This week, the White House teamed up with healthcare industry giants for a two-day PR blitz on health reform. A coalition of industry leaders sent a letter to president Obama over the weekend, pledging to help contain healthcare costs. The signatories include PhRMA (drug makers), Advamed (device manufacturers), the AMA (doctors), the AHA (hospitals), AHIP (health insurance), and SEIU's Health Care project. The corporate signatories are the very same interest groups that have fought U.S. healthcare reform for generations. AHIP, America's Health Insurance Plans, helped torpedo the Clinton plan in the 1990s with the infamous "Harry and Louise" TV spots.

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Yesterday's diary, reported Congress is having hearings today to consider seriously needed reforms to our countries credit card practices - but now Republican opposition may stop its passing.  This legislation, which enjoys bi-partisan support from many Democrats and Republicans, is aimed at helping reduce the hidden interchange fee through increased transparency, but Reuters reports (bold added):

"A consumer group, the U.S. Public Interest Research Group, said it supports legislation because it would create a mechanism pressuring both merchants and the credit card companies to negotiate fees.

`The panel (would) not set prices or establish government price controls,' said Edmund Mierzwinski, consumer program director at U.S. PIRG. `It is an oligopolistic market in which a small set of cardholders dominate the market and establish a set of deceptive practices.

The bill has little chance of becoming law this year due to Republican opposition and the dwindling number of congressional work days left before the November election.'"

More details below.

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