HEALTH CARE: The Price of Influence

[Guest guest]

http://www.americanprogress.com

 

 

HEALTH CARE

The Price of Influence

 

http://www.citizen.org

 

Public Citizen today at noon will release a new study on how lobbying and

campaign contributions by the health care and pharmaceutical industries produced

a Medicare bill that showers those industries with taxpayer largesse, while

leaving millions of seniors without comprehensive coverage.

 

In all, the industries spent $140 million to hire more than 900 lobbyists in

2003 – an all-time high for those industries.

 

The Pharmaceutical Research & Manufacturers of America (PhRMA), which inserted

provisions into the bill prohibiting the government from negotiating lower drug

prices, shelled out more than $16 million alone – a major increase from just the

year before.

 

Similarly, HMOs spent more than $32 million, and in return received a Medicare

bill that encourages privatization, and sends an extra $46 billion to HMOs for

prescription drug coverage " even though the government could do it more

efficiently and cheaply. "

 

In all, more than 20 executives and lobbyists from these industries achieved

" Ranger " or " Pioneer " status by raising at least $200,000 or $100,000,

respectively, for President Bush in the 2000 or 2004 campaigns.

 

The study will be available on Public Citizen's web site, http://www.citizen.org

 

THE REVOLVING DOOR: The report finds almost half of all lobbyists for the health

care and pharmaceutical industries have gone through the " revolving door "

between K Street and the federal government.

 

Even before President Bush completed his term, " top staffers left his

administration and then lobbied for the drug and HMO industries. " And the exodus

has increased since the passage of the Medicare bill.

 

At least four key officials who helped write the Medicare bill have left the

administration to help health industry clients benefit from the new law.

 

Similarly, in Congress, six top staffers at the center of negotiations over the

Medicare bill have recently left public service to lobby for the industry.

 

BACK ON THE INSIDE: The HMO and drug industries have also started to infiltrate

the Bush administration as it oversees the implementation of the new Medicare

law.

 

Three prominent drug industry and HMO lobbyists have recently moved into senior

health policy positions at the Department of Health and Human Services; another

has become a spokesman for the Bush re-election campaign.

 

And the lead White House negotiator on the Medicare bill – presidential adviser

Doug Badger – previously represented half a dozen drug companies as a lobbyist

for Washington Council Ernst & Young.

 

American Progress examines the relationship between President Bush and the owner

of one of the largest pharmacy benefits management companies in America.

 

INDUSTRY SLATES GUBERNATORIAL CANDIDATES: With Republican and Democratic

governors across the country pressing the White House to stop preventing their

states from purchasing lower priced drugs from Canada, the pharmaceutical

industry has tried to quell opposition by working to elect its very own

executives and lobbyists as governors.

 

Last year, the industry succeeded in electing lobbyist and former RNC Chairman

Haley Barbour ® governor of Mississippi.

 

This year, the industry is running former Eli Lilly executive Mitch Daniels for

governor in Indiana. Drugmakers had previously succeeded in getting him

appointed White House budget director from 2001-2003, " even though Daniels had

no full-time job experience related to the federal budget. "

 

During Daniel's tenure, the White House took the extraordinary step of attaching

provisions protecting Eli Lilly from lawsuits to the bill creating the

Department of Homeland Security.

 

INDUSTRY SLATES SENATE CANDIDATE: While Public Citizen reports that 30 former

U.S. senators and representatives lobbied for drugmakers and HMOs, the industry

is also slating one of its lobbyists as a candidate for federal office: Bill

McCollum ® is a top Senate candidate in Florida, and last year lobbied for

drugmaker AstraZeneca – a company that " government lawyers have accused of

colluding with generic companies by paying them not to sell low-cost versions of

a drug when its patent expires. "

 

AstraZeneca currently controls the patent for Tamoxifen (a key breast cancer

drug) and charges Americans the highest prices in the world for the drug, even

though it was originally developed with American taxpayer dollars.

 

The company has opposed bipartisan congressional efforts to allow Americans to

buy Tamoxifen at lower prices in Canada, and bills to force drugmakers to charge

lower prices for government-subsidized drugs.