A Role For Big Pharma? Sure, Max Baucus Doesn't Think They've Ripped Us Off Enough

Last week the fine folks at OpenSecrets.org took a little look at the efforts Big Pharma has made to influence members of Congress to back the drug industry agenda. Their first two paragraphs go a long way towards explaining a theme being aggressively pushed today by corporate shill Max Baucus (DLC-MT).

Pharmaceutical and health product companies, like the insurance industry, strongly oppose any proposal to create a public health insurance option, fearful that private insurers would be marginalized and government price controls would limit what the industry can charge for its products. And with drug companies as the No. 1 all-time spender on lobbying, at $1.6 billion since 1998, Congress is bound to at least entertain their concerns.

As an alternative to the public plan, representatives of the pharmaceutical industry want to see Medicaid, which provides insurance to poor families, expanded to cover more low-income workers. This would mean more people could afford drugs and medical devices, increasing the industry's target market. Similarly, the industry supports the mandate that all Americans purchase health insurance, boosting the industry's customer base by millions.

Today's NY Times seemed to laud Baucus' claim that a deal he claims to have made with these money-grubbers (headed by spectularly corrupt former Congressman Billy Tauzin) this is somehow a good thing. If you don't look too deeply it even sounds like a good thing. Baucus may be from Montana but he's as slick as a stick of olio.

The pharmaceutical industry agreed Saturday to spend $80 billion over the next decade improving drug benefits for seniors on Medicare and defraying the cost of President Barack Obama's health care legislation, capping secretive negotiations involving key lawmakers and the White House.

''This new coverage means affordable prices on prescription drugs when Medicare benefits don't cover the cost of prescriptions,'' Sen. Max Baucus, chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, said in a statement announcing the accord.

...Baucus' announcement said drug companies would pay half of the cost of brand-name drugs for seniors in the so-called doughnut hole-- a gap in coverage that is a feature of many of the plans providing prescription coverage under Medicare. Other officials said wealthier Medicare beneficiaries would not receive the same break, but there was no mention of that in the statement.

That's their sop to kill the public option? I'm glad Baucus is so happy. The people of this country want the same health care he and his family get from the federal government with our taxes. Baucus is the third highest paid of all the members of Congress on Big Pharma's payroll ($1,078,605), beaten only by two other anti-reform fanatics, Orrin Hatch (R-UT- $1,547,963) and Arlen Specter (R-D-PA- $1,171,366). Big Pharma's other most bribed members of the House of Lords are Richard Burr (R-NC- $912,497) and John McCain (R-AZ- $877,965). All of these crooks are die-hard opponents of the public option that the public is clamoring for.

Yesterday I sent out this tweet:


I was inundated with e-mails from people wanting to know where they could sign up for the revolution. Forget Enghelab Square; we should all meet in front of Baucus' house (either in Helena or Inside the Beltway). Bruce Wheeler is an American in Europe right now. Please read his response:

"I was having dinner last night with some new friends here in Annecy, France...they say that if what was happening in America with social services like healthcare, Medicare and Social Security was happening to them in France that citizens here would be flocking to the streets with rocks. They pressed me on why Americans don't do more to collectively show their displeasure with these and other things, I'm embarrassed to say I couldn't give them a good answer. Maybe we're too busy worrying about stuff like Jon and Kate or which politician is having an affair...? Or is it our corporate media is doing too good a job at distracting us with crap like that while those in power loot the place?"

Mack Jepsen was even more to the point: "75% of Americans want the public option; if we don't get it , it will definitely be time to 'discuss' the options left available." Mack's right and many of us are confused about Barack Obama's role in all this-- confused and eager for clarification.

OK. But let's not give up yet. Help with Blue America's Campaign For Health Care Choice. If that fails, then let's examine the options of how to deal with these crooks.