On the political power of the healthcare industry

People generally think of aviation as a fairly safe industry, and KFF Health News reported on some people who have wondered whether the healthcare industry can learn from them about how to avoid accidents. For example, in 1999, the Institute of Medicine released a report "that called medical error in hospitals a leading cause of death." The KFF article outlines challenges with establishing a patient safety board, modeled after aviation's National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB). In particular, the hospital industry and medical groups appear to wield much more political power than their aviation counterparts.

"Hospitals, nursing homes, and medical professionals pour hundreds of millions of dollars into federal political campaigns each election cycle and spent $220 million lobbying Congress last year," the article reports. The healthcare industry is so large that they can actually afford hundreds of millions of dollars to change policy. The article also points out that healthcare groups employ many people, which can also influence votes. As a result, simple transparency measures may be watered down to become more palatable to hospital and medical groups, even though such information can be helpful to patients who are selecting providers.