Latest Drugwonks' Blog
Politico is reporting that “House Democrats are probing the nation’s largest insurance companies for lavish spending, demanding reams of compensation data and schedules of retreats and conferences.”
Who is one of the major players driving this investigation? None other than Henry Waxman, Chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee.
Who is one of the major players driving this investigation? None other than Henry Waxman, Chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee.
Surprise, surprise.
Given the economic make-up of Congressman Waxman’s congressional district, you’d think he would have more than enough “lavish spending” and “schedules of retreats” of which to investigate.
Nope.
Politico continues its report:
Letters sent to 52 insurance companies by Democratic leaders demand extensive documents for an examination of ‘extensive compensation and other business practices in the health insurance industry.” The letters set a deadline of Sept. 14 for the documents.
Oddly enough, there’s plenty of work for Mr. Waxman without probing insurance companies or his district. It’s called Medicare.
Over his career, Waxman has never missed an opportunity to cut funds for anti-fraud efforts at the Department of Health and Human Services. He has consistently opposed introducing market-oriented competitive bidding in Medicare, which would greatly reduce massive fraud, particularly in the durable medical equipment space.
He also opposes efforts to promote transparency for providers of healthcare services, despite the fact that 98 percent of Americans believe they have the right to know cost and quality information. One would think that making it easier to know which hospital is more likely to kill you would be pretty non-controversial.
So why is Mr. Waxman so interested in how private companies spend their money and apathetic to the significant fraud inherent in Medicare – a program that falls well within his Committee’s oversight role?
This nonsensical probe only serves to reinforce the public’s perception of Congress as being out of touch.
Pay attention, Detective Waxman.
With their dream of socialized medicine fading before their very eyes, the smear merchants at Media Matters are in propaganda overdrive.
Media Matters is falsely claiming that a recent Atlanta rally in defense of health care freedom fell far short of expectations:
Right-wing organizers hoped 15,000 people would attend a Centennial Olympic Park rally this weekend to yell and scream about health care reform. In the end, just one-fifth of that showed up.
Not true. More than 12,000 Americans showed up at the rally.
A 90 degree weather, raging humidity, scorching sun, and a security team greeted all attendants of the Healthcare rally at the Centennial Olympic Park downtown Atlanta this Saturday.
Upon entering the area, after having their bags and backpacks searched, everyone received a paper hand "bracelet" that read "americastownhall.us". The bracelet helped organizers keep track of how many people attended.
The event started at 1 p.m. and ended shortly before 4 p.m. At around 3 p.m. it was announced there were at least 12,000 in attendance.
Not only that, the rally was competing with a Paul McCartney concert in the area, the extremely hot weather, and an Atlanta Braves game. 12,000 people still showed up to make their voices heard on this issue.
At the end of the day, Media Matters’ continued diminution of the majority of Americans who stand opposed to a government takeover of health care only deepens that outfit’s lack of credibility with the public.
In that regard, more power to them.
By the way, CMPI’s Vice-President Robert Goldberg participated in the Atlanta rally. Video of the entire rally can be viewed here.
Is a public health insurance option essential? Only if we want healthcare reform to fail in Congress and flounder in practice. Rather than turning Uncle Sam into Uncle Sam, MD, we should learn from history and build on the success of Medicare Part D - the prescription drug benefit for senior citizens. Part D is the largest health entitlement program since Medicare was signed into law in 1965. It has a 90% + approval ratings among its users and the projected cost for the program is $117 billion lower over the next decade than experts estimated. When it comes to the federal government providing healthcare to millions of Americans- it can be done with satisfaction and budgetary prowess.
How? By adhering to free market principles. The success of Part D is due to its uniquely American hybrid nature. The federal government partnered with the pharmaceutical and insurance industries to offer senior citizens healthcare choice via free market competition. Rather than a one-size-fits-all government plan, Part D offers dozens of private sector plans offering Medicare-eligible Americans various options that best suit their personal healthcare situations. Uncle Sam doesn't design the programs or process the claims or dictate the formularies. Uncle Sam writes the check and sets the ground rules so that everyone has access to the medicines they need. And the same can happen for access to health insurance - but only when we purge ourselves of the notion of the "essential nature" of a "public" plan.
