Drug Industry Unleashes Huge Wave Of Health Care Mailings Targeting Seniors
The powerful drug industry lobby has unleashed a massive wave of mailers in four dozen House districts that warns seniors that their Medicare costs will soar if the House doesn’t back the controversial health care deal that the lobby reportedly cut with the White House and Senate negotiators.
The mailing — which will infuriate reform proponents who oppose that deal and want the House to further target drug industry profits — was paid for by the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers Association. A PhRMA spokesman confirmed to us that it’s hit 47 districts.
With the mailing, the drug lobby is in effect throwing a brush-back pitch at members of the House who might want to undermine the industry’s profit-protecting deal with the White House. Under that deal, the White House reportedly agreed to block efforts by Congress to target industry profits beyond $80 billion, in exchange for its support.
Some members of the House, however, want to go further. They want to help pay for reform by empowering the government to negotiate drug prices under Medicare, which would cut deeper into drug company profits. The industry claims the result will be higher Medicare drug coverage costs.
The mailing indirectly references the above standoff, warning seniors that “some members in the House” support a proposal that would “raise Medicare premiums by as much as 20 percent.” In a reflection of the drug lobby’s efforts to present itself as friendly to reform, the mailing has an iron-fist-in-velvet-glove tone: It thanks the targeted House member for working towards reform, even as it implicitly warns against targeting more industry profits.
The mailing is a sign that the drug lobby is prepared to go on the offensive if House efforts to target industry profits gain traction when Congressional negotiations over reform enter their next phase. Check out the mailing targeting Wisconsin Rep. Gwen Moore below:
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I got this thing two days ago and called my dem rep. Staff says he knew nothing about it; I had to fax them a copy. Still can’t figure out what “proposal” they’re talking about that would “raise Medicare premiums by 20 percent”. Anybody know?
all, please let me know what you’re experiencing in comments today…many thanks…
Converse, it’s a reference to this:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/26/health/policy/26dual.html?scp=1&sq=%22pharmaceutical%20research%20and%20manufacturers%20of%20america%22%20%22medicare%22&st=cse
it’s weirdly indirect…
In my reading, it’s straight-forwardly inaccurate. The article clearly says that if PhARMA backs out of their deal, then drug costs, not premium costs, could increase.
presumably higher drug costs translate into higher premium costs (or so the lobby argues)
Here’s a pretty good article from Andy Kroll at Salon. It really defines what Obama is up against in the way of industry influence in Washington. Here’s the final sentence.
“Beating the Washington influence machine, flush with cash, amply staffed and relentless in its mission, will be no small feat for Obama’s team. And if they fail, then it will be possible to say that no matter who’s voted in, it’s the influence machine that rules Washington.”
Here’s the link to the article if you have the stomach for it. I found it quite depressing. The corporate interests rule and it seems very unlikely Obama or anyone else can tame them.
http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2009/09/17/kroll/index1.html
When Eisenhour warned about the military industrial complex in his ‘61 farewell address he was certainly prescient! Too bad somebody didn’t also warn about the health industry/big pharma complex…not that it would have done any good. Big Pharma is one of the largest blood sucking industries in our country. We end up subsidizing cheap drugs all over the globe where they are a fraction of the cost here in the good ole US of A where according to the Repubs we have the best health care system in the World! Oh and let’s not forget the enormous advertising costs so that uneducated yokels and hypchondriacs can self diagnose and demand the drugs from their far more qualified medical PROFESSIONALS.
And so now the US is in a quandary the founding fathers never imagined…a Senate with small states like Alaska with 2 Senator and 1 Rep in the House. These guys are cheap to purchase because of low campaign/media costs…see Baucus & Grassley.
Is there a solution? I don’t really know but I offer this suggestion…I’m paying careful attention to both Baucus and Grassley’s opponents in both their next primary(if they even have a viable opponent) and general election. In this electronic age I can go on their websites and make a contribution. And yes even though I am a progessive I shall contribute to a Repub against Baucus. He is not only a big pharma/insurance prostitute he has been pimping their positions as well.
If we all give $25-$50 to their opponents we could finally as citizens have an antidote to the big corporate interests corrupting our process by purchasing small state Senators. If we did this in large enough numbers perhaps some balance would return and these prostitutes would realize we are their johns just as much as big pharma/insurance!
