And the wind is decidedly freshening -- day-by-day, we each are "putting our hands on the arc of history, and bending once more, toward progress. . . ." -- that's heady stuff, no doubt. Here's the promised Bloomberg snippet -- but do go read it all:
. . . .Obama, endorsed by Kennedy for president, has said he’ll support subsidies, government health programs and new insurance plans to get everyone covered. And Kennedy has an ally in Thomas Daschle, Obama’s pick to direct White House efforts on health-care change. . . .
Public Sentiment
Public sentiment for change is also growing, according to recent polls. Sixty-two percent of registered voters said in an October survey by the Kaiser Family Foundation, a health-policy research group in Menlo Park, California, that the economic crisis has made health-care change more important.
The byword for the Team Kennedy effort is "consensus," according to the aide. Kennedy’s staff has held twice-weekly sessions since October with business, consumer, insurance and hospital groups. The goal is a program that trims costs while extending coverage to 46 million uninsured Americans.
Last week, Democratic and Republican staff members on Kennedy’s Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, as it is known formally, began meeting with colleagues from the Finance Committee to work on proposals, the Kennedy aide said. . . .
The Kennedy staff member said it is clear from the ongoing discussions that new legislation must include steps to keep costs under control.
"For a significant slice of the stakeholder community and many members of Congress, it is really, really important to get a handle on the growing cost of health care," the aide said. . . .
Mr. Hassan -- a clear by-product of universal coverage will be greatly accelerating pressure on name-brand drug prices. Bank on it. And, more importantly, start structring now, to self-manufacture generic versions of your own name brands. Sound crazy? Cut into your own market?
Do. It. Now.
Or someone else assuredly will.
More precisely, someone already is.
You'll note that Merck is preparing to do much the same, in the 2010 to 2012 timeframe. . . .
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