Pharma Deal Shuts Down Senate Health Care Debate

[spiritual_gunfighter]

Source: The Huffington Post

The White House, aided by Sen. Tom Carper (D-Del.), is working hard to crush an amendment being pushed by Sen. Byron Dorgan (D-N.D.) to allow for the reimportation of pharmaceutical drugs from Canada, Senate sources tell the Huffington Post.

As a result, the Senate health care debate has come to a standstill: Carper has placed a "hold" on Dorgan's amendment and in response, Dorgan tells HuffPost, he'll object to any other amendments being considered before he gets a vote on his.

Sen. Olympia Snowe (R-Maine) is a lead co-sponsor of Dorgan's amendment. She said she's confident that, as of now, they have the votes they need. "I think that's why we're not having this vote," she said, smiling. The amendment has the support of a number of other Republicans, including Sens. John McCain (Ariz.), Charles Grassley (Iowa), John Thune (S.D.) and David Vitter (La.).

Opponents of the amendment worry that many more Republicans may join the amendment not because they agree with it, but because they want to put the health care bill in jeopardy.



Read more: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/12/11/pharma-deal-shuts-down-se_n_388895.html

[timeforpeace]

1. Bizarre. Big Pharma's ripping off of the American Rx market allows them to subsidize the lower

prices to other countries.

[tridim]

2. Data I've seen shows them making massive profit even in other countries.

Anyone have that chart that shows cost/profit ratios of common drugs?

Here it is..

Drug Retail/100Tabs Cost Mark-Up %
Celebrex 100 mg $130. 27 $0.60 21,712%
Claritin 10 mg $215.17 $0.71 30,306%
Keflex 250 mg $157.39 $1.88 8,372%
Lipitor 20 mg $272.37 $5.80 4,696%
Norvasc 10 mg $188.29 $0.14 134,493%
Paxil 20 mg $220.27 $7.60 2,898%
Prevacid 30 mg $44.77 $1.01 34,136%
Prilosec 20 mg $360.97 $0.52 69,417%
Prozac 20 mg $247.47 $0.11 224,973%
Tenormin 50 mg $104.47 $0.13 80,362%
Vasotec 10 mg $102.37 $0.20 51,185%
Xanax 1 mg $136.79 $0.024 569,958%
Zestril 20 mg $89.89 $3.20 2,809%
Zithromax 600 mg $1,482.19 $18.78 7,892%
Zocor 40 mg $350.27 $8.63 4,059%
Zoloft 50 mg $206.87 $1.75 11,821%

[valerief]

15. WOW!!!!!! Those are some INSANE markups!!!!! nt

[timeforpeace]

22. Thanks, remarkable info. I was in the biz and always wondered.

[harmonicon]

56. wow... even in the UK they're making huge profits.

All prescriptions here cost about $10, and I doubt most of those are 100 tabs.

[katkat]

72. tridim

Prevacid 30 mg $44.77 $1.01 34,136%

You lost a 0 on Prevacid. 60 30 mg capsules cost about $380 in the U.S.

[ebayfool]

82. I would dearly love a link for that ...

got some people that would (for once!) be speechless if I whooped that one out!

[tridim]

87. It's all over the net, but here's one..

http://www.wellsphere.com/healthcare-industry-policy-article/what-drugs-really-nbsp-cost/664866

[ebayfool]

90. TY - I'll put it to good use! n/t

[Lorien]

85. Most of their "costs" aren't in research, they're in advertising

outlaw drug advertising and they'll save billions. After all; why should PRESCRIPTION drugs be marketed to patients? Shouldn't it be the doctor's job to suggest the proper medications?

[bvar22]

88. Advertising, AND...

..bribes to the White House and Congress.

[flyarm]

91. don't forget to take your Viagra!! or sit in a tub at the beach with Cialis

My only question is..how can I get a freaking tub down on my beach??????? and get away with it....I can just see the little guys on the 4 wheelers faces now if I was sitting in a tub on my beach..waiting for someone with ED to come by to sit in a matching tub with me..that is... after he has taken Cialis..

someone needs to take Viagra away from Tiger Woods..seems he took those ads..too seriously!!

But wait..I heard he like sex with Ambien..
Maybe Ambien needs Tiger for sex commericals..not sleep commericals......

Hi I am Tiger...Increase your pleasure..with Ambien.......then sleep like TIGER.....

oh well..

[No Elephants]

94. American taxpayers pay for a lot of the research and American consumers do the rest.

[Gregorian]

93. No wonder there's a drug war.

Now it all makes sense.

[JCMach1]

99. My parents always bring drugs back from the UAE

Health Care is free market here, but drugs especially are PRICE CONTROLLED!

It makes a huge difference!