Additional thought….to the world’s oldest profession…I apologize for comparing you with immoral people like Baucus and Grassley!
Grassley is running for reelection in 2010. Baucus got reelected in 2008, so we can put no pressure on him.
As for Grassley, the Iowa primary is dominated by the far right wing of the
Republican party. Grassley fears them, and that is why he is pandering to them. To know what type of voters turn out for Republican primaries, in Iowa, just look at who they voted for in their Presidential caucuses. Mike Huckabee, that is who.
It would be a waste of money to donate to a primary opponent. Give it to whoever the Democrats nominate to run against him. That is our best chance to oust Grassley, since, overall, Iowa leans Democratic.
With regards to PHARMA, one thing that needs to be changed.
The should not be allowed to run commercials for prescription drugs. That is just trolling for hypochondriacs. Those ads do increase the sales of the medicines being pitched, but that is a bad thing.
It means that the ad and the patient, are wagging the doctor. Ask your Doctor if…., is how the Drug makers have patients pressure Doctors into writing prescriptions, that they otherwise would not have.
The other way is by having sales reps constantly pitching products to doctors, and probably wining and dining a lot of them.
@lmsinca, thanks for the link. I haven’t read it yet, but I’ll go there later.
When Obama was in Pittsburgh the other day, talking to the AFL-CIO, some conservatives (can’t link, can’t remember where I saw that) started moaning that he was fomenting class warfare. Okay, big unions are a kind of class, a kind of corporation, but it seems to me is rallying people, the little guy, against the corporate magilla.
If that’s class warfare, bring it on.
so many clauses I lost some verbs.
but it seems to be that he is rallying people, …
I live in Congressman Jason Altmire’s district in PA and received this mailer. I called the office and they said they didn’t know about it. My question to them and others is what the Congressman will do to allay fears of seniors who received this and now fear that their premiums may be increased 20%.
@Liam,
Thanks for the info…I’ll certainly contribute to Grassley’s opponent in the general of 2010…all the way from Florida. As for Baucus I promise to keep a long memory…perhaps that should be the rallying cry…we won’t forget.
And yes Liam I agree…Big Pharma ads on TV should go the way of Tobacco and be banned!
I read quite a few here claiming that Obama is “trying to fight the big corporations.”
Huh? Obama has been cutting deals with them! And then he got Baucus to enshrine his backroom deal in the proposed bill. And then he issued a two page h/c plan of his own that tracks VERY closely to the Baucus bill.
He ain’t fighting the corporations – this is precisely the way he gamed this thing out to begin with.
Mr. Sargent contacted multiple Congressional offices requesting a copy of the PhRMA mailer as ‘a reporter for the Washington Post and Company.” Reporting of course is different than blogging, which doesn’t require the approval of editors, and hence results in claims such as ‘the industry claims the result will be higher Medicare drug coverage costs.”
WRONG. It’s not the industry, stupid. It’s the Congressional Budget Office, which in it’s analysis of HR 3200 determined that Medicare Part D premiums will increase as much as 20 percent over the next decade for non-low income seniors because of the Stark/Waxman proposal to increase price controls on the drug companies to ‘close’ the doughnut hole.
Whether one believes PhRMA is within its rights to alert seniors to the premium-raising provision within HR 3200 is a matter of debate. But failing to report the fact CBO believes this to be the case is irresponsible and/or underlies the general ignorance of the media regarding basic matters of public policy and economics.
_________________________________
From: Sargent, Greg [mailto:sargentg@washpost.com]
Sent: Tuesday, September 15, 2009 5:03 PM
To: name deleted to protect staffer
Subject: quick question
Hey staffer,
I’m a reporter for the Washington Post co, and I’m hearing that you guys have a copy of a mailer that the pharmaceutical industry is sending to constituents…I’d be very interested in getting a hold of that. Is that doable?
