Remember how the President has said all along that he would leave the details of health care reform to Congress? Apparently, not so much.
not so much
More below the fold.
With great fanfare, the White House announced a few months ago that the pharmaceutical industry had made concessions worth $80 billion to help finance health care reform. What they failed to mention was that in return, Big Pharma was assured that it would receive its pound of flesh: no government negotiation of drug prices, and no importation of inexpensive drugs from Canada.
Pressed by industry lobbyists, White House officials on Wednesday assured drug makers that the administration stood by a behind-the-scenes deal to block any Congressional effort to extract cost savings from them beyond an agreed-upon $80 billion.
We were assured: ‘We need somebody to come in first. If you come in first, you will have a rock-solid deal,’ " Billy Tauzin, the former Republican House member from Louisiana who now leads the pharmaceutical trade group, said Wednesday.
A deputy White House chief of staff, Jim Messina, confirmed Mr. Tauzin’s account of the deal in an e-mail message on Wednesday night.
"The president encouraged this approach," Mr. Messina wrote. "He wanted to bring all the parties to the table to discuss health insurance reform."
I keep hearing this line about bringing all the parties to the table, but I'm wondering where "we, the people" are at this table? Who's there representing patients?
Negotiated prices and drug importation are worth far more than the $80 billion that the industry gave up. And progressives in Congress are not happy about it:
In an interview on Wednesday, Representative Raul M. Grijalva, the Arizona Democrat who is co-chairman of the House progressive caucus, called Mr. Tauzin’s comments "disturbing."
"We have all been focused on the debate in Congress, but perhaps the deal has already been cut," Mr. Grijalva said. "That would put us in the untenable position of trying to scuttle it."
He added: "It is a pivotal issue not just about health care. Are industry groups going to be the ones at the table who get the first big piece of the pie and we just fight over the crust?"
Speaker Pelosi also indicated that she is not bound by this deal. I hope that she and the rest of the caucus hold firm on this. Not only should the White House not be making any secret deals with industry, but they gave up way too much.
Finally, I think it's really rich for Big Pharma to be complaining about the Administration's willingness to hold up their end of this bargain, when they started backtracking on their commitment as soon as it was announced. This is one of the most profitable industries in the world. Any thought that they would happily get on board with reform without gutting it are naive. An insurance mandate without any allowance for negotiation or importation is a massive giveaway to Big Pharma.
No wonder Harry and Louise are on board.