Big Pharma Wins Big With Health Care Reform Bill

[maryf]

Big Pharma Wins Big With Health Care Reform Bill

WASHINGTON - Chalk one up for the pharmaceutical lobby. The U.S. drug industry fended off price curbs and other hefty restrictions in President Barack Obama's health care law even as it prepares for plenty of new business when an estimated 32 million uninsured Americans gain health coverage.

<snip>

Either way, pharmaceutical lobbyists won new federal policies they coveted and set a trajectory for long-term industry growth. Privately, several of them say their biggest triumph was heading off Democrats led by Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., who wanted even more money from their industry to finance the health care system's expansion.

"Pharma came out of this better than anyone else," said Ramsey Baghdadi, a Washington health policy analyst who projects a $30 billion, 10-year net gain for the industry. "I don't see how they could have done much better."

Costly brand-name biotech drugs won 12 years of protection against cheaper generic competitors, a boon for products that comprise 15 percent of pharmaceutical sales. The industry will have to provide 50 percent discounts beginning next year to Medicare beneficiaries in the "doughnut hole" gap in pharmaceutical coverage, but those price cuts plus gradually rising federal subsidies will mean more elderly people will purchase more drugs.

Lobbyists beat back proposals to allow importation of low-cost medicines and to have Medicare negotiate drug prices with companies. They also defeated efforts to require more industry rebates for the 9 million beneficiaries of both Medicare and Medicaid, and to bar brand-name drugmakers' payments to generic companies to delay the marketing of competitor products.

Edited to conform to DU's fairuse policy for copyrighted material - Lithos, DU Moderator

PLEASE read the whole article!! here at link
http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2010/03/29-8

[leftstreet]

1. The Bush Administration could NEVER have pulled off this Wealth Care Bill

:puke:

Makes me sick

[maryf]

3. Cynical Deceit of the century!

Wish there were a decent plan to make you feel better, like Medicare for All or something...(this bill makes me sick too ):freak:

[earth mom]

19. Totally agree-it's sickening and so is all the cheering about this massive rip off here on DU.

:puke:

Often, I feel like DU is a but a shadow of it's former self.

[Lorien]

32. It's not just DU. It's the party, it's America

eight years of Bush and now our collective expectations seem to have hit rock bottom. Anything slightly better than rank criminal behavior is cheered as a great triumph. It's depressing as hell.

[earth mom]

53. Do you think it's that widespread? I don't see it. Most everyone I know is disgusted

about what's going on from the bankster bailout to the health care rip off and everything in between.

[Lorien]

55. Yhe informed people that I know are just as disgusted as we are, but those that

get all of their news from the water cooler and really aren't paying attention say "isn't it great? Now everyone will have the same access to health care as the rich!" or "of course we had to bail out the banks. The whole economy would have collapsed if we didn't. It was all those people who bought houses that they couldn't afford who caused it..." Sound bites are all that they know.

[maryf]

56. Yep

And sound bites are all they want to know, or can handle...

[kath]

24. yep, you said it.

I'll join you in :puke: :puke:

[MisterP]

29. just as only Nixon could go to China,

only Obama could pass a McCainesque insurance bill, keep us in Iraq, Afghanistan, Yemen, Somalia, Pakistan..., and promise to gut Social Security (what Cotton Hill McCain called the US's worst mistake, even ahead of pulling out of Vietnam)

if McCrabby even PROPOSED those crap measures, with his Tina Fey-Britney Spears nerd-slattern-Baroness amalgam simpering next to him that it's a "big FUCKING deal!" we wouldn't be making shirts in support of Mc"Same" or putting our faith in his future changes, or making pictures of him hugging kids: the streets would be on fire and the WH would have to be surrounded by riot police and APC barricades

[Nikki Stone1]

2. Once again, Matt Taibbi told us early on

Didn't seem to matter.

[maryf]

4. Kip Sullivan, Bruce Dixon, and a lot of others too...

And they ain't gonna stop!

[grahamhgreen]

5. The bill is the biggest con job since NAFTA (skipping the BS wars). nt

[Nite Owl]

7. +1,000,000

[Nikki Stone1]

8. .

.

[kath]

25. I'll see you your 1,000,000 and raise you a brazillion!

[maryf]

38. Privatization of everything seems to be the goal...

human needs be damned...

[dixiegrrrrl]

6. Half the battle was with people here.

God forbid anyone say anything negative about the various proposals of the bill, or how
lobbyists were writing the damn thing.

[maryf]

12. So true!! or the huge part the insurance industry had in writing it! nt.

[Lorien]

33. Yep. New Democrats and Traditional Democrats now look like two distinctly

different parties.

[Kablooie]

9. What about little pharma? How did they do?

[maryf]

10. Little Pharma was killed by Big Pharma...nt

[HughMoran]

11. .

[maryf]

13. We're just warming up...the people will prevail!!!

:*

[laughingliberal]

16. I certainly hope the horse is not dead. I do recall the President promising the Senate

he would continue to work on reimportation after the bill passed. You're not disputing him, are you?

