White House Insists It Didn't Give Away The Store To Big Pharma

[SpartanDem]

In the latest in a series of conflicting statements, White House officials on Monday insisted that they never entered into a deal with pharmaceutical companies whereby they agreed not to allow the government to negotiate lower drug prices for Medicare.

In a briefing with mostly new media reporters, three senior administration officials who spoke on condition of anonymity pushed back against reports that the White House had made such a pledge in return for $80 billion in promised cost savings over ten years.

"There was no discussion" of refraining from using the government's purchasing power to lower prices, said one of those aides. "It just didn't come up," said another


Previous White House statements had only fueled speculation that such a deal had been made. Last week, Deputy Chief of Staff Jim Messina, told the New York Times the president had "encouraged" the compact with Big Pharma.

Later in the week, another White House official told the Huffington Post that President Obama wanted to keep Big Pharma's concessions to $80 billion -- and that any measures that would pursue cuts to prescription drug prices, should be considered outside of the health-care overhaul legislation.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/08/10/white-house-insists-it-di_n_255682.html

[jody]

1. OK but did Obama offer Big Pharma something for their support? n/t

[DJ13]

2. This wont go away until Obama publicly states we need

.. to be able to negotiate on prescription costs at the national level.

If he wont do that Im not sure we can believe these underlings protestations of innocence.

[global1]

3. Didn't Robert Gibbs Last Week At His Daily Q/A Say That They Did .....

enter into an agreement with Big Pharma? Is there a youtube clip on what he said. I think it was Friday.

[masuki bance]

4. I don't know how people could be confused by this. nt

[Enrique]

5. I'm still confused

maybe you could help clear it up.

What is the deal?

Is the cost reduction capped at $80 billion over 10 years like Tauzin initially said?