Remember Dennis Kucinich? The former Boy Mayor of Cleveland has introduced legislation that would allow senior citizens to buy prescription medicines overseas, “from approved foreign countries where drugs are significantly cheaper,” while simultaneously doing away with the Part D non-interference clause.
With Lebron out of town, perhaps the Congressman thought he could grab some media cowbell. But all he’s done is show his, well, cavalier attitude towards healthcare reform in general and the facts in particular.
And adding to the lunacy, his “Medicare Drugs For Seniors Act” (HR 6800) would also impose limits on the prices which drugmakers would be allowed to charge for their products if the R&D which led to the drugs’ discovery had been financed “by taxpayers’ dollars.”
According to Mr. Kucinich, “Medicare beneficiaries want their prescription drugs without having to navigate complicated maze of choices and stealth loopholes.”
Really? Perhaps he’s missed the fact that seniors are very pleased with the Part D benefit – with very high satisfaction rates – and even higher usage. The Wall Street Journal Online/Harris Interactive survey of U.S. adults age 65 or older, shows 87% of those enrolled in a Medicare drug benefit plan are satisfied with their plan. Sorry Dennis.
Here’s another example of Mr. Kucinich embracing The Big Lie:
“The privatized drug plan has been given a chance and, as predicted, it has failed. There is no reason for us to keep throwing money at a bad idea when we know we can save taxpayers billions of dollars and give seniors the medication they need.”
Really?
According Kerry Weems, acting administrator at the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), "Overall, costs for beneficiaries and taxpayers are considerably lower than originally projections, enrollment continues to rise and customer satisfaction remains very high.” Sorry Dennis.
The projected cost for Medicare part D is $117 billion lower over the next decade than experts estimated just last summer. This means that over the 10-year period from 2008 to 2017, the estimated $915 billion cost of Part D fell to $798 billion.
Why? Marketplace competition. Sorry Dennis.
And, according to a study published in the Annals of Internal Medicine, the Medicare drug benefit led to a 17 percent decrease in out-of-pocket expenses, or $9 a month, for seniors who enrolled in the new Medicare Part D benefit in 2006, the first full year prescription coverage became available in the federal health insurance program for the elderly and disabled. Sorry Dennis.
And the savings amounted to an extra 14 days of medicine for those who signed up, or a 19 percent increase in prescription usage. Sorry Dennis.
Can Part D be made even better? Absolutely. But this is good news worth sharing -- and not because it helps any particular partisan political agenda (sorry Dennis!) but because it means that more Americans -- tens of millions of more Americans -- are getting access to the medicines (largely chronic medicines) that will help them live healthier lives. And this, in no small measure, significantly reduces more drastic medical interventions -- which in turn reduces our overall national health care spending.
Sorry Dennis. Sorry Part D is working so well.
As to drug discovery financed by “taxpayer dollars,” based on the case histories of 35 widely prescribed drugs, researchers from the Manhattan Institute and Tufts University determined that almost all of the medicines they analyzed would not have been developed without private sector research. And in 28 cases they found that private sector research led to improvements in a drug's clinical performance or to a better way to manufacture the drug. Discovery is cool. And so is development. One without the other leads nowhere. Sorry Dennis.
Dollar for dollar, the pharmaceutical industry outspends the government in drug development. In 2007, the collective membership of PhRMA spent $44.5 billion on research and development of prescription drugs, while the industry overall spent $58.8 billion. The same year, the National Institutes of Health allocated $28.6 billion in grants, some of which went to developing new drugs. Both are important and collegiality is the way things get done. Sorry Dennis.
As for drug importation, here we go again:
(1) It won’t save any money. Let’s not forget the non-partisan CBO study that showed that such policy would reduce our nation’s spending on prescription medicines a whopping 0.1% -- and that’s not including the millions of dollars the FDA would need to set up a monitoring system.
(2) The drugs being sent to U.S. customers from Canadian internet pharmacies are not “the same drugs Canadians get.” That bit of rhetoric is just plain wrong. Canadian internet pharmacies – by their own admission – are sourcing their drugs from the European Union. And while they may say their drugs come from the United Kingdom, let’s not conveniently forget that 20% of all the medicines sold in the UK are parallel imported from other nations in the EU – like Spain, Greece, Portugal, and Lithuania.
And the important political point here is that when Americans are asked if they want drugs from nations other than Canada – the answer is a resounding “no thank you.”
(3) The state experience has been dismal and politically embarrassing. Remember the high profile “I-Save-RX”program? Over 19 months of operation, a grand total of 3,689 Illinois residents used the program -- which equals approximately .02% of the population. They don’t call him “Wrong Way” Rod Blagojevich for nothing.
And what of Minnesota and Governor Tim Pawlenty’s RxConnect program? According to its latest statistics, Minnesota RxConnect fills about 138 prescriptions a month. That's for the whole state. Minnesota population: 5,167,101.
And remember Springfield, MA and “the New Boston Tea Party?” Well the city of Springfield is now out of the drugs from Canada business.
(4) National Security concerns. According to a recent report from the federal Joint Terrorism Task Force, a global terrorist ring with ties to Hezbollah, is importing counterfeit drugs into America by way of Canada. They are doing so for profit today - but could just as easily do so for more nefarious and deadly purposes. And legalizing importation would only facilitate such actions.