[Jakes Progress]

41. That's not a horse you are beating. It's a donkey.

[ProSense]

14. "prepares for plenty of new business when an estimated 32 million uninsured " Really?

They also have the business of everyone on Medicare who will now see the doughnut hole closed.

"Big Pharma Wins Big" = lame stale argument.

[maryf]

15. Bad spin...

How can 32 million new customers not raise profits?

[ProSense]

18. Are you suggesting

that they get coverage and take imaginary medicine?

In addition to the doughnut hole closing, Pharma is set to pay significant fees.

[maryf]

50. From the article, about fees...

"In a March 21 newsletter, the financial services firm Morgan Stanley estimated a $95 billion, 10-year price tag, offset by tens of billions the companies would gain from extra customers and other provisions. Industry critics say the cost will be lower because of firms' control of prices, and will be more than outweighed by added sales."

food for thought...

[laughingliberal]

17. They did win big but I heard the President promised to keep working on reimportaion

Do you doubt him?

[sabrina 1]

20. What's lame and stale is your failed attempts to

try to obscure the facts. It isn't working, why do you keep trying? This bill was nothing more than a bail-out of the Private Ins. Industry. The corporate takeover of the U.S. is almost complete. Wall St, Private Ins. and next, the big prize, the Social Security Fund.

Btw, you never answered my question. Do you support the Republican idea of privatizing SS? Is there some reason why you can't answer that simple question?

[ProSense]

21. "This bill was nothing more than a bail-out of the Private Ins. Industry." Utter nonsense. n/t

[sabrina 1]

23. So, you support the Republican

dream of privatizing SS ~ now that is 'utter nonsense' and hopefully will be fiercely opposed as was when George Bush tried it.

[ProSense]

28. You know who loves asking "do you beat your spouse" questions?

Wingnut idiots.

It's all they've got when their lame arguments fail.

[sabrina 1]

31. It's a simple question ~

Your avoidance of the question answered it already.

[maryf]

37. hi Sabrina

check out the link on debate techniques I just posted to our friend (post # 36). I've bookmarked it, comes in handy when trying to reason with some!! thanks! :)

[maryf]

36. Here's a great archived thread from a fellow du'r about debate techniques

You seem to have this down!

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x7210426

[Jakes Progress]

43. Yep. They have it laminated and hanging above their computer.

[maryf]

49. lol

:fistbump:

[ibegurpard]

54. you do?

don't make me pull up "so you agree with Grover Norquist?" posts...

[Greyhound]

30. C'mon you're not even trying.

Perhaps you should bring up how disruptive requiring birth control would be to this fine industry?

Or how about the old, "it costs $100M to make the first pill" line?

[maryf]

42. Here's some truth for you from the article..

"After years of funneling most of its campaign contributions to Republicans, the industry has favored Democrats with 56 percent of the $5 million it has handed candidates so far this year. The biggest recipient, by far, of the industry's 2008 election cycle contributions of $13.8 million was Obama, who received $1.2 million for his presidential campaign."

[bvar22]

22. To appreciate how really BAD this bill is...

...one needs only compare it to what is taken for granted in the Civilized World.

---bvar22
Cursed with having been there and seen for myself

[kath]

26. yep,, I sure wish *I* lived in the CIvilized World.

:-( :cry:

[sabrina 1]

27. Americans have been abused by their government for so long

that many of them no longer have the will to fight for their rights. They can't even imagine a health care system that does not view them as objects to be profited from. As you said, to fully comprehend how bad this bill is, you would have to have been removed from the bubble that most Americans live in and get out into the world and see how other countries treat their citizens. If such a bill were produced in France, eg, the government that tried it would be toppled.

[Lorien]

34. +1 nt

[maryf]

39. and they live in fear...

it really is like an abusive relationship...the victim can react pretty strongly after a while...hhhmmmm

[blindpig]

35. k&r n/t

[Jakes Progress]

40. But, but a Democrat did it so it's okay. Right?

I wonder what the election results would have been if we had had to campaign on staying at war, privatizing education, drilling off shore, building new nuke plants, and increasing tax ensured profits for pharma and insurance corporations. Oh, and let's remember that all war crimes and constitutional transgressions are given a free pass.

[maryf]

44. Did you see this from the article?

"And after years of funneling most of its campaign contributions to Republicans, the industry has favored Democrats with 56 percent of the $5 million it has handed candidates so far this year. The biggest recipient, by far, of the industry's 2008 election cycle contributions of $13.8 million was Obama, who received $1.2 million for his presidential campaign."

[Hannah Bell]

45. k/r

[Boxcar Johnson]

46. Business

as usual.

[maryf]

51. Welcome to DU!!

keep posting!

[Echo In Light]

47. Of course

[w8liftinglady]

48. to top it off,they are raising prices

a lot of people I know are saying prices have doubled or more.

[maryf]

52. Please, please read it all at the link...Some important lines were editted!! nt

[dajoki]

57. That's what we get...

for trying to pass a bipartisan bill. Too late to rec. but here's a kick.