How? By adhering to free market principles. The success of Part D is due to its uniquely American hybrid nature. The federal government partnered with the pharmaceutical and insurance industries to offer senior citizens healthcare choice via free market competition. Rather than a one-size-fits-all government plan, Part D offers dozens of private sector plans offering Medicare-eligible Americans various options that best suit their personal healthcare situations. Uncle Sam doesn't design the programs or process the claims or dictate the formularies. Uncle Sam writes the check and sets the ground rules so that everyone has access to the medicines they need. And the same can happen for access to health insurance - but only when we purge ourselves of the notion of the "essential nature" of a "public" plan.
Yesterday, Congressman Anthony Weiner (D-NY) appeared on MSNBC to promote the “public option” and maintained that would continue to push for a public plan in any House bill once he returns to Capitol Hill after recess.
Congressman Weiner, obviously no Economic Scholar, repeatedly declared that health care is not a commodity throughout the interview.
Ed Morrissey happily offers the Congressman an Economics 101 lesson free of charge:
Of course health care is a commodity. Weiner wants to use this populist pet phrase, which goes along with the notion of a “right” to health care, but it’s absurd. Food is a commodity, water is a commodity, clothing and shelter are commodities. Until cap-and-trade came up in the House, air was not a commodity, but carbon dioxide will shortly become one, even though life itself cannot exist without it. People have to produce the goods and services that comprise the health-care industry, which means that the supplies are finite and they expect to get compensated for their work. That makes it a commodity, regardless of Weiner’s socialist rhetoric. Anything with a cost is a commodity, by definition.
Morrissey points out that, “Anyone who doesn’t understand that much about economics has no business creating policy.”
Hear, hear! Words do have meaning, after all.
In April 2004 (when I was an associate commissioner at the FDA), I met with representatives of the major credit card companies. The focus of these meetings was on how their transactional services were being used to facilitate illegal internet prescription drug deals. I was roundly denounced by, among others, Wisconsin Governor Jim Doyle, as using “hardball tactics" to stop traffic in low-cost prescription drugs from Canada.” Political rhetoric aside, it was all about safety.
As it is today.
According to a story in today’s Financial Times, Search engines pressed over drug ads policy,
“Pressure is building on the major US search engines to stop showing advertising from overseas drug sellers that deliver potentially counterfeit and dangerous products to consumers in violation of federal laws. The US Drug Enforcement Administration and the Food and Drug Administration are concerned that the practice is continuing despite the deaths of consumers who ordered drugs without examination by a doctor.”
It was the right thing to do in 2004 and it’s the right thing to do now.
As it is today.
According to a story in today’s Financial Times, Search engines pressed over drug ads policy,
“Pressure is building on the major US search engines to stop showing advertising from overseas drug sellers that deliver potentially counterfeit and dangerous products to consumers in violation of federal laws. The US Drug Enforcement Administration and the Food and Drug Administration are concerned that the practice is continuing despite the deaths of consumers who ordered drugs without examination by a doctor.”
It was the right thing to do in 2004 and it’s the right thing to do now.
It’s not easy being a Canadian who is critical of Canada’s government health care system. Even the mildest criticism could mean incurring the wrath of Canada’s politicians and media.
I received an email last week from a 19-year old Canadian named Andrew who has expressed a deep dissatisfaction with the level of care (or lack thereof) he has been afforded by the government system.
I spoke with Andrew by phone and his story is a compelling one. We hear stories like this all too often from Canadians and this story in particular is a testament to the fact that not only the elderly get the short end of the stick under government-run health systems.
For purposes of this posting, I have removed Andrew’s last name to protect him.
Here is his email:
My name is Andrew, I'm a 19-year old student in Ontario, Canada, currently going through a health crisis which has removed completely my already-damaged faith in Canada's government-run healthcare system.
