Health Insurance and drug companies make huge profits under the existing system. They have a vested interest in maintaining the status quo. The insurance companies do not want a public health option because it would force them to lower their premiums in order to remain competitive. Here is a link to an article from CNN by Wendall Potter an ex-insurance company spokesman who explains how the insurance companies pour mega bucks into PR firms who supply "talking points" to commentators and the like to support and defend the status quo.
http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/08/17/potter.health.insurance/index.html?eref=igoogle_cnn
The health insurance and drug companies have plenty of money and they use it to hire lobbyists. This article, published in Bloomberg Reports
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601070&sid=aqMce51JoZWw
states that 3,300 lobbyists have signed on to influence health care reform, that is 6 for each of the 535 members of the House and Senate. Is it any wonder that the issue is so confusing to people. Amid all of this confusion, alarm bells should go off when you read that President Obama is backing off from a public option and that he has met behind closed doors with Big Pharma, the drug companies. Big Pharma does not want the US Govt. to be able to negotiate for the price of drugs, which they cannot do currenty under Medicare. Think of it. Billions of Medicare recipients taking blood pressure pills and the government can't say, "We're buying 20 billion blood pressure pills, we want them for 2 cents a piece" Instead of the buck or two they get for those 20 billion now. That is why the drugs in Canada and Europe are so cheap, because those governments are not bought and sold by big business and can negotiate the prices. Proof that these industries are making big bucks is easily found when viewing the stock market ticker tapes. You can bet, with the economy in the toilet that health insurance and drug company stocks are up and rising.
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