CUI BONO?

"Analysis: Courting doctors in special interest war"

By DAVID ESPO, AP Special Correspondent

21 OCTOBER 2009

ASHINGTON – In the special interest war over health care, the White House and congressional Democrats have the nation's drug makers and hospitals generally on their side; the insurance industry, not so much.

Now the bill's supporters are making a play to lock in the American Medical Association, the organization that says it represents 250,000 doctors and medical students in every state and congressional district.

The principal enticement, a $247 billion measure making its way to the Senate floor, aims to wipe out a scheduled 21 percent rate cut for doctors treating Medicare patients and replace it with a permanent, predictable system for future fee increases.

The AMA, firmly in favor of higher pay for doctors, began airing ads last week saying the increase would "protect seniors' access to quality care."

In case lawmakers need any inducement to act, a late 2008 study by the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission, which advises Congress, found that nearly 30 percent of Medicare patients looking for a new primary care doctor had trouble finding one.

Yet the AMA won't yet pledge support for the major health care bill that is the chief objective of the White House and congressional Democrats, despite a request that several officials say was made at a meeting last week with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev.

Nor does it seem eager to soft-pedal another of its own top priorities, legislation to restrict medical malpractice payments.

"We continue to press for significant medical liability reform because we know that is a very important contributor to unnecessary health care costs," Dr. J. James Rohack, president of the AMA, said in an interview in which he declined repeatedly to say whether the organization had been asked to back off.

Higher payments to doctors and curbs on medical malpractice awards "in my mind are separate issues."

"I can't speak for how other people are putting this whole thing together," he added.

Evidently not in the minds of Democrats.

Several officials say that request, too, was conveyed to the AMA and other doctor groups in last week's session with Reid.

Not coincidentally, any limitations in medical malpractice awards are anathema to trial lawyers, whom Democrats count as among their most reliable and generous campaign supporters.

The dance is one of many in the long-running health care debate, the issue that has consumed Congress, the administration and a vast constellation of outside groups for months.

Take the Senate Finance Committee, which last week approved a middle-of-the-road measure that may eventually prove a template for a compromise on an issue that has defied solution for decades.

Sen. Olympia Snowe of Maine drew headlines when she became the first Republican to support White House-backed health care legislation.

But according to some of the bill's supporters, a vote that occurred with little fanfare several evenings earlier was crucial to the legislation's survival.

It pitted the drug makers and the White House on one side and most of the committee's Democrats on the other.

At issue was a plan by Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla., to sweeten drug benefits for certain Medicare beneficiaries — normally something all lawmakers can favor.

In this case, Nelson proposed raising fees on drug companies by $106 billion over a decade to cover the costs.

"Did PhRMA come to the table in the agreement with the White House with enough?"

"A number of us feel that is not the case," he said of the industry.

But his approach happened to run afoul of a deal the industry made months ago with the White House and Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., the committee's chairman.

Drug makers would cover $80 billion of the cost of the legislation over a decade, and the White House and Baucus would help shield them from attempts by other lawmakers to impose additional fees or taxes.

Left undisclosed for weeks was a critical codicil — that the industry would bankroll an expensive advertising campaign to promote the bill's passage, at a cost of $100 million or more.

Passage of Nelson's proposal "may well undermine our ability to pass comprehensive health care reform in this Congress and I think that would be a great tragedy," Sen. Tom Carper, D-Del., said shortly before the vote.

Baucus, too, spoke against Nelson's recommendation, although he added, "we have to find some other time and some other way to fill the doughnut hole," a reference to a gap in coverage under the Medicare prescription drug program.

Of Nelson, Baucus said, "I frankly wish the senator had decided not to push" for a vote.

Not only Baucus, but also the White House had urged Nelson to drop his amendment, according to Senate sources who spoke on condition of anonymity.

On the vote, the chairman, Carper and Sen. Bob Menendez, D-N.J., joined all committee Republicans in opposing the plan, and it failed on a vote of 13-10.