[MNDemNY]

3. What is the White House stance on this?

Did not the Administration have an "agreement" with big Pharma to preclude this?:shrug:

[WriteDown]

5. Uh, its the very first line

"The White House, aided by Sen. Tom Carper (D-Del.), is working hard to crush an amendment being pushed by Sen. Byron Dorgan (D-N.D.) to allow for the reimportation of pharmaceutical drugs from Canada, Senate sources tell the Huffington Post."

[MNDemNY]

6. .

(for emphasis !):o

[No Elephants]

98. Please see Reply 97.

[No Elephants]

97. If a blogger says something bad about Obama and the WH denies it, the bad thing must be true? LOL

What evidence did the author of that story even TRY to give that the first sentence of the story is correct? Zero. There is not even an attribute to anonymous sources, ffs.

[SandWalker1984]

36. Robert Reich laid out the White House back door deal in August

from Robert Reich's blog:

Sunday, August 09, 2009
How the White House's Deal With Big Pharma Undermines Democracy

I'm a strong supporter of universal health insurance, and a fan of the Obama administration. But I'm appalled by the deal the White House has made with the pharmaceutical industry's lobbying arm to buy their support.

Last week, after being reported in the Los Angeles Times, the White House confirmed it has promised Big Pharma that any healthcare legislation will bar the government from using its huge purchasing power to negotiate lower drug prices. That's basically the same deal George W. Bush struck in getting the Medicare drug benefit, and it's proven a bonanza for the drug industry. A continuation will be an even larger bonanza, given all the Boomers who will be enrolling in Medicare over the next decade. And it will be a gold mine if the deal extends to Medicaid, which will be expanded under most versions of the healthcare bills now emerging from Congress, and to any public option that might be included. (We don't know how far the deal extends beyond Medicare because its details haven't been made public.)

Let me remind you: Any bonanza for the drug industry means higher health-care costs for the rest of us, which is one reason why critics of the emerging healthcare plans, including the Congressional Budget Office, are so worried about their failure to adequately stem future healthcare costs. To be sure, as part of its deal with the White House, Big Pharma apparently has promised to cut future drug costs by $80 billion. But neither the industry nor the White House nor any congressional committee has announced exactly where the $80 billion in savings will show up nor how this portion of the deal will be enforced. In any event, you can bet that the bonanza Big Pharma will reap far exceeds $80 billion. Otherwise, why would it have agreed?

In return, Big Pharma isn't just supporting universal health care. It's also spending a lots of money on TV and radio advertising in support. Sunday's New York Times reports that Big Pharma has budgeted $150 million for TV ads promoting universal health insurance, starting this August (that's more money than John McCain spent on TV advertising in last year's presidential campaign), after having already spent a bundle through advocacy groups like Healthy Economies Now and Families USA.

I want universal health insurance. And having had a front-row seat in 1994 when Big Pharma and the rest of the health-industry complex went to battle against it, I can tell you first hand how big and effective the onslaught can be. So I appreciate Big Pharma's support this time around, and I like it that the industry is doing the reverse of what it did last time, and airing ads to persuade the public of the rightness of the White House's effort.

But I also care about democracy, and the deal between Big Pharma and the White House frankly worries me. It's bad enough when industry lobbyists extract concessions from members of Congress, which happens all the time. But when an industry gets secret concessions out of the White House in return for a promise to lend the industry's support to a key piece of legislation, we're in big trouble. That's called extortion: An industry is using its capacity to threaten or prevent legislation as a means of altering that legislation for its own benefit. And it's doing so at the highest reaches of our government, in the office of the President.

When the industry support comes with an industry-sponsored ad campaign in favor of that legislation, the threat to democracy is even greater. Citizens end up paying for advertisements designed to persuade them that the legislation is in their interest. In this case, those payments come in the form of drug prices that will be higher than otherwise, stretching years into the future.

I don't want to be puritanical about all this. Politics is a rough game in which means and ends often get mixed and melded. Perhaps the White House deal with Big Pharma is a necessary step to get anything resembling universal health insurance. But if that's the case, our democracy is in terrible shape. How soon until big industries and their Washington lobbyists have become so politically powerful that secret White House-industry deals like this are prerequisites to any important legislation? When will it become standard practice that such deals come with hundreds of millions of dollars of industry-sponsored TV advertising designed to persuade the public that the legislation is in the public's interest? (Any Democrats and progressives who might be reading this should ask themselves how they'll feel when a Republican White House cuts such deals to advance its own legislative priorities.)

We're on a precarious road -- and wherever it leads, it's not toward democracy.

[MNDemNY]

47. But of course, this is all a lie, a LIE, I tell you!!!

[No Elephants]

95. Isn't reimportation from countries with cheaper drug prices a different issue from using

America's purhasing power to lower prices?

