Big Questions About Deals Whitehouse is Making with the Big Players in Healthcare

White House, health industry deals raise questions about quid pro quos for private sector.
In a front page story, the New York Times (7/8, A1, Herszenhorn, Stolberg) reports, "The deals, trumpeted loudly by the White House, would each help pay for a sweeping overhaul of the healthcare system." But the promises by health industry groups, drugmakers and hospitals to save the government billions in healthcare costs, hailed as "historic" by the White House, have come with almost no discussion of "what the industry groups will be getting in return for their cooperation, whether or not the promised savings ever materialize." But in spite of the White House's deal making, "some lawmakers said the deals, while seemingly helpful, could raise false expectations by obscuring how much the industry is demanding for its concessions." A rumored deal in the works with doctors "could come at a steep price: a $250 billion fix to a 12-year-old provision in federal law intended to limit the growth of Medicare reimbursements."