The drug deal was secure, and so, too, the bill.

Special interest politics was also at play for the nation's hospitals.

They, too, have a side deal with the White House and Baucus, and they also received a measure of protection in the bill that cleared the committee.

At the last minute, the chairman decided to shield them from any future cuts to be recommended by an independent commission charged with recommending savings in Medicare.

The insurance industry?

Reid made an unusual appearance at a Senate committee hearing recently to support repeal of 60-year-old antitrust laws that benefit insurance companies.
___

EDITOR'S NOTE — David Espo is chief congressional correspondent for The Associated Press.

Of course the White House and the DEMOCRATS have the drug makers on their side ....

And that really is a big part of what this alleged Obama healthcare reform is all about ....

SECURING A BIGGER CAPTIVE AUDIENCE FOR BIG PHARM .......

Give BIG PHARM access to those who are not presently pill-addicted here in the USA ....

Untold BILLIONS to be made for both the DEMOCRATS and BIG PHARM ...

And so ...

BORING

graham ....

What do medical doctors do in America?

A: They are dispensers of medication ....

graham ....

HOW do medical doctors make their money in America?

A: They push pills for it .....

And tests, of course ....

The tests are designed to bring in extra money ....

And they also push surgery ....

Surgery is a good way to get people hooked on pills, afterall ....

And that is really the key here ...

BIG PHARM DOES NOT MAKE MONEY IF IT CAN'T MOVE ITS PRODUCT ....

So it has enlisted Obama and the DEMOCRATS as its pushers under the guise of "healthcare reform" ....

And so ...

BUT TRUE, NONETHELESS ....

And so ....

I just went back through all of your posts since 2004, graham, and that is what you always say when you CANNOT refute the facts and the truth ....

You always try and dismiss the subject then as being OH SO VERY BORING to you .....

So it comes as no surprise that you would try and do it once again in here, where the truth and facts are overwhelming you ....

And so ...

stamp prices will not be going up this year

and wow, in 1 minute you went through 10s of thousands of posts


that is incredible!

you just won the 2010 Country GROUP of the year award (as male vocalist is taken)

IMAGINE a world with no pill-addicted people in it, graham ....

Of course, that would put the AMA and the PHARM out of business ....

BUT HEY ....

It would be for the good of the nation ....

So I am for it ....

And you may call me a dreamer, graham ....

And you do ....

BUT ....

I am not the only one ....

And if so many people in America were not so pill-addicted, then maybe, just maybe, the world could finally live as one ....

And so ...

the bush's injected pills into the ghetto in the first place

without medicine, one would not get well

you need to get rid of the CEO's and paper people
not the doctors

I DID?

WOW!

OH, HOW GREAT!

(sounds of spontaneous weeping)

MOM, DAD, I WANT TO THANK YOU FOR ALL THE SUPPORT YOU HAVE GIVEN ME AND THE BAND OVER THE YEARS ....

TO ALL OF OUR FANS OUT THERE, THANK YOU FROM THE BOTTOM OF OUR HEARTS FOR THIS HONOR ...

jimiray, dude, thanks for all of your support over the years as well, and for sharing all of those hot licks of yours with us ....

And bigtom, we certainly can't leave you out here, since stylistically we were emulating you ....

And then, there is our manager graham without whose hard work on our behalf, we would still be just some unknown backyard country band out in the boondocks playing behind a chicken wire defense screen for some woodchucks, possums, groundhogs and a bunch of drunks ....

And so ...

Without medicine, graham, I have managed to not get sick ....

And a long time ago, a doctor told me as a disabled veteran that I had two choices:

A) Go through life COLD TURKEY and take it as it comes ....

B) Get on pills and die young, although likely in LA-LA LAND, where I might not know the $*** was killing me ....

There WAS NOT a choice "C", dear gentle graham ....

Live like poor Elvis, whacked out every day on a cocktail of $*** from BIG PHARM ....

Or live like myself, pill-free ....

