenstock, the president of the American Hospital
Association. “I’ve spent the better part of the last three days
trying to deal with it.”
Nancy-Ann DeParle, director of the White House Office of Health
Reform, said “the president misspoke” on Monday and again on
Wednesday when he described the industry’s commitment in
similar terms. After providing that account, Ms. DeParle called
back about an hour later on Thursday and said: “I don’t think
the president misspoke. His remarks correctly and accurately
described the industry’s commitment.”
I find this via
Michelle Malkin, who cites it as another example of Obama
inflating the promises of private industry, as he did with
Caterpillar during the stimulus debate. But I'm not so ready to
pin this one on Obama. If you go back and read the actual letter
the groups sent him on Monday, it states:
As restructuring takes hold and the population's health
improves over the coming decade, we will do
our part to achieve your Administration’s goal of decreasing by
1.5 percentage points the annual
health care spending growth rate—saving $2 trillion or more.
All of the groups met with Obama in the White House on Monday,
and flanked him as he gave a speech touting the proposed savings,
which were then blasted all over the news. And somehow, amid all
of this, his claims went unchallenged by the groups until now. A
much more likely explanation is that the groups received a lot of
complaints from their members over the agreement, and so now they
are trying to backtrack.
Whichever side you choose to believe, however, this episode is
sure to breed mistrust among the players. And remember, the fact
that all of these groups were coming together to cooperate was
seen as evidence that the environment is a lot different this
time than it was in 1993/94, when the industry groups actively
opposed HillaryCare. But Monday's publicity stunt will have
backfired if public finger pointing starts to break this alliance
apart.
