The Chickens are Coming Home to Roost
You don’t really understand what Washington is doing until it hits you smack in the face—like this: A few days ago, we went to the Pharmacy to refill a prescription and discovered the price had increased 210% over the past 90 days. The explanation by the pharmacist for the big price increase was that the Big Pharma companies are all in the process of raising their prices with lightning speed.
Then I ran across an article put out by the Associated Press on March 29th, titled, “Big Pharma Wins Big With Health Care Reform Bill.” This article was picked up by several of the larger blogs, but here are a few excerpts from the AP article:
“Pharma came out of this better than anyone else,” said Ramsey Baghdadi, a Washington health policy analyst who projects a $30 billion, 10-year net gain for the industry. “I don’t see how they could have done much better.”
“Chalk one up for the pharmaceutical lobby. The U.S. drug industry fended off price curbs and other hefty restrictions in President Barack Obama’s health care law even as it prepares for plenty of new business when an estimated 32 million uninsured Americans gain health coverage.”
“Costly brand-name biotech drugs won 12 years of protection against cheaper generic competitors, a boon for products that comprise 15 percent of pharmaceutical sales.”
“Lobbyists beat back proposals to allow importation of low-cost medicines and to have Medicare negotiate drug prices with companies.”
“Pharmaceutical interests spent $188 million lobbying last year, more than all but a handful of industry sectors…They employed an army of 1,105 lobbyists.”
To read the entire article, check here
This is just a small sample of the mighty healthcare reform law…so, Small Business—”gird up your loins,” because the insurance man cometh, and he is bringing the “high sheriff” of Washington law with him.
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