An unexpected ally for health reform: The restaurant industry

"While many small businesses are fighting to block passage of health care reform, restaurant owners have decided to work for something they can support," Politico reports. "It's quite a departure for a group that historically moved in lock step with its business brethren, and it's another illustration of the different calculations and strategies adopted this year by groups that opposed the Clinton administration's attempts to pass a health care bill in the '90s." A consensus that health care spending must be addressed is one reason for the shift, but another "less-noted reason is the reshuffling of the leadership of business trade groups that has occurred since it became clear in 2006 that Democrats were poised to gain control of Congress in that year's midterm elections. Even before that political sea change in Washington, the National Restaurant Association made a decision to dramatically reposition itself with Congress and among trade groups in Washington" (Cummings, 12/8).

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This article was reprinted from khn.org with permission from the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. Kaiser Health News, an editorially independent news service, is a program of the Kaiser Family Foundation, a nonpartisan health care policy research organization unaffiliated with Kaiser Permanente.