Washington, D.C. -- If the U.S. government takes over health care delivery or insurance whole cloth, several groups have a lot to lose. Many of them joined forces Monday to present President Obama with a pledge to reduce the growth of health care costs.

The groups included representatives for hospitals, doctors, insurers, labor, and drugs and device makers including the American Hospital Association, American Medical Association, America's Health Insurance Plans, Service Employees International Union, the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, and AdvaMed.

The coalition proposed ideas to cut health care costs by up to $2 trillion in the next decade. Many of same groups had opposed health care reform under the Clinton administration and would certainly still oppose radical reform that threatens the current models of health innovation, physician control, and dominant third-party insurers. But times have changed since the 1990s and the escalating costs of health care and providing care for the uninsured are largely to blame for America's economic woes.
"What makes today's meeting so remarkable -- because it's a meeting that might not have been held just a few years ago -- the groups who are here today represent different constituencies with different sets of interests. They've not always seen eye to eye with each other or with our government on what needs to be done to reform health care in this country. In fact, some of these groups were among the strongest critics of past plans for comprehensive reform," President Obama said. "But what's brought us all together today is a recognition that we can't continue down the same dangerous road we've been traveling for so many years; that costs are out of control; and that reform is not a luxury that can be postponed, but a necessity that cannot wait. It's a recognition that the fictional television couple, Harry and Louise, who became the iconic faces of those who opposed health care reform in the '90s, desperately need health care reform in 2009. And so does America."

Some of the key recommendations the groups put forth to cut costs include:

-Improving Care after Hospitalizations and Reduce Hospital Readmission Rates.
-Reducing Medicare Overpayments to Private Insurers through Competitive Payments.
-Reducing Drug Prices.
-Improving Medicare and Medicaid Payment Accuracy.
-Expanding the Hospital Quality Improvement Program.

By bringing ideas to the table now, the industry groups are trying to demonstrate their leadership at a time when the new administration is considering just how far it will go in assuming control of the industry. Recent lessons from the financial and banking sectors suggest that the President is not shy about government takeovers.

Congress is expected to roll up its sleeves this summer to forge a health care reform bill.

"So the steps that are being announced today are significant. But the only way these steps will have an enduring impact is if they are taken not in isolation, but as part of a broader effort to reform our entire health care system," the President said.

Perhaps symbolically, the meeting took place in the Roosevelt room of the White House.

Read the coalition's fact sheet:
http://www.whitehouse.gov/assets/documents/Fact_Sheet-Health_Reform_Stakeholders_5-11-09.pdf

Watch DOTmed News for coverage of the health care reform debate.

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