Obama on Drugs: 98% Cheney?

[Guest guest]

Obama on Drugs: 98% Cheney?

 

 

by Greg Palast

Thursday, August 13, 2009

 

For The Huffington Post

 

 

Eighty billion dollars of WHAT?

 

I searched all over the newspapers and TV transcripts and no one asked the

President what is probably the most important question of what passes for

debate on the issue of health care reform: $80 billion of WHAT?

 

On June 22, President Obama said he'd reached agreement with big drug

companies to cut the price of medicine by $80 billion. He extended his

gratitude to Big Pharma for the deal that would, " reduce the punishing

inflation in

health care costs. "

 

Hey, in my neighborhood, people think $80 billion is a lot of money. But

is it?

 

I checked out the government's health stats (at HHS.gov), put fresh

batteries in my calculator and toted up US spending on prescription drugs

projected by the government for the next ten years. It added up to $3.6

trillion.

 

In other words, Obama's big deal with Big Pharma saves $80 billion out of

a total $3.6 trillion. That's 2%.

 

Hey thanks, Barack! You really stuck it to the big boys. You saved America

from these drug lords robbing us blind. Two percent. Cool!

 

For perspective: Imagine you are in a Wal-Mart and there's a sign over a

flat screen TV, " BIG SAVINGS! " So, you break every promise you made never to

buy from that union-busting big box - and snatch up the $500 television.

And when you're caught by your spouse, you say, " But, honey, look at the deal

I got! It was TWO-PERCENT OFF! I saved us $10! "

 

But 2% is better than nothing, I suppose. Or is it?

 

The Big Pharma kingpins did not actually agree to cut their prices. Their

promise with Obama is something a little oilier: they apparently promised

that, over ten years, they will reduce the amount at which they would

otherwise raise drug prices. Got that? In other words, the Obama deal locks in

a

doubling of drug costs, projected to rise over the period of " savings " from

a quarter trillion dollars a year to half a trillion dollars a year. Minus

that 2%.

 

We'll still get the shaft from Big Pharma, but Obama will have circumcised

the increase.

 

And what did Obama give up in return for $80 billion? Chief drug lobbyist

Billy Tauzin crowed that Obama agreed to dump his campaign pledge to

bargain down prices for Medicare purchases. Furthermore, Obama's promise that

we

could buy cheap drugs from Canada simply went pffft!

 

What did that cost us? The New England Journal of Medicine notes that 13

European nations successfully regulate the price of drugs, reducing the

average cost of name-brand prescription medicines by 35% to 55%. Obama gave

that up for his 2%.

 

The Veterans Administration is able to push down the price it pays for

patent medicine by 40% through bargaining power. George Bush stopped Medicare

from bargaining for similar discounts, an insane ban that Obama said he'd

overturn. But, once within Tauzin's hypnotic gaze, Obama agreed to lock in

Bush's crazy and costly no-bargaining ban for the next decade.

 

What else went down in Obama's drug deal? To find out, I called C-SPAN to

get a copy of the videotape of the meeting with the drug companies. I was

surprised to find they didn't have such a tape despite the President's

campaign promise, _right there on CNN in January 2008_

(

) , " These negotiations will be on

C-SPAN. "

 

This puzzled me. When Dick Cheney was caught having secret meetings with

oil companies to discuss Bush's Energy Bill, we denounced the hugger-muggers

as a case of foxes in the henhouse.

 

Cheney's secret meetings with lobbyists and industry bigshots were creepy

and nasty and evil.

 

But the Obama crew's secret meetings with lobbyists and industry bigshots

were, the President assures us, in the public interest.

 

We know Cheney's secret confabs were shady and corrupt because Cheney

scowled out the side of his mouth.

 

Obama grins in your face.

 

See the difference?

 

The difference is 2%.

 

*******

 

Palast studied healthcare economics at the Center for Hospital

Administration Studies at the University of Chicago.

 

Greg Palast's investigative reports can be seen on BBC Television's

Newsnight and, in print, at _www.GregPalast.com_ (http://www.gregpalast.com/) .

 

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