[MNDemNY]

117. Not in the eyes of pharma, or, apparently, the White House.

[WriteDown]

4. Wait.....The White House is working to crush this? nt

[MNDemNY]

7. Yup, just wait, the defenders here on DU will be here soon.

[spiritual_gunfighter]

8. It mentions it in the article

but a few months ago Huffington wrote of a secret deal that was struck between the White House and Pharma, this is just further evidence that it was indeed true.

[No Elephants]

100. What exactly is the "evidence?" Please see Replies 97 and 95.

[DURHAM D]

18. Nothing new - this has been well publicized for weeks and weeks. nt

[MNDemNY]

20. That makes it OK??

good argument!

[DURHAM D]

23. No. Of course not. But it is not new information. nt

[spiritual_gunfighter]

24. I guess since it has already been reported its okay with that person

Fucking pathetic.

[MNDemNY]

26. He's "nannieing" 'cause you posted it to LBN.

But the Carper hold is NEW.They can't defend, so they distract.

[spiritual_gunfighter]

29. Yeah I caught that

What is defended on DU is mind blowing.

[DURHAM D]

27. You have poor reading comprehension. Fail. nt

[spiritual_gunfighter]

31. I guess you didnt read the LATE BREAKING NEWS in the article

talk about FAIL.

[midnight armadillo]

65. It's 3D chess, I tell you!

Any moment now Obama will turn this into a massive progressive victory and rout the corrupt, corporate-owned Senators and end up with a bill to sign.

3D chess. Amazing.

[MNDemNY]

70. Are you SURE it's not just bad policy??

'cause it REALLY looks like VERY bad policy.But, who am I to second guess HIM?:eyes:

[Cass]

9. I'm not sure I understand this. Why is this amendment bad and why is the WH

working to "crush" it?

Our prescription drug prices are about triple what other countries pay. Sure would be nice if we were given a bit of a break on drug costs.

[WriteDown]

13. Don't worry. You've just never seen change up close before. nt

[Eatacig]

17. Carper

All the crap this man has pulled, is someone working on getting rid of Carper?

[MNDemNY]

51. He's safe.

[kristopher]

76. Can we get some help here?

He's an ex-governor and has a solid base of support among the financial conservatives. There is little likelihood he will be outsed, but I'd love to see a good attempt made. I've come to hate that rat-bastard.

[woodsprite]

86. I'm from Delaware - Would you rather have Reaganomic fundie RTL repub

Christine O'Donnell? NO WAY!!! She's running again for Biden's open Senate seat, but then again, so is Repub Mike Castle and Beau Biden. She wants that Senate seat so bad she can taste it. I'd rather pick up a Dem House seat and leave Craper than risk losing 2 seats to 2 Repubs. Historically, Delaware stays with incumbants, known quantities, even if they're not the best of the bunch.

I don't like Carper's politics much anymore. It didn't so much used to be all about him and his cronies, but he's changed. I'm surprised he's been as much for the environment as he has been with his wife working for DuPont.

Google her if you want, but I don't want to give her pages the hits. She was a member of the Board of Directors of Birthright of Delaware until 2008. She got like a bit more than 15% of the vote running against Biden and Ting in 2006 as a write-in. Then against Biden in 2008 she got a bit over 30%. Her face was plastered at every intersection and on every flat surface in Delaware. She's also touting Sarah Palin when she's talking about getting high-profiled repubs behind her. Lower-slower DE goes for her big time. Thankfully the population of NCC Dems seems to be more than those 2 counties combined. Apparently the DE GOP are willing to let her run as a candidate, as long as they don't have to throw much money her way. I'm hoping it stays that way. Of course, some fundie churches will probably ban together to subsidize going as far as to paint her likeness on posterboards, even if they had to hold the paintbrushes in their teeth to do it.

[No Elephants]

96. "The Republican would be even worse than the Democrat is now being" is a lousy reason to keep the

crappy Democrat in office. If you are in Delware, work to primary him.

And also work to make the Democratic Party stop supporting crappy incumbents, no matter how crappy the incumbents are. I, for one, am no happier with Obama and the Democrats protecting Big Pharma with my tax and consumer illness dollars than I was with Republicans doing the same damnable thing.

In fact, I am a lot less happy about people I've supported and voted for all my life doing it. At least, when Republicans did this kind of thing, I kidded myself that I could change things for the better by supporting and voting for Democrats until they got back in power. What's my solution now? For what do I "hope" now?

[MNDemNY]

118. Do you intend to "primary" Obama in 2012?

Is he among your disappointments?

[MNDemNY]

43. fuckin' worse than sausage making, ain't it?

