The Health Reform Bills Would Be Great For the Business Of Health Care

Have you noticed how none of the big health care business special interests is running any negative health care reform ads? Why should they when each is poised to gain billions of dollars from it?As President Barack Obama has said many times, any health care bill that costs about $1 trillion would be paid for, roughly half and half, with savings in the health care system and new revenues (taxes).

The Higher the Price the Better It Works--Placebo Drugs That Cost More Found to "Work Better"

That was the somewhat humorous--but nonetheless valuable--conclusion from a study sponsored by MIT and led by a Duke behavioral economist.It seems that researchers told one group that a medication cost $2.50 per pill and told another group that it cost ten cents per pill. Both were identical placebos.85% of those who took the "$2.50 pill" reported pain relief.61% of those who took the "10 cent

Drug Prices Rise 7% For Drugs Most Commonly Prescribed For Seniors--Two-and-A-Half Times the Rate of Overall Inflation

Many health care experts point to the creation of Medicare as the time that the American health care system's costs began to explode at an unsustainable rate. Simply, they believe that a huge infusion of government money drove both the supply and the demand for services setting the stage for today's cost problems.That has made many wonder what impact the new Medicare Part D drug benefit, which

Drug Patents and "Pay-For-Delay"--Drug Industry Payoffs That Need To End

I call your attention to a recent op-ed by a member of the Federal Trade Commission, Jon Leibowitz, in the Washington Post.Commissioner Leibowitz writes about the growing practice of "colluding with competitors to keep lower-cost generic alternatives to prescription drugs off the market."The Hatch-Waxman Act made it easier for generic drugs to enter the market once a name brand drug's patent has

When It Comes To Drug Prices the Europeans Are Better Health Care Capitalists Than We Are!

Sometimes I think the government-run European health care systems do a better job of using market tools to control their drug prices than we do in the U.S. market.For example, some government-run systems in Europe, France for example, are not afraid to take a drug off their official formulary if they don't get a competitive price.In January, the Democratic House passed a bill requiring Medicare

The Senate’s Mixed Message on Drug Reimportation—They Voted For it Before They Voted Against It!

To be completely fair, they actually voted against it before they voted for it but the outcome is the same.A whole lot of Senators now go down as voting for the ability of drug wholesalers, retailers, and consumers to bring drugs in from industrialized nations where prescription drugs are a lot cheaper. This provision was one that could have really had an impact on drug prices.While drug

Medicare Drug Negotiation Bill Fails in the Senate

Democrats fell short of the required 60-votes to pass a bill that would have allowed the Secretary of HHS the power to negotiate Medicare Part D drug prices. Democrats did get 55 votes while 42 Senators opposed the bill. The vote generally followed party lines.The Medicare Part D drug negotiation bill was little more than a political charade anyway since the bill would not give HHS any leverage

A Drug Reimportation Bill Continues to Receive Bipartisan Congressional Support

A drug reimportation bill that would enable consumers, drug retailers, and wholesalers to import cheaper foreign drugs from FDA-approved plants and warehouses continues to gain support. The CBO reported that the bill would generate $50 billion in savings for pharmaceutical purchasers over 10 years.While a floor vote has not yet been scheduled in either house, we continue to believe this, or a

Waxman Investigates Part D Medicare Drug Plans

When the Democrats took over the Congress I pointed out that not only would they launch a health care legislative agenda of their own but they would also focus on the oversight of existing health care policy.Their greatest interest was always going to be the new Medicare Advantage plans and the Part D Medicare drug benefit. While the Democrats don't have the votes to repeal either of these

Medicare Drug Negotiation Legislation and a Drug Reimportation Bill––Will They Be Merged?

Legislation to give pharmacies and drug wholesalers the ability to take advantage of lower drug prices in places like Canada, where government controls produce much lower prices, has been introduced in the new Congress.Unlike bills that would only give consumers this ability to import drugs—something lots of people are doing anyway—this would turn the market upside-down by letting the big U.S.

Back to "Regular Order"--The House Medicare Part D Drug Bill and SCHIP Reauthorization

The debate over the House Medicare drug negotiation bill is now moving over to the Senate.My post from last Friday (next post below) still reflects what I am seeing on this issue. The Senate will move a drug bill on "regular order" which means we will see the standard committee hearings and process that could lead to floor action later in the spring or summer. The House Medicare Part D drug

Grassley and Baucus Key to Any Drug Negotiation Compromise

In earlier posts, I have made the point that the House bill to require the federal government to negotiate Part D prescription drug prices will not pass the Senate.Developments in recent days have confirmed that opinion for me. The ranking Republican on the Senate Finance committee, Chuck Grassley, has said he would lead a filibuster of the House bill on the Senate floor and has said he is

The House Part D Drug Negoatiation Debate is Heating Up!

I was quoted in the Washington Post today reiterating my concern that the House Part D drug negoatiation bill is a hollow political charade on the part of the Dems:"The federal government can get lower prices, but only if it's willing to exclude a certain number of drugs from the formulary," said Robert Laszewski, a nonpartisan health policy consultant in Washington. "And that's a huge political

More on the Democratic Part D Drug Negotiation Debate

A friend in big pharma responded to my earlier post on Part D disagreeing with me that the Democratic proposal is not a threat to the drug industry.He made two points:The Dem bill does not prevent the government from requiring each and every plan to prior authorize a medicine for which it is unable to negotiate an "acceptable" price. They see such restrictions as possible because this would not

The Democrats' Hollow Part D Proposal

The House Democrats have announced the form their Part D prescription drug legislation will take.Throughout the 2006 campaign, they had pledged to lower senior prescription drug prices by requiring the federal government to negotiate directly with the drug companies--something the 2003 Medicare Act specifically prohibited. The Democrats went further saying that these negotiations would make it