Best,
Greg
The Congress is back in session and doing the dirty work for the Medical Industrial Complex.mcconnell $3.3M, hatch $2.9M, baucus $2.8M, grassley $2.7M,lieberman $2.6M, burr $2.4M, ensign $2.4M, cornyn $2.2M, kyl $2.1M,conrad $2.1M, cantor $1.8M boehner $1.7M, coburn $1.2M, j wilson 800K were paid by the Medical Industrial Complex to kill Health Care Reform.(Source: OpenSecrets.org)12 Million Americans were denied health care coverage by the Medical Industrial Complex because they had a pre-existing medical condition. 12K Americans are denied insurance coverage everyday by a for-profit Insurance bureaucrat. (Source: WaPo Article 05′ by Harvard Prof. E. Warren) More than 22K Americans between the ages 24-64 die each year because they don’t have adequate health insurance coverage. (Source: Chu, M.C. & J. Rhoades, The Uninsured in America, 96′-07′)Medical malpractice lawsuits are a hot topic but, are they? Tort Reform is such a “red herring” and is easily disproved. A 2004 report by the Congressional Budget Office said medical malpractice makes up only 2 percent of U.S. health spending. Even “significant reductions” would do little to curb health-care expenses, it concluded. Citizens for Tax Justice pointed this out. The tax legislation enacted under President George W. Bush from 2001 through 2006 will cost $2.48 trillion over the 2001-2010 period. This includes the revenue loss of $2.11 trillion that results directly from the cheney/bush tax cuts as well as the $379 billion in additional interest payments on the national debt that we must make since the tax cuts were deficit-financed. Over the upcoming decade (2010-2019), the costs of the health care proposals approved by three committees in the U.S. House of Representatives are projected to be around $1 trillion and deficit neutral(that means they’re paid for). In 2010, when all the cheney/bush tax cuts are finally phased in, a staggering 52.5 percent of the benefits will go to the richest 5 percent of taxpayers. The cheney/bush tax cuts were deficit-financed, which increased the national debt and resulted in greater interest payments on that debt. cheney/bush administration never even tried to pay for their tax-cuts. So, for the price of cheney/bush’s tax-cuts for the wealthiest 5%, we could have had Health Care for every American. Instead Americans got bupkus and cheney/bush’s republican campaign contributors/golf buddies got filthy rich off of the Blood Money from No-Bid, Cost-Plus Federal Contracts.Follow the Money: LinkCall Congress and demand, Single-Payer Health Care for All!(Toll Free # House and Senate)1-866-338-1015_______________1-866-220-00441-800-473-6711_______________1-866-311-3405Sign Single-Payer Petition: LinkDon’t let the Medical Industrial Complex steal your Health Care from you and your family by donating huge sums of money to Crooked Politicians in order to maintain the Status Quo. Keep up the good fight.SEMPER FI!
Thanks for clearing that up, double sigh. Here’s a l;ink to the CBO blog confirming the info provided:
http://cboblog.cbo.gov/?p=348
Bottom line: “Those who ended up purchasing a relatively small amount of drugs in a year would pay more in additional premiums than they would gain from lower cost sharing, while those who purchased a relatively large amount of drugs in a year would gain more from lower cost sharing than they would pay in higher premiums.
Second, the responses of pharmaceutical manufacturers to these provisions of the legislation would also increase Part D premiums. Drug manufacturers would probably charge higher prices for new drugs and lower the rebates they pay to prescription drug plans. Those responses would lead to an increase in beneficiaries’ premiums and an increase in beneficiaries’ payments for cost sharing.”
Hell, why wouldn’t they be for Baucus’ Bill? They helped write it just as they wrote the Part D bill that doesn’t allow negotiated prices! The problem is weak people who believe this Bullcrap. If I get a letter like that, I’ll send it back with instructions where to stick it!
How did our species survive and thrive, before we were all lead to believe that none of us can survive, unless we all swallow an avalanche of prescription chemical concoctions each remaining day of our lives.
The medical profession has become the the new priesthood, and prescription drugs are the sacraments which will make all us old geysers live for ever.
There is no cure for getting old, but try telling that to all the trembling elderly one encounters at Walgreen checkout counters, with their clusters of pill bags, shaking like aspen leaves in their hands, and the dazed looks in their pill glazed eyes.
I am reminded of the old country song: Everyone wants to get to Heaven, but nobody wants to die.
We old people need to stop living in fear of our own aging bodies. That is the root of the medical crisis. It start with people not accepting that our aging bodies are failing. They are, and that is the natural order of things, and no amount of pills will make us young again.
Easy up on the pills, and enjoy your remaining years. If you have a real health problem, then seek treatment, but stop letting The Big Medical Ogre dominate every aspect of your remaining days or years.
