American Crossroads Attacks Harry Reid For Not Bringing Nevada Enough Stimulus

PhRma is paying c.hu.m.p change ($80 billion over 10 years, plus $150 million now for ads supporting a plan that has NO public option) in order to keep massive profits AND kiII public health care.



Obama k!IIed a public option (which would have provided competition to bring costs of healthcare down) & dropped the universal requirement (this legislation does not cover everyone).



Big Insurance gets a clear field, & new customers paid for with taxpayers' money.



Obama's secret deal has PhRma getting to keep gouging Americans, keep the profits, and for a nominal fee up front ($150 million) had PhRma covering Obama&Dems's&PhRma's&BigInsurance's @sses with ads promoting a bill that takes taxpayer money to buy a few more health insurance premiums (not universal coverage) with no cost controls.



$80 billion over 10 years is less than 1% of the profits PhRma makes a year.



This legislation has been a big win for Big Insurance, PhRma, & the corrupt politicians in their back pockets.



Sorry to say that Obama is one of them.



And his most ardent admirers are shaking with delirium tremens believing this legislation was "genius I tells ya!': It's only brilliant in that the Republican-wing of the Democratic Party has fooled them into believing it's healthcare 'reform'.
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American Crossroads Attacks Harry Reid For Not Bringing Nevada Enough Stimulus

In 2003, PhRMA lobbied hard & got Congress to insert language into the bill that created a Medicare drug benefit that prohibits Medicare from using its market clout to negotiate with manufacturers for lower drug prices & making sure the drug benefit was only available through private insurance plans.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2003-07-06-medicare-drug_x.htm



The result?

Medicare members can only get drug coverage by joining a private insurance plan. People who have both Medicare and Medicaid (dual-eligibles) were switched from Medicaid prescription drug coverage to a private Medicare drug plan. Prescription drugs for this population cost 30% more under the new private Medicare drug plans than they did under Medicaid, increasing pharmaceutical companies' profits by at least $3.7 billion dollars in just the first two years of the program. For example, Bristol Myers earned a windfall of almost $400 million, thanks to higher prices for the stroke medication Plavix.

http://oversight.house.gov/story.asp?ID=2115
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American Crossroads Attacks Harry Reid For Not Bringing Nevada Enough Stimulus

Pharmaceutical companies ply doctors with freebies—everything from free lunches to cash payments to fancy junkets—to encourage them to prescribe their brand of drugs. The cost of these giveaways is usually considered "education" not "marketing." http://jama.ama-assn.org/cgi/content/abstract/297/11/1216



In Vermont, in two years alone, $2.28 million in such payments were disclosed under that state's public disclosure law -- & another $3.41 million in payments was shielded from disclosure on "trade secret" grounds.



If they spend nearly $6 million in a small state like Vermont, imagine how much they're spending across the country? Imagine is all we can do because the vast majority of states don't require disclosure. And those are the legal payments.



According to a 2004 article in The NYT, "Pfizer agreed to pay $430 million & pleaded guilty to criminal charges involving the marketing of the pain drug Nuerontin...



AstraZeneca paid $355 million last year & TAP Pharmaceuticals paid $875 million in 2001; each pleaded guilty to criminal charges of fraud for inducing physicians to bill the government for some drugs that the company gave the doctors free." A new study estimates that drug companies spent $57 billion dollars on marketing to doctors in 2004 alone.
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American Crossroads Attacks Harry Reid For Not Bringing Nevada Enough Stimulus

Let's look at the 2004 figures:



Drug makers spent, on average, nearly one-third (32%) of their revenues on marketing, administration and advertising, compared with less than half as much (14%) on all R&D. With total industry revenue approaching an estimated $285 billion, that means more than $90 billion a year is spent on marketing, compared to about $40 billion is spent on R&D. And even some of the expenses they count as R&D are payments to doctors to conduct unnecessary clinical trials that are aimed not at research findings, but getting more patients on the latest more expensive medicines before they are FDA approved.
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American Crossroads Attacks Harry Reid For Not Bringing Nevada Enough Stimulus

The drug industry, through its lobbying arm, PhRMA (the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America), has launched a multi-million dollar PR campaign to fight health care reform & protect their excessive profits by restricting competition. Drugs are the fastest-growing part of the health care bill & pharmaceutical companies want to keep it that way.



