Whether deserving or not, President Obama’s name is now synonymous with change. However, associating the US health insurance industry with progressive change is more of a challenge. Which is why it was so surprising last week when AHIP, the industry’s trade group, signed a letter to the President committing to reduce the growth in health care expenditures and seemingly reversing its prior stance of resistance to reformhttp://query.nytimes.com/....
Despite the potential public good that the agreement could provide, it seemed strange to see the for-profit health insurance companies endorsing measures that would explicitly cut into their profits. This would have been a welcomed change from their typical profit maximizing-care minimizing calculus. However, once again, profits have proved to be more powerful than progress.
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