This morning, in an article captioned "Health Deals Could Harbor Hidden Costs", the New York Times provides a very sobering assessment of the prices special interests are extracting for "getting on board" for US health care delivery reform. Do go read it all. It is a wide-ranging article, reflecting desperately-needed rays of bright sunshine -- into the darker alcoves of the deal-making halls of power, in Washington, DC. This bit, however, leapt out at me as having PhRMA's signature stealth maneuvering written all over it -- it concerns Montana's Democratic Senator Max Baucus -- and his role in securing Senate support for the President's reform agenda:
. . . .The deals, trumpeted loudly by the White House, would each help pay for a sweeping overhaul of the health care system. . . . [Among the deals were ones struck with] big drug makers, promising savings of $80 billion over 10 years, by lowering the cost of medicine for the elderly. . . .
As part of their deal with the White House, pharmaceutical companies say they won an agreement from Mr. Baucus to oppose efforts by House Democrats to sharply reduce what the government pays for drugs for some Medicare recipients previously covered by Medicaid. . . .
I may be wrong about this, but I am betting that Senator Baucus was visited -- very recently -- by the gentleman at above-left, and several of his pharma CEO co-horts. In a few weeks, we'll have PhRMA's lobbying reports for the second quarter of 2009, to prove this true. So, as ever, we shall see.
In the mean time, here is PhRMA's first quarter 2009 lobbying report (full-text PDF file, reflecting over $6 million of lobbying expenses) -- and note that, on page 15 of 20, Mr. Tauzin himself, as well as his people, had lobbied on Senate measure ". . . .S. 330 Medicare Prescription Drug Savings and Choice Act: Part D issues, and S. 350 . . . Medicaid rebate".
Hmmmmm.
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