[MNDemNY]

30. Because Obam has made a "deal" with pharma so we would not do this.

"Change" ya know!

[Iowa]

35. The amendment is a good one, and Obama is trying to crush it because he is a corporate whore. n/t

[Cass]

38. Thanks, Iowa, that's what I thought but was hoping I misunderstood.

Man, this really sucks.

[MNDemNY]

40. No, this is "change you CAN believe in" !!!

x(

[Cass]

58. The whole thing is becoming a trainwreck.

The minority party, bought-and-paid-for dems and the dysfunctional healthcare industry are calling the shots in HCR and demand we compromise with them. But it's not compromise if only one side does the caving...it's capitulation and it sucks.

[MNDemNY]

62. gobama!

[No Elephants]

102. Maybe; maybe not. Please see Replies 97 and 95.

I'll reserve judgment re: WH involvement until I have something more reliable than a single unsupported sentence from a blogger. The guy from Delaware, on the other hand, deserves to be primaried on this alone. See Reply 96.

[Iowa]

108. You could be right...

Obama has been such a corporate toady to date that there's a reasonable likelihood that he's whoring on this too. But who knows?

[MNDemNY]

115. Put down the pails! That water must be getting heavy!

[No Elephants]

101. Maybe, but this article sure doesn't prove that. Pls. see Replies 97 and 95.

[MNDemNY]

119. Yea, it pretty much does.

You read it? Put down the pails already. Quit defending the indefensible.

[harun]

121. Big Pharma owns the WH, that's why. This is not something new, dunno how this

is a surprise to anyone.

[progressoid]

10. ...

:banghead::banghead::banghead::banghead::banghead::banghead::banghead:

[MNDemNY]

50. Don't hurt yourself.

This won't be the last "head bang worthy" shit pile to come from this administration!

[Jester Messiah]

11. What the hell, man...? [nt]

[MNDemNY]

44. No, "HOPE !"

'cause that's all we get!

[stlsaxman]

63. yup- "Hope"

[elmerdem]

12. Sen. Carper 202-224-2441 nt

[MNDemNY]

33. Got the White House Number, as well???

[Mithreal]

41. Comments: 202-456-1111 Switchboard: 202-456-1414

I prefer the switchboard.

[MNDemNY]

49. Danke.

[Mithreal]

14. Maybe you-know-who will get the Nobel for Medicine after this passes

I am livid about the backroom dealings of the White House. At least I just got off the phone with offices of both my senators. Call your senators, don't wait.

[SpartanDem]

16. "Publicly, President Obama continues to support reimportation, as he did during the campaign"

I like how they put that down all the way at the bottom of the article. I this guess comes down to whether you think Obama is lying or not I'm inclined to say he's not.

[DURHAM D]

19. This deal is not new news. ????? nt

[spiritual_gunfighter]

25. The deal is old news

The bill being held up because of it is news as of today.

[flyarm]

92. AHH BUT WAIT..the Apologists swore there was no deal..and argued with so many of us that said there

was..

now you are saying it is old news..but when it was news so many pom pom carriers said there was no deal..which is it..when it was new news ..it wasn't news to the pom pom crew..and now that it is so out in the open..it becomes "old news"

this bait and switch reminds me exactly of the bush bots of ole..

when it is breaking news..it is not news..because it must be a lie..or a pony or some fucking chess game..but then when it is recognized as FACT..it is old news..wow some folks really get it all twisted don't they?

[MNDemNY]

32. Of course you are so inclined.....

:rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl:

[Mithreal]

37. No, why would he need to lie about publicly supporting?

Backroom dealings and a bulldog CoS enable you to have all kinds of private opinions. As a politician it is ideal. You can take credit for both publicly supporting and privately opposing. It's not lying, it's just politics.

[MNDemNY]

39. Does this outline the "not a lie"??

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x4180666#4180752

[No Elephants]

104. How does a link to this thread prove the first sentence of the OP of this thread is true?

I am open to the WH's being in cahoots with Carper. I am also open to the WH's NOT being in cahoots with Carper. But nothing on this thread so far has proved either proposition. The most I can say is "Nothing in the OP or the rest of this thread proves anything.

Heck, the author of the article in the OP did not even claim to have secret evidence or anonymous sources. He just accused Obama and said the WH denied it.

[spiritual_gunfighter]

113. They claim to have a secret memo

unless you think the Huffington Post is inventing memos to discredit the White House.

Internal Memo Confirms Big Giveaways In White House Deal With Big Pharma
First Posted: 08-13-09 11:10 AM | Updated: 09-13-09 05:12 AM

A memo obtained by the Huffington Post confirms that the White House and the pharmaceutical lobby secretly agreed to precisely the sort of wide-ranging deal that both parties have been denying over the past week.

