Despite the whimsical title, David Herszenhorn, for The New York Times "Prescriptions" blog offers us the "what's next?" -- while the ink is still drying on Speaker Pelosi's press releases, this morning, thus:
. . . .Mr. Reid will gather the group in his office on the second floor of the Capitol on Wednesday for its first official meeting. The group includes Senator Max Baucus, Democrat of Montana and the Finance Committee chairman; Senator Christopher J. Dodd, Democrat of Connecticut, who was acting chairman of the HELP committee when it passed its health care bill; and representatives of the White House.
Jim Manley, a spokesman for Mr. Reid, said that Senator Olympia J. Snowe of Maine, the lone Republican on the Finance Committee to vote in favor of the bill, would be invited to future sessions. And Mr. Manley said the Democratic leader was prepared to go to substantial lengths to keep Ms. Snowe’s support.
“He is prepared to do what he can to keep her on board while putting together a bill that can get the 60 votes necessary to overcome a Republican filibuster,” Mr. Manley said. . . .
[Ed. Note: Obviously, I mean no disrespect to Mr. Hanks' fine project, of a few years back -- it is a most-sincere homage (click to enlarge), at right -- with Senator Reid's actual law school class photo added as the Bass Player!]
The primary reason I mention this all -- is that all of big pharma is off this afternoon, on a generally bullish day on the NYSE (GDP showed good growth this morning, signaling that a recovery is underway) -- and that is likely due in large part to the fact that, if either version of these bills ultimately become law, United States drug prices will not rise as they have, in the past.
Even if the "public option" is a negotiated price option, rather than a "Medicare plus 5" plan, there will be much more pressure on the drug-cost component of overall health care spending in the United States.
And that will be a very good "Thing You Do", in my humble estimation (okay -- I know I reached a little too much, on that one. . . sorry):
2 comments:
More bad press for S/P and Merck:
http://www.cnbc.com/id/33537941/site/14081545?__source=yahoo%7Cheadline%7Cquote%7Ctext%7C&par=yahoo
Upcoming Arbiter 6 Presentation
"Dr. Anderson also says the study will be published simultaneously in a major medical journal, most likely the "New England Journal of Medicine," along with an editorial or two. And he says one of the opinion pieces will be "pretty scathing by a well-known critic."
Indeed -- NEJM will be out over the weekend.
Namaste
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