Paul Krugman: Obama Has 'Largely Accepted Conservative View Of The World'

missjulz   59 minutes ago (2:05 PM)


"We don't have short term memory loss. We recall the results of meetings with the pharmaceutical industry et al during HCR."



williamg   1 minute ago (2:15 PM)

Yes, and what were the results:

--Donut Hole voluntarily filled in Medicare Part D
--PHarma stays neutral on legislation (Hillary Clinton said PHarma's money was a big reason her plan was defeated in the early 90s). 
--Dr.ug reimportation would have to be addressed in seperate legislation. 


Why is that so terrible -- especially since dru.g reimportation would lead to the dr.ug companies just raising rates in Canada, allowing Americans little savings?
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The 'donut-hole' that never should have existed in the first place?  The 'donut-hole' that the DLC-controlled Democrats created as a "compromise" for Bush's Medicare Reform Act of 2003 (another massive corporate giveaway package)? 

The whole of Medicare Part D was a scam and a scheme by both pro-corporate parties, a "first step" (as Obama's 'most ardent supporters' like to say) towards privatizing public healthcare.

In 2003, PhRMA lobbied hard and 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 and making sure the drug benefit was only available through private insurance plans.

The result was that 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.

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