No Reprise of Harry and Louise? Stay Tuned

The White House announced yesterday that the Advanced Medical Technology Association has pledged to work with the administration to identify $2 billion in cost savings in health care over the next ten years – cutting the growth rate of health care by 1.5 raw percentage points, or by 1/5.  The AMTA  is  a lobbying group that includes medical device manufacturers; the American Hospital Association; the American Medical Association; America’s Health Insurance Plans, a trade group for insurers; the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America; and the Service Employees International Union.

 

This is big news – AHIP is the successor to the insurance trade organization that ran the Harry and Louise ads during the unsuccessful attempt to reform health care in the Clinton administration, and all of these organizations have a substantial role to play in reforming health care.  On the other hand, the $2 trillion is income – largely to these organizations – so the details will be difficult. 

 

Speaking of details – the Advamed web site and whitehouse.gov do not have the text of the Advamed letter as of 7am – so it’s hard to parse the words.   More to come on this.