The Bleeding ObviousFollow

America's healthcare industry has spent hundreds of millions of dollars to block the introduction of public medical insurance and stall other reforms promised by Barack Obama. The campaign against the president has been waged in part through substantial donations to key politicians.

Supporters of radical reform of healthcare say legislation emerging from the US Senate reflects the financial power of vested interests ‑ principally insurance companies, pharmaceutical firms and hospitals ‑ that have worked to stop far-reaching changes threatening their profits.

The industry and interest groups have spent $380m (£238m) in recent months influencing healthcare legislation through lobbying, advertising and in direct political contributions to members of Congress. The largest contribution, totalling close to $1.5m, has gone to the chairman of the senate committee drafting the new law.

A former member of Bill Clinton's cabinet says fears that the industry could throw its money behind the populist rightwing backlash against public insurance have scared the Obama White House into pulling back from the most significant reforms in return for healthcare companies not trying to scupper the entire legislation.

Drug and insurance companies say they are merely seeking to educate politicians and the public. But with industry lobbyists swarming over Capitol Hill ‑ there are six registered healthcare lobbyists for every member of Congress ‑ a partner in the most powerful lobbying firm in Washington acknowledged that healthcare firms' money "has had a lot of influence" and that it is "morally suspect".

Our annual benefits rollout is coming again soon, and the options this year suck balls. Every plan has a deductable this year (versus just co-pays last year), and none of them are cheap. We will have to start contributing to a health care flexible spending account to make sure we can cover the deductable when needed. The only thing covered 100% is preventative care, but I don't go to the Dr. if I don't feel sick, so I'm not sure what good that will do me.

We've had it pretty good for a long time so I suppose I can't complain, but I will anyway

If only you didn't have that weird *** money (toonies and loonies).

I had to ask someone in Boston if those coins the change machines spit at me from the subway were any good anywhere else. He said, yes, The Presedential dollar coin was as good as a bill. Looks like your money is as weird as ours.

I'd like to take this time to thank Wint and Belkira for reaffirming for me why I love living in Canada.

On a happier note (I hope, anyway), I've heard that while the "public option" has been mostly scrapped for the time being, there's a fairly major expansion of Medicaid that seems to have gone mostly under the radar up to now. Apparently it will be expanded to include people who cannot financially afford health insurance. I'm not sure what this entails exactly, or what all the details are, or really even what Medicaid does for you, but I know it has to be a good thing overall.

I'm betting the public option will be back, under a different name after some of the smoke clears.