There has been contradictory reporting all day about whether the White House had made a deal with Big Pharma that excluded the possibility of allowing the government to negotiate lower drug prices under Medicare.
The New York Times is now reporting:
Caught between a pivotal industry ally and the protests of Congressional Democrats, the Obama administration on Friday backed away from what drug industry lobbyists had said this week was a firm White House promise to exclude from a proposed health care overhaul the possibility of allowing the government to negotiate lower drug prices under Medicare.
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While it seems Tauzin of Big Pharma was initially up in arms about the vanishing of the deal he had boasted about, he is now, somehow, mysteriously, back on board:
As recently as Wednesday, Billy Tauzin, president of the PhRMA, the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, had all but threatened to reverse the group’s support for the health care overhaul if the White House did not affirm its commitment to cap the industry’s costs at the agreed-upon $80 billion. He insisted that adding government price negotiations or additional drug price rebates would both violate the agreement, saying each idea had been discussed and discarded in negotiations with the Senate Finance Committee that the White House later approved.
On Friday night, however, the drug industry lobby appeared to line up once again with the White House, perhaps satisfied that the White House had at least ruled out the price rebates in the House bill.
Got that? The cap of $80 billion on Pharma's contribution to the cost of health care is off the table.
Whatever they did, this is very good news, or at least it seems so to me.
And it does seems that someone in Congress played a role in securing this reversal:
After reading reports about Mr. Messina’s e-mail message, House and Senate Democrats loudly protested that they would not be bound by any such agreement to remove clauses allowing government negotiation of drug prices under Medicare — something Democrats have sought for years.
As Mr. Tauzin spoke up, the White House initially chose not to argue. But faced with a chorus of Congressional complaints, the administration appears to have recalibrated its position.
Someone is standing up to Rahm and the Blue Dogs!
This is some good news we needed right about now.
UPDATE: HuffPo has run a story which says that the deal is still on, as of Friday night. HT to True Independent