The memo, which according to a knowledgeable health care lobbyist was prepared by a person directly involved in the negotiations, lists exactly what the White House gave up, and what it got in return.

It says the White House agreed to oppose any congressional efforts to use the government's leverage to bargain for lower drug prices or import drugs from Canada -- and also agreed not to pursue Medicare rebates or shift some drugs from Medicare Part B to Medicare Part D, which would cost Big Pharma billions in reduced reimbursements.

In exchange, the Pharmaceutical Researchers and Manufacturers Association (PhRMA) agreed to cut $80 billion in projected costs to taxpayers and senior citizens over ten years. Or, as the memo says: "Commitment of up to $80 billion, but not more than $80 billion."

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/08/13/internal-memo-confirms-bi_n_258285.html

[SandWalker1984]

21. Back in August, Chris Hedges predicted a rip off instead of reform

It's Robbery: Health Care Proposals in Congress Look More Like a Rip-Off Than Reform

By Chris Hedges, Truthdig. Posted August 24, 2009.



The health plans rattling around Congress are designed to force you to buy a defective product: Bad private insurance.

Percentage change since 2002 in average premiums paid to large US health-insurance companies: +87%

Percentage change in the profits of the top ten insurance companies: +428%

Chances that an American bankrupted by medical bills has health insurance: 7 in 10 — Harper’s Index, September 2009

Capitalists, as my friend Father Michael Doyle says, should never be allowed near a health care system.

They hold sick children hostage as they force parents to bankrupt themselves in the desperate scramble to pay for medical care. The sick do not have a choice. Medical care is not a consumable good. We can choose to buy a used car or a new car, shop at a boutique or a thrift store, but there is no choice between illness and health. And any debate about health care must acknowledge that the for-profit health care industry is the problem and must be destroyed.

This is an industry that hires doctors and analysts to deny care to patients in order to increase profits. It is an industry that causes half of all bankruptcies. And the 20,000 Americans who died last year because they did not receive adequate care condemn these corporations as complicit in murder.

The current health care debate in Congress has nothing to do with death panels or public options or socialized medicine. The real debate, the only one that counts, is how much money our blood-sucking insurance, pharmaceutical and for-profit health services are going to be able to siphon off from new health care legislation. The proposed plans rattling around Congress all ensure that the profits for these corporations will increase and the misery for ordinary Americans will be compounded. The corporate state, enabled by both Democrats and Republicans, is yet again cannibalizing the Treasury. It is yet again pushing Americans, especially the poor and the working class, into levels of despair and rage that will continue to fuel the violent, proto-fascist movements leaping up around the edges of American society. And the traditional watchdogs—those in public office, the press and citizens groups—are as useless as the perfumed fops of another era who busied their days with court intrigue at Versailles. Canada never looked so good.

The Democrats are collaborating with lobbyists for the insurance industry, the pharmaceutical industry and for-profit health care providers to craft the current health care reform legislation. “Corporate and industry players are inside the tent this time,” says David Merritt, project director at Newt Gingrich’s Center for Health Transformation, “so there is a vacuum on the outside.” And these lobbyists have already killed a viable public option and made sure nothing in the bills will impede their growing profits and capacity for abuse.

“It will basically be a government law that says you have to buy their defective product,” says Dr. David Himmelstein, a professor at Harvard Medical School and a founder of Physicians for a National Health Plan. “Next the government will tell us a Pinto in every garage, a lead-coated toy to every child and melamine-laced puppy chow for every dog.”

“Health insurance is not a race to the top; it is a race to the bottom,” he told me from Cambridge, Mass. “The way you make money is by abusing people. And if a public-option plan is not ready and willing to abuse patients it is stuck with the expensive patients. The premiums will go up until it is noncompetitive. The conditions that have now been set for the plans include a hobbled public option. Under the best-case scenario there will be tens of millions will remain uninsured at the outset, and the number will climb as more and more people are priced out of the insurance market.”

The inclusion of these corporations in the crafting of health care legislation has not stopped figures like Rick Scott, the former head of the Columbia/HCA health care company, from attempting to sabotage any plan. Scott’s company was forced to pay a $1.7 billion fraud settlement—the largest health care fraud settlement in U.S. history—for stealing hundreds of millions from taxpayers by overbilling for medical care. Scott, who made his money primarily from Medicare, is now saturating the airwaves in a reputed $20 million ad campaign that is stoking the anger and fear of many Americans. His ads are coordinated by CRC Public Relations, the group that masterminded the “Swift boat” attacks against 2004 Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry.

