http://www.forbes.com/2010/03/21/health-care-vote-business-beltway-congress.html?partner=whiteglove_google
Private Insurers America's Health Insurance Plans, an industry group for private insurers, has complained that health care reform leaves 23 million Americans uninsured, imposes drastic cuts in Medicare Advantage and levies a $70 billion tax hike (over 10 years) on the industry. While HMOs whine a lot, they actually came out OK. Their biggest nightmare was long ago removed from the legislation: a government-run plan to compete with private companies. Better yet, health insurers get 32 million new taxpayer-subsidized customers. In essence, it's a big Cash for Clunkers program for HMOs. Among the HMOs, the biggest winners are Cigna ( CI - news - people ), Aetna ( AET - news - people ) and UnitedHealthcare ( UNH - news - people ) because they are concentrated in big employer markets that will be largely unaffected by the bill. The bill is more likely to have a negative impact on WellPoint ( WLP - news - people ) and Humana ( HUM - news - people ). WellPoint could lose shelf space in the individual market it now dominates in many states. Humana has a big Medicare Advantage business and will get hammered by the reimbursement cuts. Drug and Biotech Companies Drug companies like Merck ( MRK - news - people ), Pfizer ( PFE - news - people ) and Amgen ( AMGN - news - people ) are among the biggest industry winners in the legislation. They suddenly will have tens of millions more insured customers who can afford their expensive medicines. The pharmaceutical industry's trade group was a big supporter of the legislation, and any threats to the industry were stripped out early or never included. There's no real plan for comparing treatments to one another, one approach that could lower costs, or for giving the government power to bargain for lower prices. The bill also gives drug makers extra layers of monopoly protection for protein-based biotech drugs, one of the industry's hottest areas. _______________________________________________ Marxism-Thaxis mailing list Marxism-Thaxis@lists.econ.utah.edu To change your options or unsubscribe go to: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/marxism-thaxis
