$235 BILLION in drug corp and hospital deals made by White House and Sen Finance Committee (Baucus)

[nightrain]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/07/23/AR2009072303645.html

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Thursday that she doesn't feel bound by the $235 billion in deals that the White House and the Senate Finance Committee cut with hospital and pharmaceutical companies to defray costs of a new health-care plan, stating that she thinks the industries could do more.

"When we're trying to cut costs, certainly we know that there are more costs to be cut in hospitals and pharmaceuticals. . . . So we'll be subjecting everything to some very harsh scrutiny as we see whether we can get more savings," Pelosi said in a late-afternoon interview, shortly after she left a marathon negotiating session with White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel and conservative "Blue Dog" Democrats, who have put the brakes on the House version of the health-care reform bill. "As we look, there may be some more ways to get money out of pharmaceutical companies."

The nation's hospitals have agreed to forgo $155 billion in government health-care reimbursements, and drug companies promised $80 billion, to help keep the cost of President Obama's health-care reform plan under $1 trillion.

Pelosi said she is eager to see the Senate's version, which is currently held up in the Finance Committee, and she indicated she is sympathetic to House Democrats' concerns about voting on a bill before the Senate shows its hand. Conservative Democrats say privately that they worry about being asked to spend political capital by voting for a measure far too liberal for their districts -- when the final bill hashed out by the House and Senate could be dramatically different.

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continued at the link.

So, we're getting a sneak preview of some of these deals now.... I don't recall seeing these negotiations (give-aways) on c-span. These are some of Baucus' deals. Corporate-democracy anyone?

[nightrain]

1. These billion dollar deals probably explain why none of the proposals coming out of

Congress permit re-importation of less-expensive drugs from Canada, or negotiation with drug companies on drug prices. Also, generic drug manufacture has been set back to 12 years--passed in Congress this month.

These actions are not in the public interest, right?

[ipaint]

2. The 80 billion drug deal with pharma was exposed as a farce on bill moyers tonight.

8 billion a year is chump change and it only applies to name brand drugs. I believe we got that in exchange for giving them longer patents on drugs before they can become generic. Both guests on Bill Moyers expect the drug companies to renege on that little deal once the bill is passed.

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4. oh good. Moyers comes on in about 10 minutes here. Looking

forward to seeing it. And thanks for the heads-up on some other thread about Moyers tonight!

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6. It was an excellent segment. I'm glad to watch it again online!

[KoKo]

3. I'm getting concerned about the final bill they pass being worse for us

in the long run than what we have now which is terrible. Without Single Payer...then it seems it could be another give away to the Drug Companies like Bush's Pet: Medicare Part D which did much to help Big Pharma but made a mess for those on Medicare who had trouble applying for it and seemed to do little to help them in the final analysis.

[nightrain]

5. yes, I share your concerns. Last year my mother's meds hit the

doughnut hole early on and we had thousands to pay.