With a new Congress and an administration seeking funding for healthcare and other programs, marketing has become an unpopular and easy target ripe for regulation and shakedown, according to this article published on Advertising Age. To fight back, marketers and their big associations are lobbying government officials, talking up the millions jobs supported by advertising, proposing voluntary rules to govern themselves, and steeling themselves for a lot more, the article states.
An emerging consensus among a bipartisan group of senators is poised to shift the dynamic in the congressional debate over healthcare reform. The finance panel's legislation is expected to include incentives for employers to provide health insurance for their workers, rather than a more punitive coverage mandate. The committee is also likely to endorse narrowly targeted tax increases, rejecting a controversial tax surcharge on wealthy households that the House adopted.
Members of Congress said the have been deluged with calls from constituents worried that their Medicare benefits might be cut to help finance coverage for the uninsured. The concern over Medicare came as House Democratic leaders tried to assuage the concerns of fiscally conservative House Democrats who have held up action on healthcare legislation while they press for changes to reduce the cost of the bill.
Liberals are growing anxious that a final healthcare reform deal will negotiate away their top priority: a public plan to compete with private insurers. Some Democrats are threatening to oppose any bill that excludes this option, and sympathetic outside groups are pressuring wavering lawmakers. Health Care for America Now, a liberal group, and the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees spent $800,000 on television ads targeting moderate Democrats, citing their opposition to a public option.
Boston Medical Center chief Elaine Ullian has announced that she will retire, amid what could be the hospital's worst financial crisis in years. Earlier this month, Boston Medical Center sued Massachusetts officials, accusing them of illegally cutting payments for treating thousands of poor patients and plunging the hospital into fiscal uncertainty. The hospital estimates that it will lose $175 million in the fiscal year starting Oct. 1 and $38 million by the end of this fiscal year.
Grady Health System must pay $20 million to Georgia due to Medicaid overpayments made to the center years ago, officials said. Grady CEO Michael Young said the hospital is paying for desperate decisions made by his predecessors. Grady officials in 2004 and 2005 aggressively maximized the amount of Medicaid they received, leaving the current regime to pay back the extra millions, Young said.