No begging necessary, they’re all too eager for the new business
by digby
The Republicans are trying to sabotage the health care reform implementation one step at a time:
Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius has gone, hat in hand, to health industry officials, asking them to make large financial donations to help with the effort to implement President Obama’s landmark health-care law, two people familiar with the outreach said.
Her unusual fundraising push comes after Congress repeatedly rejected the Obama administration’s requests for additional funds to set up the Affordable Care Act, leaving HHS to implement the president’s signature legislative accomplishment on what officials have described as a shoestring budget.
Over the past three months, Sebelius has made multiple phone calls to health industry executives, community organizations and church groups and asked that they contribute whatever they can to nonprofit groups that are working to enroll uninsured Americans and increase awareness of the law, according to an HHS official and an industry person familiar with the secretary’s activities. Both spoke on the condition of anonymity to talk openly about private discussions.
An HHS spokesperson said Sebelius was within the bounds of her authority in asking for help.
You would think this would please Republicans to no end, wouldn’t you? No taxpayer money involved in educating people about how to access a new government sponsored program. The job creators can do it themselves! After all, the private sector is going to be the big financial beneficiary of the new program, so it’s all good.
Not so fast:
But Republicans charged that Sebelius’s outreach was improper because it pressured private companies and other groups to support the Affordable Care Act. The latest controversy has emerged as the law faces a string of challenges from GOP lawmakers in Washington and skepticism from many state officials across the country.
“To solicit funds from health-care executives to help pay for the implementation of the President’s $2.6 trillion health spending law is absurd,” Sen. Orrin G. Hatch (R-Utah) said in a statement. “I will be seeking more information from the Administration about these actions to help better understand whether there are conflicts of interest and if it violated federal law.”
That’s so hilarious it took me a minute to catch my breath from laughing. As if private industry and health executives are reluctant partners in the health care reforms. The health industry is thrilled with the Affordable Care Act, they were in the room every step of the way helping to write it. They don’t need any pressure to support it — in fact, I feel quite sure they already had plans to “reach out” to all the new customers who will be required to buy their health insurance and access their health care institutions as a result of the plan. It’s called advertising, and they do it all the time.
So, while it may not be quite how the administration would prefer that it, I feel quite sure that “outreach” will get done whether Kathleen Sebelius is forced to beg for money or not. And there isn’t anything Orrin Hatch can do about it.
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