A month ago I was rushed to the hospital with heart failure (ventricular tacchycardia) which nearly killed me. I didn't respond to the medications I was given, so instead I was put under anesthesia, cardioverted (electrical shock) and sent out of the hospital 12 hours after admission, 30 minutes after waking up from the anesthesia (I was told by the nurse that they "needed my bed"), and told to call the hospital's "Urgent Acute" cardiology referral clinic on Monday, two-days later. I did, and I told the nurse receptionist at the clinic what had happened. I was told that given the serious and "urgent" nature of my hospitalization, I would be on the priority list to see a specialist and that I would be called back to set up an appointment that week...I wasn't. About a week after the first occurrence (which I'll add I have no history of, nor does anyone in my family) lo and behold it happened again! Rushed to the hospital in an ambulance, this time I couldn't breathe on my own, 24 hours later I had been sent out, still having never seen a cardiologist, and given no medication or treatment, just told that I "should take it easy, as the next time this could be fatal." I called the clinic again to update them. Apparently a second episode in a week doesn't get you an appointment either.
Since then, I've been admitted on yet another occasion, this time it caused a blood clot (deep-vein thrombosis) in my right leg. 12 hours later, after being put on heavy blood thinners, the doctor declared me "good to go" and sent me home again. The only thing I took was his parting quote "you're lucky you didn't have a stroke" (gee golly thanks).
So, here I am now walking with a limp and in pain because they didn't catch the clot on my second visit (despite how it had already formed at that time -- I was given antibiotics as it was "probably just an infection"). Additionally, myself, my friends, co-workers and family are constantly on alert for when/if this happens again, because I've still yet to even have my heart examined.
I've weight out the options of going to the Cleveland Heart Clinic in Ohio -- but regardless, anywhere in the United States would result in better treatment then I'm getting now. I cannot sit back and see President Barack Obama's "plan" for healthcare infect (no pun intended) the healthcare system in the states, and potentially kill a 19-year old with a bright future as the Canadian healthcare system could do.
Dr. Art Laffer, a member of President Reagan’s Economic Policy Advisory Board for both of his two terms, recently released a report entitled, “The Prognosis For National Health Insurance.”
The report goes a long way in debunking the supposed cost-savings of the current health care legislation making its way through Congress so often touted by the Obama administration.
From the Executive summary of the report:
In 1960, the private sector funded over three-quarters of the nation’s health care expenditures. Individuals paid nearly one-half of the total national health care expenditures through out-of-pocket expenditures. Beginning in 1967 the way health care is purchased in the U.S. began to completely reverse itself:
- The private sector has been slowly funding less and less of the total national health expenditures; as of 2007 less than 54 percent of total national health care expenditures are paid for by the private sector.
- Reciprocally, the public sector has been slowly funding more and more of the total national health expenditures; as of 2007 public expenditures at the federal and state levels now fund nearly one-half of the total health care expenditures in the U.S.
- Total out-of-pocket expenditures have been plummeting as a share of total health expenditures at an even faster rate; today only a bit more than $1 out of every $10 spent on health care is being funded by individuals through out-of-pocket expenditures.
This has resulted in a large and growing government health care wedge — an economic separation of effort from reward, of consumers (patients) from producers (health care providers), caused by government policies. Rising government expenditures on health care are the main factor driving the growth in the wedge. The wedge is a primary driver in rising health care costs, i.e., inflation in medical costs.
President Barack Obama's principles to drastically alter U.S. health care policy-a public health insurance exchange, mandated minimum coverage, mandated coverage of preexisting conditions, required purchase of health insurance-do not address the growing wedge and its role as the fundamental driver of health care costs. In fact, they will further increase the wedge, and can thus be expected to increase medical price inflation.
In keeping with President Obama’s request that patriotic Americans call out those who are spreading misleading information about healthcare reform, I must call out none other than New York Times columnist, Bob Herbert.
In his column today, “This is Reform?”,
A few points of clarification.
First of all, the net annual profit of the top 20 innovator pharmaceutical companies is about $110 billion. Anyone who pays taxes knows the difference between gross and net, so it’s not unfair to ask if Mr. Herbert was trying to be purposefully misleading.
Second, that same industry invests $60 billion a year in research and development. A fact entirely absent from Mr. Herbert’s analysis.
And, finally, Mr. Herbert omits the fact that on-patent pharmaceuticals represent about only 8% of our entire national healthcare spend. 8 cents on the healthcare dollar.
Madame Defarge, take note and keep knitting.