What are they afraid of?



The U.S. pays twice as much for 30 commonly prescribed medications as other industrialized countries. Pharmaceutical companies fear that free market competition that gives the government the power to negotiate for lower drug prices will bring U.S. drug prices in line with those in other countries.



What is their tactic?



They want to scare us into believing that their research and development (R&D) budget & their ability to invent the next great life-saving drug depend on their continuing to rake in enormous profits. And that means ensuring people do not have a choice of a public health insurance plan in addition to private insurance plans: "PhRMA believes that the best way to expand coverage & reduce the number of uninsured is through private health insurance with businesses & families having a range of private options."



Is PhRma right?



No.



KEEP READING
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American Crossroads Attacks Harry Reid For Not Bringing Nevada Enough Stimulus

New 'breakthrough' drugs, actually account for only a small proportion of medicines produced by drug companies. The majority of drugs that the drug industry develops each year are so-called "me too" drugs -- Modified forms or new uses of existing drugs that do not provide needed medical advances.

http://www.cbo.gov/ftpdocs/76xx/doc7615/10-02-DrugR-D.pdf



Pharmaceutical companies have been developing more drugs for profit than for need.



According to the GAO, "Over the past 10 years, the trend in the pharmaceutical industry has been to focus on developing drugs that produce a high return on investment, which has reduced the numbers and types of drugs produced."



The GAO report further noted that "companies frequently choose to stop developing drugs that do not offer the same revenue-generating potential as blockbuster drugs, even though they could be highly innovative and offer therapeutic advances."



http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d0749.pdf



PhRma spends nearly half of their revenues on ads. Unnecessary, wasteful drug advertising to laypeople. Drugs for esoteric syndromes ("restless leg") that pharmaceutical corporations crown "diseases" to take drugs for. If they even have the syndrome, their doctors will know the appropriate treatment and right medication for them.



Often, a symptom doesn't become a disease until a drug is discovered for it.



http://www.insurancecompanyrules.org/blog/entry/big_phrma_crying_wolf_again/
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American Crossroads Attacks Harry Reid For Not Bringing Nevada Enough Stimulus

pharmaceutical industry cuts

========================



$80 billion over ten years. $8 billion a year. From the third most profitable industry in the US. In 2007 alone, the top 12 drug makers' profits were $80 billion.



PhRma's most profitable member, Novartis, netted $12 billion in 2007. In 2008, Novartis's profits were up 25% over that, and in 2009, profits were more than 20% higher.



The American taxpayer has been subsidizing pharmaceutical companies for decades with the promise that the R&D we were paying for would result in lower prices and breakthrough cures. Instead, we've been stuck with higher prices (twice as much as other industrialized countries) while the pharmaceutical companies try to snag new markets overseas with what were to be our discounts.



Not only did Obama break his campaign pledge (of the government, PhRma biggest customer, negotiating for lower priced drugs, and reimporting pharmaceuticals), he gave PhRma a huge gift.
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American Crossroads Attacks Harry Reid For Not Bringing Nevada Enough Stimulus

jobless 20-somethings can still stay on parent's insurance

===========================================



It's not just jobless children, but all children up to age 26 can remain on their parents' insurance.



As long as their parents have insurance.



And as long as their parents have jobs (or are independently wealthy), to be able to afford to pay for their own insurance (much less their adult children).



Aside from being an interesting small special interest group that this provision in the legislation applies to , it doesn't address the actual problem:



Where are the jobs?



This is yet another method by which Obama and the DLC-controlled Democrats have let the Bush-Cheney administration and the 'Haves' get away with the greatest heist on America's middle class. Not only get away with the heist, but CONTINUE the heist.
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American Crossroads Attacks Harry Reid For Not Bringing Nevada Enough Stimulus

And it REDUCES the deficit!

=============================



Apparently, it's not going to do that.



Or, to put it another way, if it does do that, we are really going to be scr3wed.



In an article in Health Affairs last month, a former CBO director & a research analyst at a health research firm wrote that estimates that this legislation may actually increase the federal deficit by $500 billion in the first 10 years & by nearly $1.5 trillion in the following decade.