These are important facts to keep repeating and repeating in the appropriate context. Because there are those who chose to manipulate the facts to tell their own version of the truth for their own selfish political purposes.
Sorry Dennis indeed.
With Lebron out of town, perhaps the Congressman thought he could grab some media cowbell. But all he’s done is show his, well, cavalier attitude towards healthcare reform in general and the facts in particular.
And adding to the lunacy, his “Medicare Drugs For Seniors Act” (HR 6800) would also impose limits on the prices which drugmakers would be allowed to charge for their products if the R&D which led to the drugs’ discovery had been financed “by taxpayers’ dollars.”
According to Mr. Kucinich, “Medicare beneficiaries want their prescription drugs without having to navigate complicated maze of choices and stealth loopholes.”
Really? Perhaps he’s missed the fact that seniors are very pleased with the Part D benefit – with very high satisfaction rates – and even higher usage. The Wall Street Journal Online/Harris Interactive survey of U.S. adults age 65 or older, shows 87% of those enrolled in a Medicare drug benefit plan are satisfied with their plan. Sorry Dennis.
Here’s another example of Mr. Kucinich embracing The Big Lie:
“The privatized drug plan has been given a chance and, as predicted, it has failed. There is no reason for us to keep throwing money at a bad idea when we know we can save taxpayers billions of dollars and give seniors the medication they need.”
Really?
According Kerry Weems, acting administrator at the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), "Overall, costs for beneficiaries and taxpayers are considerably lower than originally projections, enrollment continues to rise and customer satisfaction remains very high.” Sorry Dennis.
The projected cost for Medicare part D is $117 billion lower over the next decade than experts estimated just last summer. This means that over the 10-year period from 2008 to 2017, the estimated $915 billion cost of Part D fell to $798 billion.
Why? Marketplace competition. Sorry Dennis.
And, according to a study published in the Annals of Internal Medicine, the Medicare drug benefit led to a 17 percent decrease in out-of-pocket expenses, or $9 a month, for seniors who enrolled in the new Medicare Part D benefit in 2006, the first full year prescription coverage became available in the federal health insurance program for the elderly and disabled. Sorry Dennis.
And the savings amounted to an extra 14 days of medicine for those who signed up, or a 19 percent increase in prescription usage. Sorry Dennis.
Can Part D be made even better? Absolutely. But this is good news worth sharing -- and not because it helps any particular partisan political agenda (sorry Dennis!) but because it means that more Americans -- tens of millions of more Americans -- are getting access to the medicines (largely chronic medicines) that will help them live healthier lives. And this, in no small measure, significantly reduces more drastic medical interventions -- which in turn reduces our overall national health care spending.
Sorry Dennis. Sorry Part D is working so well.
As to drug discovery financed by “taxpayer dollars,” based on the case histories of 35 widely prescribed drugs, researchers from the Manhattan Institute and Tufts University determined that almost all of the medicines they analyzed would not have been developed without private sector research. And in 28 cases they found that private sector research led to improvements in a drug's clinical performance or to a better way to manufacture the drug. Discovery is cool. And so is development. One without the other leads nowhere. Sorry Dennis.
Dollar for dollar, the pharmaceutical industry outspends the government in drug development. In 2007, the collective membership of PhRMA spent $44.5 billion on research and development of prescription drugs, while the industry overall spent $58.8 billion. The same year, the National Institutes of Health allocated $28.6 billion in grants, some of which went to developing new drugs. Both are important and collegiality is the way things get done. Sorry Dennis.
As for drug importation, here we go again:
(1) It won’t save any money. Let’s not forget the non-partisan CBO study that showed that such policy would reduce our nation’s spending on prescription medicines a whopping 0.1% -- and that’s not including the millions of dollars the FDA would need to set up a monitoring system.
(2) The drugs being sent to U.S. customers from Canadian internet pharmacies are not “the same drugs Canadians get.” That bit of rhetoric is just plain wrong. Canadian internet pharmacies – by their own admission – are sourcing their drugs from the European Union. And while they may say their drugs come from the United Kingdom, let’s not conveniently forget that 20% of all the medicines sold in the UK are parallel imported from other nations in the EU – like Spain, Greece, Portugal, and Lithuania.
And the important political point here is that when Americans are asked if they want drugs from nations other than Canada – the answer is a resounding “no thank you.”
(3) The state experience has been dismal and politically embarrassing. Remember the high profile “I-Save-RX”program? Over 19 months of operation, a grand total of 3,689 Illinois residents used the program -- which equals approximately .02% of the population. They don’t call him “Wrong Way” Rod Blagojevich for nothing.
And what of Minnesota and Governor Tim Pawlenty’s RxConnect program? According to its latest statistics, Minnesota RxConnect fills about 138 prescriptions a month. That's for the whole state. Minnesota population: 5,167,101.
And remember Springfield, MA and “the New Boston Tea Party?” Well the city of Springfield is now out of the drugs from Canada business.
(4) National Security concerns. According to a recent report from the federal Joint Terrorism Task Force, a global terrorist ring with ties to Hezbollah, is importing counterfeit drugs into America by way of Canada. They are doing so for profit today - but could just as easily do so for more nefarious and deadly purposes. And legalizing importation would only facilitate such actions.
These are important facts to keep repeating and repeating in the appropriate context. Because there are those who chose to manipulate the facts to tell their own version of the truth for their own selfish political purposes.
Sorry Dennis indeed.