I was in Atlanta where I was part of America's Health Care Town Hall. The event ran from 1-4 pm and was up against 95 degree heat, a major hair stylist show, a nationally televised Phillies-Braves game and a Paul McCartney concert about four blocks away.
That's competition for you.
12,000 people showed up.
They were not angry or unAmerican or part of any lunatic fringe group as Speaker Pelosi would have it. They were not evilmongers as Senator Reid claims they are.
They were friendly, happy and well-informed about the health care bills pending in Congress. They were not bitter or clinging to guns. They had a dry sense of humor as many of the signs suggested. Obamacare Rx.. " Take two Tylenol and call me when you're dead"(When I was on stage and told the assembled I was Yankee fan, they booed me. One of the participants reminded me this was a pro-NRA crowd....)
And they had or have their own ideas about how to fix health care, combination of an insistence that no one be left behind, America's cutting edge science with self-determination:
1. Get rid of the public plan.
2. Eliminate any vestige of government bureaucrats deciding what is valuable or wasteful or cost-effective.
3. Let people create their own health networks and buying groups around what is best for them based on patient-centered needs and outcomes.
It's our money, our lives, our choices. We have given up too much control to government over decisions too important for far too long.
Time to take back control.
The arrogant effort of a liberal elite to centralize control over the practice of medicine and the capitulation of "stakeholders" in that effort have triggered among many an awakening that health care is a decision we have left in the hands of people and organizations that do not have our interests at heart.
Simply modifying the public "option" will not do.
Only self-determination will suffice.
That's what I learned from my fellow Americans in Atlanta.
Read more about the Atlanta Health Care rally here.
Here is a picture of me with extremely poor posture...
Video footage of the rally can be viewed here.
That's competition for you.
12,000 people showed up.
They were not angry or unAmerican or part of any lunatic fringe group as Speaker Pelosi would have it. They were not evilmongers as Senator Reid claims they are.
They were friendly, happy and well-informed about the health care bills pending in Congress. They were not bitter or clinging to guns. They had a dry sense of humor as many of the signs suggested. Obamacare Rx.. " Take two Tylenol and call me when you're dead"(When I was on stage and told the assembled I was Yankee fan, they booed me. One of the participants reminded me this was a pro-NRA crowd....)
And they had or have their own ideas about how to fix health care, combination of an insistence that no one be left behind, America's cutting edge science with self-determination:
1. Get rid of the public plan.
2. Eliminate any vestige of government bureaucrats deciding what is valuable or wasteful or cost-effective.
3. Let people create their own health networks and buying groups around what is best for them based on patient-centered needs and outcomes.
It's our money, our lives, our choices. We have given up too much control to government over decisions too important for far too long.
Time to take back control.
The arrogant effort of a liberal elite to centralize control over the practice of medicine and the capitulation of "stakeholders" in that effort have triggered among many an awakening that health care is a decision we have left in the hands of people and organizations that do not have our interests at heart.
Simply modifying the public "option" will not do.
Only self-determination will suffice.
That's what I learned from my fellow Americans in Atlanta.
Read more about the Atlanta Health Care rally here.
Here is a picture of me with extremely poor posture...
Video footage of the rally can be viewed here.
Interesting op-ed in Daily Mail by British columnist Stephen Glover. The title says it all:
I deeply resent the Americans sneering at our health service - but perhaps that's because the truth hurts
Here’s how it begins:
"President Barack Obama's political enemies are rounding on his controversial proposals to extend government involvement in health care. One way in which they are doing so is to hold up our own cherished NHS for ridicule."
And here’s how it ends:
"The President is discovering that people are apt to want to defend and preserve what they have. The same is true of we British and our lumbering health service. The difference, though, is that what the Americans have is, for the most part, better than the NHS."
And here’s a link to the complete article.
Center for Medicine in the Public Interest is a nonprofit, non-partisan organization promoting innovative solutions that advance medical progress, reduce health disparities, extend life and make health care more affordable, preventive and patient-centered. CMPI also provides the public, policymakers and the media a reliable source of independent scientific analysis on issues ranging from personalized medicine, food and drug safety, health care reform and comparative effectiveness.
