pharmaceutical

The Billionaires Have Us Right Where They Want Us

September 20, 2009 by EverydayCitizen.com

I had an epiphany this morning. The wealthy in America have us right where they want us. I was watching a video of Michael Moore at a rally in San Francisco and it came to me. This won't be easy to hear, dear readers, but mark my words, Dick Armey, Americans for Prosperity, and the health care executives and pharmaceutical executives who make multimillion dollar salaries are having a good laugh at our expense.

Baucus Bill Sticks To Pharma Deal That Supposedly Wasn’t Struck

September 18, 2009 by Jack and Jill P...

hat tip – a JJP reader

From HuffingtonPost.com

Baucus Bill Sticks To Pharma Deal That Supposedly Wasn’t Struck
First Posted: 09-18-09 02:15 PM | Updated: 09-18-09 03:31 PM

The bill unveiled by Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus has been blasted as a major giveaway to insurance companies. But the even bigger winners are the drug makers.

That’s because the Baucus bill matches up, nearly to the letter, with the secret deal that he, the White House and Big Pharma struck over the summer — a deal the various parties roundly denied had been struck when it went public.

In August, the Huffington Post published a memo that outlined exactly what each side was going to do for the other. And Big Pharma was getting a lot more than they were giving up.

Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America senior vice president Ken Johnson said that the outline “is simply not accurate.” White House spokesman Reid Cherlin concurred: “This memo isn’t accurate and does not reflect the agreement with the drug companies.”

But now that the bill is out, let’s fact check those denials.

1) The memo said that PhRMA would “[a]gree to increase of Medicaid rebate from 15.1 – 23.1%”.