White House Stands By Behind-The-Scenes Deal With Drugmakers Under Industry Pressure

New York Times:

Pressed by industry lobbyists, White House officials on Wednesday assured drug makers that the administration stood by a behind-the-scenes deal to block any Congressional effort to extract cost savings from them beyond an agreed-upon $80 billion.

Read the whole story: New York Times

Comments

[noneIn2008]

05:45 PM on 08/06/2009

Look at the specifics of the health bill and you will see the hand writing of pharma and big health. Look at the Tobacco bills and taxes and you see the finger prints of big tobacco. The new health bill locks out competition and locks in the mega businesses. They let populist front the bills and they feign opposition. But they wrote the bills.

[bleek]

05:30 PM on 08/06/2009

Barack (BigPharma) Obama

Kind of has a ring to it, no?

[Mikeeee]

09:32 PM on 08/06/2009

Sadly, yes!

[TotalRecall9]

05:28 PM on 08/06/2009

Thanks for that "change you can believe in"!

[adamsmith3]

05:23 PM on 08/06/2009

Anyone who actually knows the science and economics behind developing a successful drug (including patent life of the drug) knows that many drug companies only charge exorbitant costs for their successful drugs to make up for the millions of dollars they lost investing in the nine drugs that failed to pass FDA regulations. By the time they finally do get a drug that passes FDA trials and makes it to market, they only have a few years to make up for all of the debt incurred, pay their highly-skilled workers, and make some profit to use as capital for the next drug investment before the patent life on their drug runs out. If you want to lower drug costs, you can't just magically force these companies to charge less. You would be hurting innovation and the push forward for the next life-saving drug. One of the easiest things we could do is extend patent life for successful drugs so that companies could charge less per pill and make up profits over a longer period of time. And no, I don't work for pharma.

[BustMyChops]

05:16 PM on 08/06/2009

It's a good think I didn't vote for Ralph Nader and throw my vote away.

[BustMyChops]

05:21 PM on 08/06/2009

(sic) thing

[ThePeacemakers]

05:08 PM on 08/06/2009

Things people can control regarding drugs:

1) Read up on herbs and natural healing.

2) Stop abusing prescription drugs.

[KansAmerican]

05:03 PM on 08/06/2009

I voted for Obama. However, he has shown less than a full measure of courage toward Republicans when trying to pass this health legislation. He has also buckled to lobbyists to often. The Whitehouse is showing a few distinct stripes of yellow. I hope he veers into a full course of direct force and rams his health program straight through with his majority. Republicans have toyed with him on his bipartisan efforts; they make fun of him. I know he must be politically adept but he must start showing strength up the middle. I still have hopes for him and he certainly is better than the Republican alternative. I'm hoping he will be more forecefu with congressional obstructors and destructors on this health care issue and bring it into law.

[ThePeacemakers]

05:00 PM on 08/06/2009

LOL !!!
So you manage a $50 per month premium...somehow...
You'd have $5,000 drugs !
Remember, when I kept asking "How are costs going to be controlled?"
Because all O kept talking about was cost SAVINGS...not control.

Nobody ever framed the healthcare debate in these terms either:
Currently, the working class and middle class subsidize the health care of the wealthy.

Take a big corporation. Someone making $250,000 / year with a family may choose a plan that costs them $100 per month. Someone else at the same company who makes $50,000 / year pays $100 per month for the same plan.

Who's paying the biggest percentage of their income for their healthcare?

What if the $50,000 / year person could get the same coverage for less? Say in a public option?

[ntmessage]

05:00 PM on 08/06/2009

What continues to amaze is that this industry is doing everything they can to torpedo the bill and still does not want the government to be able to negotiate prices? With friends like that, no wonder the democrats are looking to incompetent and perhaps on the short end of any deal with the devil.

[LeroyJenkins]

04:58 PM on 08/06/2009

10 years from now Obama will make the Clinton's 100 million net worth seem modest and quaint

[Kayea]

04:58 PM on 08/06/2009

Well this is the royal pits for sure. How can there be any savings if the drug companies keep gouging the public. Seriously..not good at all. I hope Congress fights against this and negotiations for the best prices are put back.

Hugely disappointing to say the least.

Those that love huge corporate profits and the struggles of most Americans should be jumping for joy again.

[AngieMom57]

04:55 PM on 08/06/2009

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2009/08/05

The Hidden Truth Behind Drug Company Profits by Johann Hari

Is Johann Hari still posting on HuffPo?

[Athenais]

04:45 PM on 08/06/2009

The government will never protect citizens from the pharma cartel. Our only hope is to stop buying what they're selling. There are 5 reasons to take a medication: life-threatening high blood pressure, seizures, cardiac arrhythmias, severe acute pain, and life threatening high blood glucose. All five can be treated with older inexpensive drugs. Everything else is a waste of time and money.

[PaxEterna]

04:37 PM on 08/06/2009

And this one we know about.

How about all the deals that have been made that we DON'T know about?

READ THE BILLS. THEY ARE DESIGNED TO PROTECT THE STATUS QUO UNTIL 2013.

In the meantime, the health care ghettos are being readied for the old, the sick, the tired, the broke, and the weary . . .all the middle class refugees in America, that once great nation.

Listen to Bill Clinton when he talks to the third world: creating shared opportunity so there can be shared prosperity.

I think he should address our Congress and tell those greedy, insane lawmakers on both sides of the aisle what needs to happen here to lift the masses out of the mudslide created by GREED MISMANAGEMENT AND STUPIDITY in the health insurance, pharmaceutical, banking, and finance sectors of America over the last 25 years..

[Coinyer101]

04:24 PM on 08/06/2009

real reform was 'escorted' out the door with those single-payer advocates that tried to have a voice at the 'roundtable'.....,the behind closed doors bs, is just a 'clincher', to keep for-profit health at the status quo....,We'll get single-payer ,when all this other nonsense fails to keep the system from being overwhelmed.......,

[kbkw54]

04:38 PM on 08/06/2009

Obama NEVER considered single payer.

[TotalRecall9]

05:31 PM on 08/06/2009

He campaigned on single-payer healthcare, but dropped the idea because he didn't have the votes in Congress.

[Coinyer101]

05:44 PM on 08/06/2009

no. but, he did promise the 'people' a 'voice at the table', now, didn't he?

[PaxEterna]

04:39 PM on 08/06/2009

Spot on . . . escorted out by our President, the one who said lobbyists would not be running his WH, all the while he took 19 million dollars in contributions from the health sector, more than any other candidate by a wide margin.

[kbkw54]

04:40 PM on 08/06/2009

The same president that said we would have transparency.