May 30, 2013 9:00AM # How to Tell If the Government Has Taken over Health Care By [Michael F. Cannon](https://www.cato.org/people/michael-f-cannon) --- SHARE From the [*Washington Post*](http://articles.washingtonpost.com/2013-05-26/politics/39544961_1_medicare-advantage-white-house-investors): > Hedge fund executives and other investors are increasingly interested in the timing and nature of health-policy decisions in Washington because they directly affect the profits and stock prices of pharmaceutical, insurance, hospital and managed-care companies… > > > \[Former Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services\] director Thomas Scully, who served during the Bush administration…said he thought that it was useful for CMS officials to have more communication with Wall Street investors as a way for regulators to learn and “explain what an $800-billion-a-year agency” does with its money. So long as someone is still making a buck, it’s not [socialized medicine](https://www.cato.org/publications/briefing-paper/does-barack-obama-support-socialized-medicine)…right? ##### Related Tags [Government and Politics](https://www.cato.org/government-politics), [Health Care](https://www.cato.org/health-care) [![Creative Commons License](/build/cato_2020/images/creative-commons.svg)](http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/) This work is licensed under a [Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/).