I missed this last week but Robert Reich didn't. The Obama Admin has just promised to continue the abortion called Medicare Part D - a Bush program that has proven to be a bonanza for greedy drug makers and a nightmare for seniors who need those drugs - in exchange for their active support on his healthcare reform package.
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
healthcare 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 healthcare. It's
also spending 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.
(emphasis added)
It's a lousy trade for more reasons than I have the space to explain here, not the least of which is that big drug companies have already reaped $Billions$ from Part D and now stand to reap many $Billions$ more, so $150Mil is, like, a drop in the bucket. It's like promising to replace your neighbor's broken window - the one you just winged a rock through - but only if he'll buy you a Ferrari.
But it isn't so much that this is yet another lousy deal made by Democrats where massive goodies go to corporate sleezebags in return for almost nothing so much as that it is a prime example of business-as-usual in a fascist state: extortion, blackmail, and self-serving lies.
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