Big Pharma Shaped Health Care Reform
posted Wed, 12 Jan 2011The pharmaceutical industry had a powerful role in shaping the recently passed Affordable Care Act. The pharmaceutical and health care products industry regularly spends exorbitant amounts of money on lobbying but they reached an all time high in lobby spending over the course of the debate.
The Center for Responsive Politics reported recently that the pharmaceutical and health care products industry (e.g. medical device manufacturers) spent hundreds of millions of dollars to lobby the 111th Congress. And as we all know, money talks. Obama’s plan for real health care reform became increasingly watered down under pressure from this powerful industry.
As reported by the Kaiser Health Foundation, recently filed tax documents also show that PhRMA (big pharma’s lobbying arm) doled out $101.2 million in 2009 for advocacy efforts with a keen eye towards influencing the healthcare debate.
There were big stakes in the health care debate for big pharma. A true public insurance option is a huge threat to their bottom line because it would give the government more power to negotiate fair prescription drug prices for consumers.
Unlike other industrialized countries, the U.S. doesn’t negotiate drug prices with or set profit margins for drug companies. As a result, American consumers pay excessive prices for our prescription drugs. We pay an average of twice as much, for example, as our neighbors in Canada for identical drugs.
In the end, the healthcare reform will pad the pockets of big pharma but it will do very little for consumers who can’t afford their prescription drugs.
Melissa Maki, RxRights
Find out more about this issue:
Pharmaceuticals/Health Products Lobbying
Drug Lobby's Tax Filings Reveal Health Debate Role