Why is the healthcare industry so active in lobbying?

Healthcare innovation benefits patients, especially patients with rare or intractable problems.

To established healthcare businesses, however, innovators are a challenge. It takes work to maintain market share: research and development, a close watch on potential competitors, a budget for marketing. Some will even buy up inventions to maintain control of sales.

But what if you could quash your competition in other ways?

That's where healthcare lobbying comes in. Convince a majority of legislators that innovation can harm patients, and your work is practically finished. Especially since most of the public already believes they are at risk from the healthcare system.

Many, many bills have been passed in Lansing in the name of safety. The upcoming MHF Guide to State Health Policy describes bills on both sides of the tangled debate. Getting your own copy is a great first step to understanding the issues.

Understanding history is also helpful, because healthcare wasn't always this way.

With his Innovation as Bush Fire, Robert Graboyes gives a fascinating window into the "old days" of creative thinkers - some of whom lived not long ago.