That's because Congress purposely left out of its reform bill a $276 billion provision protecting physicians from scheduled Medicare cuts when it was sent to the CBO for scoring.



Both the analyst and the former CBO director are forecasting that, among other things, Congress will bow to political pressures (from seniors and/or healthcare providers) to forgo other Medicare cuts that are contained in the legislation.



Even the chief actuary of the Medicare system has written that, "providers for whom Medicare constitutes a substantive portion of their business could find it difficult to remain profitable &, absent legislative intervention, might end their participation in the program (possibly jeopardizing access to care for beneficiaries)."



Besides failing to curtail the federal deficit, Obamacare is virtually certain not to "bend the curve" of national healthcare outlays. That’s the main reason insurance premiums will continue to rise.
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American Crossroads Attacks Harry Reid For Not Bringing Nevada Enough Stimulus

Obama has a deficit commission that wants to raise the retirement age, privatize the Social Security trust fund, & cut Social Security & Medicare benefits, as the US government plans to borrow more money from China, Saudi Arabia, etc., in order to pay private for-profit insurance companies. For high-cost premiums, with high deductibles & high co-pays, as well as high-cost medicines. So that insurance company CEOs can continue to take home multi-million dollar bonuses.



The few private insurance companies that have been colluding to fix prices can continue the practice in these exchanges "across state lines". Obama and the DLC-controlled Democratic Party that controls Congress refuses to remove the insurance industry's exemption from the Sherman Anti-Trust Act. So insurance companies' monopolistic practices will continue.
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American Crossroads Attacks Harry Reid For Not Bringing Nevada Enough Stimulus

Insurance exchange across state lines is here

===============================



Of course something that insurance companies & Republicans wanted (because top on its list of reasons, none pro-consumer, it lets insurance companies continue to collude and fix prices) is something that you, Fotios with your GOP avatar, would celebrate.



A public option might have provided the competition necessary to drive prices down, but that didn't happen, and won't happen, unless and until Obama is out of office (at the very earliest; that's part of the undercutting & underhanded deal he made).



Anyone who currently has insurance through their employer isn't eligible. Employers currently providing insurance to their employees aren't eligible to get insurance through these exchanges and would be fined if they stopped providing insurance to their employees. Access to these exchanges is restricted to small business people & their employees, the self-employed & unemployed. Approximately 37 million people. Those who can't afford the costs of these private insurance policies, will get government (taxpayer) subsidies.



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American Crossroads Attacks Harry Reid For Not Bringing Nevada Enough Stimulus

Pre-existing conditions gone

======================



The dev!lish detail:



With a pre-existing condition, you may be able to get insurance, insurance companies may accept you conditionally, like with an exclusionary period where they won't pay for anything relating to that pre-existing condition.



For example, if you're a diabetic, they can deny covering anything treatment related to your condition, including the serious complications that arise from diabetes. But if you get a bladder infection, you're covered.



The eliminating of pre-existing conditions, by the way, isn't scheduled to begin for years.



And other dev!lish details include increased overall cost of your premiums, increased deductibles, increased co-pays, etc.
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American Crossroads Attacks Harry Reid For Not Bringing Nevada Enough Stimulus

Pre-existing conditions gone

Insurance exchange across state lines is here

jobless 20-somethings can still stay on parent's insurance

medicare cuts

pharmaceutical industry cuts

insurance subsidies for small businesses

30 million additional people with access to healthcare



And it REDUCES the deficit!



You are the one without a clue.

==========================



Do you think that having insurance means that insurance coverage pays for all your conditions? Do you think that having insurance means low cost or affordable to you premiums, with low or affordable co-pays and/or low cost or affordable deductibles?



The dev!I is in the details in this legislation.
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Obama's Last Test

So when a system that's been gamed to make sure that your candidate of choice (presumably the liberal) can't possibly get the nomination, you vote for the DINO, the Republican-in-Democrats'-clothing.



And you think that's not losing?



We've already lost. You're just helping the DINOs keep the charade going.



This is what you're doing - http://www.aolnews.com/article/woman-found-living-with-dead-husband/19543483
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