Things that make me go hmmmmm
The flaws in the Medicare Plan D program didn’t crop up without anyone seeing them coming. They are the expected result of the way Congress designed the program. So ask those who want to serve you how they’ll fix its flaws.The greatest of them arises from a feature inserted to protect drug companies’ profits: a provision that prevents Medicare from negotiating price discounts with drug manufacturers - the way government agencies do, the way Virginia and other states do, the way other nations do, the way any prudent program would.
The price tag for this failure is toted up in an analysis issued in August by the Center for Economic and Policy Research, a nonprofit, nonpartisan group that studies public policy issues. It lists, for commonly prescribed drugs, the price paid by the Department of Veterans Affairs (which negotiates discounts) and by Medicare Part D plans. Take the popular cholesterol-lowering drug Zocor, 20 mg strength for a one-month prescription. The VA pays $191; Medicare Part D plans paid between $1,275 and $1,711. Wow.
Barbara Ann Radnofsky and Scott Jameson both spent debate time on Medicare Plan D not being able to negotiate drug prices and so I had to look it up. I really thought it was a bit of a joke or maybe an exaggeration because we know politicians do that and was amazed to find out that it was no joke or exaggeration. Medicare can not, by law, negotiate for a lower price on any prescription. What purpose would it serve to mandate that a national program that we all pay for can’t negotiate the price of prescriptions? I know it makes the pharmaceutical companies happy, but that isn’t what our government is supposed to be doing. It is their job to spend my hard earned money in a way that will maximize its benefits. Not make big companies bigger. I am just constantly astounded by the Republicans moxie to be shouting at the top of their lungs that they are helping the American people when really they are just helping the big pharmaceutical companies.
Filed under: Barbara Ann Radnofsky, Barbara Radnofsky, Congress, Kay Bailey Hutchinson, Libertarian, Medicare, Misdeeds, Plan D, Prescription, Scott Jameson, democrat, dirty politics, dishonesty, election, fake, fleecing of america, pharmaceutical, political stunt, politics, republican, scam, spin, texas, texas politics
If you ask those involved they’ll tell you that there is no need for the government to negotiate since it automatically gets whatever the lowest negotiated price is on the market. So where’s the difference? Most drug companies negotiate some sort of “rebates” with organizations that lowers the cost of the drugs. The rebate isn’t included when they calculate the lowest price. And Medicare doesn’t get to negotiate rebates since it doesn’t get to negotiate period. That’s why the VA only pays $191 and Medicare pays $1275.