“They are using our money to campaign against us,” Dr. Himmelstein told me. “The money for these commercials came from health care interests that collect fees from American patients. We experienced this before in Massachusetts. We ran a ballot initiative for universal health care in 2000 and the insurance industry spent $5 million on it, including the insurance company I am insured by. They used my premiums to smear an idea that 70 percent in Massachusetts, according to polls, favored before this smear campaign. Universal health care was narrowly defeated.”

The bills now in Congress will, at best, impose on the country the failed model in Massachusetts. That model will demand that Americans buy health insurance from private insurers. There will be some subsidies for the very poor but not for anyone above a modest income. Insurers will be allowed to continue to jack up premiums, including for the elderly. The bankruptcies due to medical bills and swelling premiums will mount along with rising deductibles and co-payments. Health care will be beyond the reach of many families. In Massachusetts one in six people who have mandated insurance still say they cannot afford care, and 30,000 people were evicted from the state program this month because of budget cuts. Expect the same debacle nationwide.

“For someone my age who is making $40,000 a year you are required to lay out $5,000 for an insurance premium for coverage that covers nothing until you have spent $2,000 out of pocket,” Himmelstein said. “You are $7,000 out of pocket before you have any coverage at all. For most people that means you are already bankrupt before you have insurance. If anything, that has made them worse off. Instead of having that $5,000 to cover some of their medical expenses they have laid it out in premiums.”

The U.S. spends twice as much as other industrialized nations on health care—$7,129 per capita—although 45.7 million Americans remain without health coverage and millions more are inadequately covered. There are 14,000 Americans a day now losing their health coverage. A report in the journal Health Affairs estimates that, if the system is left unchanged, one of every five dollars spent by Americans in 2017 will go to health coverage. Private insurance bureaucracy and paperwork consume one-third, 31 percent, of every health care dollar. Streamlining payment through a single nonprofit payer would save more than $400 billion per year, enough, Physicians for a National Health Plan points out, to provide comprehensive, high-quality coverage for all Americans. But the proposed America’s Affordable Health Choices Act of 2009 (H.R. 3200 in the House) will, rather than cut costs, add an estimated $239 billion over 10 years to the federal deficit. This is very good for the corporations. It is very bad for us.

The lobbyists have, as they did with the obscene bailouts for banks and investment firms, hijacked legislation in order to fleece the citizen. The five largest private health insurers and their trade group, America’s Health Insurance Plans, spent more than $6 million on lobbying in the first quarter of 2009. Pfizer, the world’s biggest drug maker, spent more than $9 million during the last quarter of 2008 and the first three months of this year.

The Washington Post reported that up to 30 members of Congress from both parties who hold key committee memberships have major investments in health care companies totaling between $11 million and $27 million. President Barack Obama’s director of health care policy, who will not discuss single-payer as an option, has served on the boards of several health care corporations.

Obama and the congressional leadership have shut out advocates of single-payer. The press, including papers such as The New York Times, treats single-payer as a fringe movement. The television networks rarely mention it. And yet between 45 and 60 percent of doctors favor single-payer. Between 40 and 62 percent of the American people, including 80 percent of registered Democrats, want universal, single-payer not-for-profit health care for all Americans. The ability of the corporations to discredit and silence voices that represent at least half of the population is another sad testament to the power of our corporate state.

“We are considering a variety of striking efforts for early in the fall,” Dr. Himmelstein said, “including protests outside state capitals by doctors around the country, video links of conferences in 70 or 80 cities around the country, with protests and potential doctors chaining themselves to the fence of the White House.”

Make sure you join them.

**********


We need to kill the current health legislation bills in Congress before they kill any meaningful net progress on health care reform.

[MNDemNY]

42. This is a very optimistic picture of what seems to be coming!

:shrug: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl:

[No Elephants]

105. It was obvious long before August, but I still don't know that this article is true re: Obama.

[Zorra]

28. There's a little town in Mexico, not far from Yuma, AZ, called Algodones.

Retired folks, snowbirds, and locals go to there to purchase low cost prescription medications and have quality low cost dental work done. This town is literally flooded with Americans purchasing medications in the winter. It usually takes 2 hours or more to walk across the border back into the States because there are so many people in line waiting to cross.

Every year, tens of thousands, maybe hundreds of thousands, of people buy meds there. I've never heard of anyone complaining about getting bogus meds. The Mexican government and the merchants, particularly pharmacies, are not going to allow anyone to kill their golden cash cow by selling bogus meds. It's just not in anyone's best interest.

Personally, if I needed prescription meds, I'd prefer take my chances buying reimported meds rather than get ripped off and have to pay through the nose for meds just because some corrupt politician that is owned by big pharma wants to keep getting their big pharma bribe money.

