The New York Times front page today contains an article, Deep in Health Bill, Very Specific Beneficiaries, that provides a glimpse of some of the many, uh, tradeoffs various Senators got for their votes on the Senate health reform bill. The tribute Senator Nelson received for his vote is particularly noteworthy for its level of cynicism and corruption, even if you ignore his assault of women’s rights:

The Senate health bill, like one passed by the House last month, would impose tough new restrictions on referrals of Medicare patients by doctors to hospitals in which the doctors have financial interests. The package assembled by Mr. Reid would provide exemptions to a small number of such hospitals, including one in Nebraska.

Under the original Senate bill, doctor-owned hospitals could qualify for this exemption if they were certified as Medicare providers by Feb. 1, 2010. Mr. Reid’s proposal would move the deadline to Aug. 1, 2010.

Molly Sandvig, executive director of Physician Hospitals of America, which represents doctor-owned hospitals, said the change would benefit Bellevue Medical Center, scheduled to open next year in Bellevue, Neb.

Under the proposal, Ms. Sandvig said, “doctor-owners can continue to refer Medicare patients to the hospital” in eastern Nebraska.

“Senator Nelson has always been a friend to our industry,” she said. “But doctor-owned hospitals in other states were not so fortunate. They would not meet the Aug. 1 deadline.” . . .

Nebraska, with help from Mr. Nelson, won a particularly generous arrangement under which the federal government would indefinitely pay the full cost of covering certain low-income people added to the Medicaid rolls under the bill.

What a coincidence. Nelson apparently extracted millions in federal subsidies for private hospitals owned by doctors who have a financial conflict in referring Medicare patients to their own for-profit hospitals. If this happened under rational government contracting, this little gesture should land people in jail, but this is the US Senate in an era in which virtually no one at the top is held accountable for corruption.

Of course, as the article reveals, Nelson is hardly the only Senator whose vote is coincidentally tied to public benefits flowing to their likely contributors’ private profits. As David Axelrod points out, it’s what the Senate is for:

Mr. Axelrod said the provisions benefiting specific states, like Nebraska, and favored constituencies were a natural part of the legislative process.

Oh. I sure hope we demand that President Karzai stop the epidemic of corruption in Afghanistan before we risk another life over there.

Update/Related:
AP/HuffPo, How Nebraska’s Insurance Companies Stand to Profit . . .
Scarecrow, Obama’s Senate Health Care Bill: A Uniquely American Idiocy, and related links there.