Lobbyists—the supposedly forbidden profession in President Obama’s Washington—had an enormous influence in shaping ObamaCare.
Now, they are back for more goodies as states set up requirements for state insurance exchanges. In a blog post headlined “ObamaCare Jumps the Shark in its Premiere,” Walter Russell Mead explains:
Chiropractors and acupuncturists are lobbying to make sure that their services are included among the “essential” services that the new insurance must provide. …
This same process will happen again and again and again. The nurse lobby will make sure that only licensed nurses can provide certain procedures.
Other groups will protect their vested interests by influencing the regulations following amending laws.
Ultimately even the positive features of the law will be significantly compromised by the steady accretion of small changes, almost unnoticeable in themselves in many cases—and even well intended sometimes—that over time will turn the law into an unholy mess.
ObamaCare is destined to prove unworkable, at what great cost in human suffering we don’t yet know. Mead thinks that the add-ons for special interests will make the law harder to reform. But is it possible that they might prove so costly and inconvenient that they will keep the opposition fired up?
If so, there is a chance that ObamaCare will go the way of McCain-Feingold, which was defanged after its opponents chipped away at it with legal challenges over a period of years?
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