While there is much focus on the dwindling in size public option other threats continue to raise alarm in the health bill. Besides attempts to redefine the public option and what it even means I find this very disturbing that should have every Democrat HOWLING. The WH BIG PHARMA deal. There is the Eschoo amendment in the House which passed E and C this summer which will screw us to the core.
How? This amendment enshrines a big part of the drug deal into law guys. It will allow biologic drugs to be exempted from the normal generic drug process. Biologic drugs will make up half of ALL NEW DRUGS BY 2014. I am on biologic meds right now for Crohns disease. They are very expensive. VERY. Its 3 grand for a Cimzia shot for Crohns-a month.
Eschoo allows for, get this, biologic drugs , which are expensive and will make loads of money for PHARMA- to not be up for generic versions for at least 12 YEARS after a new one comes out. Normally a generic version comes out 5 to 7 years after a drug is out. This a BIG PHARMA GIFT HERE. Folks who are ill with diabetes, Crohns, MS, arthritis and many others illnesses will be eligible for these biologic drugs in the years ahead as many in the pipeline can actually stall Type 1 diabetes, short circuit auto immune diseases and much more. The demand will be huge and people will go broke trying to pay for them if Eschoo and BIG PHARMA gets THEIR way guys. And once the govt starts subsidizing insurance plans it to will be picking up the tab for this "deal."
A major organization of drs, med students and others are fighting the "deal." (This ORG is Universities Allied for Essential Medicines (UAEM) - a coalition of students at over 50 top research institutions across the United States, Canada, Germany and the United Kingdom. To promote access to medicines for ALL people). They need our help right now every day through this process. Rep Eschoo must be a special one FOR US to talk to. We must get her to pull the amendment if we can. Waxman is opposing the deals made here but he cannot do it alone.
I am a sick person who must have biologic drugs. This sweetheart deal makes a killing off people like me and worse will ruin many others like me. Frankly the whole WH deal must not be honored int his bill. It is beyond belief that A DEMOCRATIC BILL WILL NOT HAVE DRUG COST CONTROLS IN IT. After all it’s the fiscally responsible thing to do here. Why should the taxpayer subsidize uncontrolled drug costs that drive premiums way up?
Its amazing. We started with an idea to have you being allowed to keep what you have or pick a govt plan. Then they restricted the PO to small businesses, singles etc.. Then the great wise leadership said let us have a trigger for the little PO not available to most Americans. Then when that did not fly they thought of co ops. Then state opt outs. So now we have a WALLED OFF PUBLIC OPTION FOR MAYBE 10 MILLION AMERICANS AND A BIG PHARMA DRUG DEAL THAT WILL GREATLY HARM AMERICANS. All hands on deck. Let’s get the Eschoo amendment pulled.
Call Rep Eschoo, Waxman, Pelosi , Dodd- anyone in leadership. Esp Eschoo who is author of the House amendment and Dodd or Harkin who is at HELP. Toll free: 1-877-851-6437 !!!
UPDATED BREAKING: AHIP SET TO NIX "DEAL", WH NOT HAPPY. BIG PHARMA AND BIG INS. STILL ARENT HAPPY WITH MAX'S BILL:
http://www.politico.com/...
....It's interesting that the report comes from AHIP, which has spoken publicly in favor of overhauling the health care system, but has worked behind-the-scenes to kill aspects of the president's plan, including attempts to create a government competitor to private plans, Insurance companies have also balked at the watered-down individual mandate in the Finance bill.
A negative report from insurers is likely to infuriate progressives, whose distrust of the industry drives their push for the government insurance option.
UPDATE: An administration official called. The White House isn't happy.
AHIP chief Karen Ignagni met with White House and Senate Finance officials last week, and she said they were "a ways away from doing an analysis," the official said. "There is a feeling among White House officials that they were misled."
This might be the first rift unfolding in public between an inustry player and the White House and Senate Finance Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.). The health care industry has been loathe to litigate the bill in public, fearing a backlash from the White House. The pharmaceutical and hospital industries cut separate deals with the White House and Baucus to mitigate that amount of payment cuts they could face in an overhauled system.
Read AHIP DEAL KILLER REPORT HERE:
http://www.politico.com/...
More info:
In simple terms-
The fastest growing segment of the drug market is comprised of medicines called "biologics." Unlike most medicines you know - conventional medicines like Tylenol and Prilosec for example - biologics are derived from living cells and include treatments for cancer and multiple sclerosis, as well as most vaccines. These biologic drugs are expected to make up 50% of new drug approvals by 2010. However, these biologics can cost 22 times the price of conventional medicines. For Herceptin, a treatment for breast cancer, prices can be as high as $48,000 while Avastin, a treatment for colon cancer, can go for upwards of $55,000. To make matters worse, right now there is no legal pathway to make generic biologics, also called "biogenerics," "follow-on biologics,"or "biosimilars."
We favor legislation that lowers prices by enabling generic biologic drugs. Done right, in the first decade, biogenerics could save patients and our healthcare system as much as $71 billion and would reduce biologic drug prices between 20 and 40%, making lifesaving medicines available to many patients who now have to do without.
Unfortunately, the mechanism built into Senate and House versions of health care reform threatens to effectively block generic competition by granting 12 years of monopoly protection (other medicines get ONLY 5 YEARS!) along with the patent protection that biologic drugs already receive. In addition, companies can tweak their drugs (by changing doses or combining them with other drugs) and extend this protection for another 12 years... over and over again. That’s another additional 12 years of high prices that they can turn into a perpetual monopoly. In other words, this purported generic biologics legislation will actually PREVENT biologic generics for making it to patients.
Not only is this bill expected to block the estimated $71 billion savings enabled by generic biologics, but the U.S. Federal Trade Commission has said that this protection is likely to hurt innovation of new medicines to address unmet medical needs. The Federal Trade Commission recommended ZERO years of data exclusivity for biologics.
http://affordablemedsnow.org/...
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