Backroom Deals

I recently watched a documentary on Obama's health care bill in government class. I can not remember the name for the life of me, but I do remember a section about a backroom deal between Obama and insurance lobbyists. When Obama was starting out his campaign he claimed he would strongly promote universal health care, which he did as the president. However, he was forced to take out the public option (option of citizens to buy government insurance) as a result of a deal with the hospital industry. Here is a Huffington Post blog excerpt from a year ago which reported on the deal.

This should be big news. Even while President Obama was saying that he thought a public option was a good idea and encouraging supporters to believe his healthcare plan would include one, he had promised for-profit hospital lobbyists that there would be no public option in the final bill.

Obama went back on his initial word that there would be a public option. I am not attacking Obama, but I am frowning upon the actions of the insurance industry. Because of their backroom deal, the public option was taken out. I may have been a supporter of the bill if there was a public option. On the other hand, insurance agencies would be hurt by the bill because the government would take away their business. If everyone was morally straight, the insurance agencies would allow the government to cover everyone, depending if people want it or not. Sadly, this is not the way our economy acts.