[truedelphi]

83. I was ripped off by a Safeway pharmacy here in California.

The "experts" keep addressing the TV cameras, to let "us know' that we are risking our lives if we buy imported drugs.

But it is just as likely that we wioll be harmed by counterfeits that "reputable" American pharmaceies sell us as to have the re-importation be affecting us.

[bvar22]

89. Yes.

All the dead Canadians prove that re-imported drugs are unsafe for Americans.

[No Elephants]

103. I'd go to Canada.

[t0dd]

34. Such transparency from the Obama administration...

:rofl:

[MNDemNY]

46. Didn't see it comin' huh?

;) :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl:

[Alcibiades]

45. Is Dorgan doing this to kill the bill?

Is he just trying to split other Democrats so he can go back to North Dakota and say "I stopped Obamacare?"

This is a pro-consumer move, and so is simply out of character for Dorgan.

[MNDemNY]

48. Yup, that sly dog is trying to "kill' the bill by inserting something that makes sense.

Chess, very sneaky , indeed.:rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl:

[WriteDown]

53. We must have a bill! Any bill!!!!!!!

:sarcasm:

[MNDemNY]

55. Many here make that same post....

sadly they do it with out the "tag".

[No Elephants]

107. Equal rights for women made sense, even in the 1960's. Yet, a Southerner inserted it

into the civil rights act of 1964 in an attempt to kill that bill. If it were any other bill of the day, it might have worked too, but the momemntum for equal rights for African Americans was too strong to be thwarted, even by giving those castrating wimmin libber bra burners rights.

[L. Coyote]

66. NO. He is trying to lower the cost of Health Care in the USA. D'oh!

And, he is out the faux populists!!!

[No Elephants]

106. Excellent question.

[Odin2005]

52. GO DORGAN!

:woohoo:

[WriteDown]

54. For a minute I thought you said Gorgan

http://images.google.com/url?source=imgres&ct=tbn&q=&usg=AFQjCNGgvoILUSBnmTirlTqAKm3zrdpGwQ

[MNDemNY]

57. The "usuals" are staying away from this.

Must be awaiting the memo before they strike.

[IndianaGreen]

60. Don't worry, the water bucket brigade is getting their talking points together

They used the "Counterpunch" meme effectively early in the week. Perhaps they will use a Chanukah themed meme, since it begins at sundown today.

[MNDemNY]

61. You don't think they will be forced...

to their favorite fall-back......CHESS!!!!!!:o :rofl: :rofl: :rofl:

[WyldRogue]

64. They're busy...

... calling me anti-Obama because I made the mistake of making a reality check post on their adore a pic of Obama post.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=433x50916

It's true you know, type something that does not praise/adore Obama and all of a sudden, you're an anti-obama nutcase..

[spiritual_gunfighter]

79. That particular person is not unlike a broken record

I wouldnt sweat it.

[No Elephants]

110. More than one poster went bonkers, but I stil wouldn't sweat it.

[scytherius]

59. I'm all for giving this shit-hole natoin to the psycho Right

I have NO interest in fighting for this shit Nation ever again. I will no longer vote, donate money, work for a campaign or care. The fact that I am posting could be argued that I do care, but I'm just pissed and have been so for months.

OBAMA AND THE DEMS ARE A DISASTER. Would the GOP be a bigger disaster? Of course, but I'm all for it. The only thing that could possibily save this nation is to let the GOP destroy it. I hope those 40% of Dem voters that are planning on staying home do so.

[Sunnyshine]

75. Shouldn't call us a shit hole nation- we have McD's -most of us have running water and electricity.

Most of us.

Others live high on a hill saturated in wealth while wasting our resources in their disposable world.

Sad that we are making voters think that way and distorting our party platform like this.You know- where Democrats support reforms that benefit the public at large- which is exactly the opposite of what the Republicans do- because they could care less about public good or the general welfare of citizens. Sad too, as i know you probably were gung-ho for us getting in there and making things right.

America's people needed a true friend in our White House again. Swear that is what I voted for '08.

/edit words

[No Elephants]

111. I would first work to primary candidates. And, if that did not work, I would

go the polls and write in the name of someone, preferably alive, but dead or alive, that conveyed my wishes unmistakeably. I would not stay home. Staying home is a mixed message to which politicians and pundits will attach any meaning they choose. I want my anti-corporatist, anti-corruption, anti-war feelings conveyed. This may sound overly dramatic, but I mean it: too damned many people died for my right to vote, if only in the Revolutionary War, for me to throw my right to vote down the hopper and let politicians put any label they want on my "apathy."

[Sunnyshine]

67. I live in a strange land. Apparently. I thought we elected a Democratic Administration.

So messed up.

