States Sue Fed Gov't over Bush drug benefit program

[Guest guest]

http://www.newstarget.com/z018095.html

 

 

Originally published February 19 2006

States sue the federal government over the Bush drug benefit program

(commentary)

President Bush marketed his Medicare drug benefit program as a

popular handout that would put more prescription drugs in seniors'

pockets and more money in State coffers. But as it turns out, the

drug benefit promises were completely fabricated, just like " weapons

of mass destruction. "

In reality, the federal drug program has turned into a national

nightmare that has left hundreds of thousands of low-income seniors

without prescriptions, and States actually owing the federal

government hundreds of millions of dollars as payment for the fiasco.

 

Five states have had enough: California, Texas, Kentucky, New Jersey

and Missouri. They're suing to block the federal government from

billing them for the drugs that would have cost them even less under

the old system!

 

The magnitude of hilariousness in all this is practically

indescribable. I may need my own dose of meds just to stop laughing

and catch my breath. First, we have the issue that hardly any of

these prescription drugs are helping people in the first place, so

the whole basis of this " benefit " is medical fraud to begin with.

 

On top of that, we have the drug monopoly system in full swing, where

the FDA and Big Pharma attempt to discredit (or outlaw) anything that

competes with the price-controlled U.S. drug market, thereby forcing

U.S. states to overpay for drugs by as much as 10,000%. So even when

states are getting reimbursed by the feds for these drugs, they're

still being purchased at rip-off prices.

 

Next, we have the Bush / Big Pharma conspiracy, whereby the

government's drug benefit program actually made it illegal for the

federal government to negotiate volume discounts with drug companies.

Just another Big Pharma handout? You bet.

 

And finally, we have the fact that the taxpayers are footing the bill

for everything.

 

 

Tracking the flow of money, waste and fraud

Let's track the flow of money for prescription drugs, shall we? These

numbers are just rough estimates, and this description is greatly

simplified, but it gives you an idea of how the system works.

1. A U.S. pharmaceutical company manufactures a drug for arthritis

pain. It buys low-cost ingredients from all over the world, combining

them into a patented drug capsule that has FDA approval. The actual

manufacturing cost of a 30-day supply of this drug is approximately

$1.

 

2. This drug company sells the drugs to a drug wholesaler for $20.

The drug wholesale turns around and sells it to local pharmacies for

$30.

 

3. Now the patient shows up at a pharmacy with a prescription for a

drug. She's a low-income senior, so she qualifies for the new drug

benefit program. After she gets her prescription filled, the pharmacy

bills Medicare $50. (Remember, this is for the same prescription that

only cost $1 to manufacture.)

 

4. Medicare screws around with paperwork for a couple of months,

adding another $50 in overhead cost, and then bills the state of

California $50 for reimbursement. Total cost is now $100 (including

administrative overhead). (Contract With Private Ins Co.)

 

5. The state of California gets the request and spends its own

administration dollars ($25, perhaps) fumbling around with the

paperwork before paying the federal government. This brings the total

cost of the prescription to $50 + $50 + $25, or $125. (Contract With Private Ins

Co.)

 

 

6. The federal government then receives payment from California and

wastes more time and money processing that (another $25, perhaps).

Total cost of the prescription is now $150.

 

So from this $1 drug, there's a total of $150 in charges billed to

taxpayers. Here's how it breaks down:

 

California spent $75 on the drug and paperwork. All taxpayer dollars.

 

The federal government spent $75 on the paperwork. Also taxpayer

dollars.

 

The drug company, which manufactured the drug for $1 and sold it for

$20 walks away with roughly a 2,000% profit. (In reality, many drugs

are sold at markups more like 35,000%.)

 

Beyond all this, the patient probably spent at least another ten

hours signing up for the drug benefit program, which contains rules

and requirements of such complexity that even IRS auditors were

shaking their heads in frustration.

 

This is how a $1 drug can cost taxpayers $150 in waste, fraud and

price controls while making drug companies filthy rich. If you want

to know why the United States is going broke, and why General Motors

can't afford its employees anymore, and why U.S. corporations are

outsourcing jobs overseas like mad, this is the answer. In the United

States, it costs $150 to give a patient a $1 drug that will probably

harm them anyway and lead to the prescription of even more expensive

drugs.

 

 

Who benefits from the Bush drug benefit program?

Remember, too, this is Bush's " benefit " program. But who does it

benefit, really?

It doesn't benefit states. They hate the program and it costs them

more than doing it the old way.

 

It doesn't benefit the federal government. It just creates more

overhead and headaches.

 

It doesn't benefit patients. Hundreds of thousands are left without

prescriptions.

 

It DOES benefit Big Pharma. Drug companies get paid exorbitant prices

for their cheap-to-manufacture drugs, all paid for by taxpayer

dollars, with no volume discounts.

 

The only group that benefits from the Bush drug benefit program is

Big Pharma. Which, of course, was the whole point all along. Just

another Bush handout to his campaign financiers.

 

 

Americans have been conned yet again

The con is on you, the U.S. taxpayer. Your tax dollars are paying for

all this waste, fraud and government pork. It's your money being

flushed down the toilet, all in the name of a " benefit " to voters.

You gotta love politics. In no other arena can such a huge lie be so

successfully marketed to so many people. Seniors voted for this in

droves. And now they're getting the government they deserve.

 

Remember, friends, when you vote for Washington to solve all your

problems and give you something for free, the actual cost of all that

is many times higher than just paying for it yourself. In an honest

free market system, a patient could buy this $1 drug for maybe $5 at

retail. It's a simple, direct transaction. But by the time you add in

all the do-gooders, medical monopolies and campaign promises, the

cost of that $1 drug has reached $150. That's how Big Government

works. And nobody in the history of the United States has made Big

Government bigger than President Bush.

 

Big Government used to be the political refuge of Democrats, but now

Republicans have beat them at their own game (both Reagan and Bush

were record spenders. Clinton, on the other hand, actually cut

spending. Not nearly enough, but he did make major cuts.) The " game, "

of course, is seeing who can offer the most handouts to voters while

claiming with a straight face that nobody has to pay for them. And

the bigger the lie, the better it seems to go over with voters. If

there's one thing Americans have learned to love, it's instant

gratification that ignores future costs or consequences.

 

The drug benefit program was a gargantuan lie, and it may end up

costing us upwards of a trillion dollars in waste, fraud and

profiteering prices over the next decade. Just another friendly debt

gift to your children from President Bush.