“It’s not gambling when you know you’re going to win.” This could be what Elon Musk or Michael Bloomberg said to explain the extraordinary amount of money they spent on campaign contributions. Instead, it is a line from The Hangover, which is what so many people from both sides of the aisle experienced this week, post-election. I explain why my head hurts, in the One Thoughtful Paragraph below.
We are sharing what our consulting peers are saying in THEIR blog posts – because we should all get along in the world of health policy:
“Is there anything you can tell us about what happened last night?” This is a line from the film The Hangover, where four friends celebrate the pending nuptials of one of them in Las Vegas – resulting in a few shocking things happening. The “whoa-what-just-happened” theme seems on point for this week’s election aftermath. In the movie, the friends of the groom-to-be wake up the next morning with severe amnesia, pounding headaches, and their luxury hotel suite a mess. Also – the most straight-laced guy is missing a tooth, there is a live tiger in the bathroom, a baby in the closet, and the valet brings “their” police car around when they realize they need to go on a hunt to find the missing groom. Some might say this is exactly what happened in D.C. the day after the election. If you work in health policy, you may recall that the day after the election, CMS told doctors Medicare wasn’t going to pay them as much, but companies (that may or may not have doctors) will get paid if they monitor patients remotely – at least until 2029. The day after the election, CVS decided to break up its company into two parts: the Snickers-selling side (pharmacies) and people who get “hangry” but weirdly decide not to eat Snickers (insurance and PBMs). And, the day after the election, Google told everyone how to assess whether AI applications in health care are safe, accurate, and useful. I also noticed that a lot of doctors just got elected to Congress. Maybe they will know what to do about health care policy. But I am afraid it will be like in The Hangover movie, when the guys get lost and ask a doctor for directions. The doctor says: “I’m a doctor, not a tour guide.”