[MNDemNY]

68. WOW! Hey Gunfighter

Someone in the front office wants to stir some shit tonight.. HOME PAGE TOP!!!

[BREMPRO]

69. Anyone else surprised to see Olympia Snowe as co-sponser of this amendment

She's on our side on this one, but on the opposite on the PO. Politics sure is a strange affair.

[MNDemNY]

71. Ain't it sumpin'!

So that makes it bad???

[BREMPRO]

77. not bad at all- It's great- and just goes to show she' not driven by party ideology

or captive to corporate influence.

[kirby]

74. She is from a State bordering Canada....

Her constituents frequently drive into Canada (breaking the law) to get their prescriptions. It makes sense why she would be on this side of the issue. However I bet a lot of drug companies are incorporated in Delaware.

[nicky187]

73. First, the manufacturing jobs went to hell b/c of NAFTA

... and took the benefits with them.

Then, the financial sector strip mined the economy, and we're all burdened with the costs of that theft.

Housing and construction, ditto.

Now, health care is going to be such that this will be another hideously high rate of profits for the pharmaceutical and insurance industries.

When there isn't anything left to extort, and the middle-class is extinct, and the tax revenue doesn't exist to support the basic functions of government, maybe China and India can start exporting their shitty jobs to us because we'll be the low-wage Third World country for their capitalists to exploit.

Now I understand why the Mafia originated, to stand up for the citizens that the government abandoned.

Think I'll re-read "Snow Crash" so that I know what to expect.

Economic power corrupts, and corporate power corrupts absolutely.

Milton Friedman and the Chicago School of Economics can kiss my ass.

[LiberalFighter]

78. How about instead of reimportation of drugs that we form a coalition with Canada

to negotiate with the companies for the best price?

[24601]

84. Or better yet, put it in the law that in return for the authorization to

sell their drugs in the US marketplace, US consumers cannot be charged any higher than the lowest price paid by any consumer. Sort of a most favored-nation status between USA and BPA (Big Pharma of America).

[No Elephants]

109. Sure, but we could do that without Canada, if our lawmakers had courage and integrity.

Hell, Canada did it without us and we have more people.

[MNDemNY]

116. Tell that to the Man in the White House!

His little "deal" precludes any such thing.

[hippywife]

80. We should NOT be importing drugs from Canada.

We should be doing what the Canadians do and that is not to let them charge exorbitant prices in the first place. Canada negotiates their drug prices and can because of the health care system they have and that we need.

[MNDemNY]

81. THAT is exactly what Obama promised NOT to do.

[No Elephants]

112. On Bill Moyers this week, his interviewees George Goehl and Heather Booth, ended

the interview by giving the names of many citizens' organizations. From the transcript of the end of that interview:



"GEORGE GOEHL: This is an incredible opportunity to turn a tragedy into something good. So, if we can get it together, and I really think is not about the Congress. This is not about the President. This is about the people watching this show and other Americans saying, 'Enough is enough.' And I'm going to move from my seat out into the streets, from fingers on a keyboard, boots on the ground, and get out there." Whether that means calling the Members of Congress. Whether it means organizing a little protest in front of a bank. Whether it means making a YouTube video and cutting up your credit cards and posting it and sending it out to your friends. If people get engaged, we can win this fight. And that's happening. There are actions planned all across the country in 25 states over through the end of the year. And then as next year comes around, you'll start to see more events like the showdown in Chicago.

BILL MOYERS: How can people watching find out how to be in touch with you? What how can they know what you're doing?

GEORGE GOEHL: Sure, they should go to the website, ShowdownInArerica.org. Which will give them ideas around what's happening around the country. And ways that they can plug in and be a part of this movement.

BILL MOYERS: And Heather, how do they reach Americans for Financial Reform?

HEATHER BOOTH: OurFinancialSecurity.org is our website. And also they can link up with various organizations that really are in every state, whether it's National People's Action or U.S. Action or Center for Community Change.Whether it's their trade union. Whether it's their religious institution. There are ways that we can combine altogether. The Civil Rights organizations. And be much stronger together in this gathering storm." Podcast and full Transcript: http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/12112009/watch.html




I don't know how good any of those organizations are, but we have to start somewhere. Venting on a message board is fine, I guess, as far as it goes, but if that is ALL you intend to do, you are responsible for the problem.

[spiritual_gunfighter]

114. I wasn't aware you knew what I did for a living

Your assumptions that because I post an article (which I didnt write by the way), and post on DU that must be all I do. I work with those affected by poverty every day, it is my job. Maybe because what you are doing is posting on DU and not much else you are assuming that is what we all do, I dont know. I would suggest that you not make those kind of assumptions.

[MNDemNY]

120. Two days later someone "attempts" a defense?

They must really view this as a "sore spot" .