Moderation in all things, diet, activities, and especially in pill swallowing and medical procedures. Only you can stop wasting medicare resources.
Rely on it out of necessity, and not habitually, as is too often the case now.
We are old, and the reason why we are is, because we have been blessed with longevity. Be satisfied with having lived for so long. I am. I avoid most pills, like the plague. The side effects from them, and the dangers of cross reactions from your cornucopia of chemical pill bombs, is probably hurting you more than it is helping.
Restless Leg Syndrome, My Arse? Stop being such willing pill swallowing suckers for BIG PHARMA.
A few lines from William Butler Yeats.
An aged man is but a paltry thing,
A tattered coat upon a stick, unless
Soul clap its hands and sing, and louder sing
For every tatter in its mortal dress,
Nor is there singing school but studying
Monuments of its own magnificence;
And therefore I have sailed the seas and come
To the holy city of Byzantium.
I love how Big Pharma is the great enemy and yet they are also Comrade Obama’s partner in his Obamacare reforms.
I wish you could live in a world that conformed to your economic idiocy.
And please Liam, tell us what other speech you would ban?
How did our species survive and thrive, before we were all lead to believe that none of us can survive, unless we all swallow an avalanche of prescription chemical concoctions, each remaining day of our lives.
The medical profession has become the new priesthood, and prescription drugs are the sacraments which will make all us old geysers live for ever.
There is no cure for getting old, but try telling that to all the trembling elderly one encounters at Walgreen checkout counters, with their clusters of pill bags, shaking like aspen leaves in their hands, and the dazed looks in their pill glazed eyes.
I am reminded of the old country song: Everyone wants to get to Heaven, but nobody wants to die.
We old people need to stop living in fear of our own aging bodies. That is the root of the medical crisis. It start with people not accepting that our aging bodies are failing. They are, and that is the natural order of things, and no amount of pills will make us young again.
Easy up on the pills, and enjoy your remaining years. If you have a real health problem, then seek treatment, but stop letting The Big Medical Ogre dominate every aspect of your remaining days or years.
Moderation in all things, diet, activities, and especially in pill swallowing and medical procedures. Only you can stop wasting Medicare resources.
Rely on it out of necessity, and not habitually, as is too often the case now.
We are old, and the reason why we are is, because we have been blessed with longevity. Be satisfied with having lived for so long. I am. I avoid most pills, like the plague. The side effects from them, and the dangers of cross reactions from your cornucopia of chemical pill bombs, is probably hurting you more than it is helping.
Restless Leg Syndrome, My Arse? Stop being such willing pill swallowing suckers for BIG PHARMA.
A few lines from William Butler Yeats.
An aged man is but a paltry thing,
A tattered coat upon a stick, unless
Soul clap its hands and sing, and louder sing
For every tatter in its mortal dress,
Nor is there singing school but studying
Monuments of its own magnificence;
And therefore I have sailed the seas and come
To the holy city of Byzantium.
Double Sigh is misleading us re: CBO report on the effect of HR 3200 on Medicare Pt D premiums.
I just read the report. It predicts higher premiums BUT lower cost sharing with an overall reduction in spending on drugs by individuals. Only those people who have relatively little need for drugs would end up paying more. That’s how insurance works!! Duh.
I’m so sick of these scare-mongering conservatives misrepresenting official reports from Congr. Research Service (where they conflate “non-citizens” with “illegal immigrants) and the CBO, as we see here. What a waste of time it is to keep having to fact check their every statement and find in EVERY case that they are not being honest. At what point do we just quit listening altogether?
I’m afraid Alleen is the misleading one here.
http://cboblog.cbo.gov/?p=348
True, “Those who ended up purchasing a relatively small amount of drugs in a year would pay more in additional premiums than they would gain from lower cost sharing.
But that’s not the WHOLE story.
“The responses of pharmaceutical manufacturers to these provisions of the legislation would also increase Part D premiums. Drug manufacturers would probably charge higher prices for new drugs and lower the rebates they pay to prescription drug plans. Those responses would lead to an increase in beneficiaries’ premiums and an increase in beneficiaries’ payments for cost sharing.”
That’s the WHOLE truth higher drug prices, lower rebates, higher premiums. Don’t be misled by Alleen. The ad is perfectly accurate, and it is backed up by the CBO report.