All people should have access to the prescription drugs they need without
having to choose between their health and the other basic necessities of
life — food, housing and child care. The cost of prescription drugs
in health plans is going up at a dramatic rate — up to about 20% last
year. This is driving double- digit increases in health insurance premiums.
And those who need prescription drugs but have no health insurance are increasingly
forced to choose between the drugs that they need to live and paying the
rent or eating.
Winning a Broader Purchasing Pool
Oregon Action supported Ballot Measure 44 -- expanding the Prescription Drug Bulk Purchasing Pool to allow all Oregonians without prescription coverage to participate. To find out more or to download an application go to the Oregon Prescription Drug Program web site.
Fighting Medicare Deform
Medicare was based on the conviction that government can solve problems
that people cannot tackle on their own. Three out of four seniors did not
have hospital insurance when Congress established Medicare in 1965. Seniors
were sinking into poverty and this was considered a national disgrace. Since
1965, millions of seniors and their families have benefited from this program.
And it has been cost effective – less than 5% of the Medicare budget
is spent on administrative costs, 95% pays for healthcare delivered by private
doctors and hospitals.
Fast forward 40 years to today when prescription drugs
have become the fastest growing part of both healthcare costs and healthcare
usage. Medicare pays to visit the doctor, but not for the prescription
drugs that will keep you healthy. Seniors find themselves forced to choose
between food and medicine. The drug companies are making record profits and
the U.S. pays more for prescriptions than any other country. What should
be done?
Not what was done. Congressional leaders used every trick in the book to
pass the Medicare Modernization Act.
- Falsified Cost Estimates: Richard
S. Foster, chief actuary for the Medicare program, was told he
would be fired if he told Congress the real cost estimate ($534 billion)
instead of the $400 billion that was falsely claimed to be the cost. By
underreporting the cost of the bill, they were able to sway some reluctant
representatives to vote in favor of it.
- Breaking the own rules: The Medicare
Modernization Act was defeated in the initial vote, but contrary to their
own House Rules, the House leadership kept the vote open for over three
hours — the longest vote in the entire history of Congress — to
give them time to pressure legislators to change their votes.
- Bribery and Intimidation: House Republican
leaders used intimidation and bribery to sway the vote, according to public
statements by Congressman Nick Smith, a Republican from Michigan who opposed
the Medicare bill as too costly. Smith, who is retiring this year, said
that other Republican congressmen, whom he has not publicly identified,
offered to funnel campaign contributions to his son’s
campaign, or work to defeat him, depending on how the father voted on final
passage of the Medicare bill. The sum of $100,000 was reportedly mentioned.
Smith refused the bribe and defied the threats, and voted against the bill,
but two other Republicans switched their votes.
- Conflicts of Interest: Medicare chief
Thomas Scully, was negotiating with Congress on the shape of the
bill at the same time as he was in discussions with his prospective employers,
who stand to profit from the legislation. While browbeating lower-level
HHS employees into suppressing the cost estimates for the bill, Scully
had HHS give him a waiver of the federal law that bars presidential appointees
from discussing employment with companies conducting business with their
own department or agency.
Everyone
who voted for the Medicare Modernization Act should be ashamed. Those who
justify their votes by arguing that they can fix it later are ignoring political
reality. CEOs and shareholders are the beneficiaries, not seniors. The Boston
Globe published a must-read
article on the politics behind this bill.
Not
only does this bill prohibit Medicare from bargaining for lower drug prices
for seniors, it has no cost controls at all. So the recently announced 17.4%
Medicare premium increase is likely to be just the beginning. According to
the Boston
Globe, drug companies will rake in an additional $139 billion
in new profits thanks to Congress’ generosity.
Oregon Action is committed to seeing this legislation repealed and
replaced with prescription drug coverage that serves the greater good.
We want our tax dollars to pay for medicine, not for CEO bonuses. Bills
have been introduced to change the two most egregious problems with
this bill, prohibiting the Medicare program from using its purchasing
power to bargain for lower prices and prohibiting the re-importation
of cheaper drugs from Canada. While we support these potential fixes,
we also believe that there are other, equally serious, problems with
the bill such as pushing seniors into managed care plans in an effort
to privatize Medicare. endangering the pension health benefits of
millions of retirees and undercutting the Medicaid prescription coverage
for low-income seniors.
Rx Reform Victory in Oregon
Locally, Oregon Action was a leader in winning a Drug
Purchasing Pool bill
that will go into effect in January, 2005. People 55 or older who are at
or below 185% of the federal poverty line are eligible to enroll in the purchasing
pool and pay less for their prescriptions. The Purchasing Pool allows the
state of Oregon to bargain for lower drug prices.
Oregon also should join together with Washington, Montana and Idaho in a
regional prescription drug purchasing-pool so state health programs, independent
pharmacies and regional clinics, hospitals and HMO's can bargain for the
same bulk discounts that huge chains such as Walmart and Rite-Aid enjoy.
Not only will this bring the cost of health care down for Oregonians; it
will help local small businesses such as independent pharmacies to compete
on price as well as service.
Money In Politics: Rx Reform
Pharmaceutical
companies invested more than $150,000 in the 2002 campaigns of Oregon legislators who
watered down or blocked bills designed to save consumers money in
2003.
What did the industry get in return? While the 2003 legislature
voted to create a state-run prescription drug purchasing pool
to negotiate discounted prices, the final bill was scaled down
in the face of opposition from PhRMA, a pharmaceutical industry
lobbying group. At the same time a bipartisan bill that would have
made pharmaceutical companies disclose the gifts they give to doctors
and other medical professionals languished and died in committee.
For more details, go to the Money in Politics Research Action
Project.
In the News:
Research
