By Tim Shoemaker
Tim Carney writes in the Washington Examiner about how lobbyists benefit from the health care “reform.”
When President Obama signed the Senate health care bill Tuesday, the mood among beat reporters resembled the last day of finals in college: pride in the long, hard hours they had put in; wonder about what they would do next; and relief that finally it was over.
But on K Street and in the business world, folks knew better. It’s not over.
Far from it. Health care reform means it’s always Christmas on K Street.
If you think Pfizer, General Electric and the American Medical Association do a lot of lobbying now (and they do), wait until this bill’s health insurance “exchanges” are established and Uncle Sam starts laying the ground rules for what is and isn’t covered and subsidized.
Under Obamacare, the Office of Management and Budget, which will govern the exchanges regulating and subsidizing health insurance, will hold the purse strings of companies that make drugs, mammogram machines and MRIs.
As Carney explains lobbyists will be empowered by the new bills:
The regulations implementing the law will not be crafted in a hermetically sealed chamber. The bureaucrats, by necessity, will take comments and suggestions from those who best understand the markets to be regulated — and that will include lobbyists from health care companies.
The drawn-out implementation period — some provisions don’t go into effect until 2018 — gives plenty of time for stakeholders to make their case to HHS, OMB, Treasury and the Internal Revenue Service.
Stay tuned for Kevin Brett’s exclusive interview with Tim Carney about Obama’s health care “reform” and what it means for you.