I chose the latter ....

The road not taken, graham ....

Remember that poem we learned in school?

And it has made all the difference ....

And so ...

IF I HAD NOT OF BEEN POISONED BY THE U.S. GOVERNMENT IN VIET NAM, graham, WHY TODAY, I WOULD LIKELY BE FEELING A LOT BETTER THAN I DO BECAUSE I WAS POISONED BY THEM ....

And dear gentle graham .....

THERE IS NO HANDY PILL FROM BIG PHARM FOR ALL THIS $*** ....

And the indignity is that OBAMA and the DEMOCRATS now want me to have to pay for HEALTH INSURANCE after the U.S. government POISONED us ...

And then left us on our own ...

And so ...

I haven't taken one aspirin now in 3 years, Nov.2006.
I do not use anything for a headache
cold turkey
just like I quit smoking in the early 80s.

of course, then I started eating...

And graham ....

Did you see what I was doing there?

Yes, yes, I was sharing the love, just as you taught me to do ....

Having it be not just about me, but about WE, instead ....

And so ...

Congratulations on your award Livyjr I knew you were a shoe in for Country Group of the year.

AND IN THE MEANTIME, WE REMAIN AS LITTLE MORE THAN CATTLE OUT ON A FEEDLOT IN KANSAS WHILE PEOPLE DICKER OVER HOW MUCH WE ARE WORTH ON THE HOOF ....

And so ...

"Dems go after antitrust exemption for insurers"

By DAVID ESPO, AP Special Correspondent

21 OCTOBER 2009

WASHINGTON – Democrats launched a drive at both ends of the Capitol on Wednesday to strip the insurance industry of its decades-old exemption from federal antitrust laws, part of an increasingly bare-knuckled struggle over landmark health care legislation sought by President Barack Obama.

If enacted, the change would put an end to "price-fixing, bid-rigging and market allocation in the health and medical malpractice" insurance areas, said Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Leahy said he would seek a vote on the plan when the Senate debates health care legislation in the next few weeks.

Leahy made his comments at virtually the same time the House Judiciary Committee voted 20-9 to end an industry exemption that dates to 1945.

Three Republicans supported the move.

Senior Democratic officials in the House said the leadership was inclined to incorporate the measure into the broader health care bill expected to be brought to the floor for a vote within a few weeks.

No final decision has been made, they added.

The events coincided with a vote in the Senate to sidetrack legislation averting a 21 percent cut in Medicare payments for doctors in January and raising their fees by $247 billion over a decade.

The 47-53 vote was 13 short of the 60 needed to advance the bill, reflecting concerns that the measure would have raised deficits.

The result was a defeat for Democrats and an embarrassment for the American Medical Association, which had mounted a seven-figure advertising effort to assure passage of one of its top priorities.

Republicans grumbled that Senate Democrats timed the offensive on antitrust matters to obscure their defeat on the bill setting pay rates for doctors, a measure that GOP leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., called "the Senate's first vote on health care this year."

Even so, taken together, the threats to revoke long-standing antitrust protections reflect the fury Democrats have projected in response to recent insurance industry attempts to influence the shape of legislation.

The events occurred less than a week after the insurers' trade association issued a report saying a measure in the Senate Finance Committee would produce sharp increases in premiums for millions of people who currently have insurance.

Democrats and the White House reacted angrily, attacking the study as flawed and politically motivated.

Responding to the day's developments, the industry said the legislation was based on a misperception of existing law.

"We believe that health insurers have not been engaging in anticompetitive conduct and that McCarran-Ferguson does not provide a shield for such conduct," Karen Ignagni, president and CEO of American's Health Insurance Plans wrote to Rep. John Conyers, the Michigan Democrat who chairs the Houses Judiciary Committee.

"Thus, the bills attempt to remedy a problem that does not exist," she wrote.

The industry holds a large conference beginning on Thursday several blocks from the Capitol.

The White House had no reaction.

Instead, aides pointed to Obama's statement last weekend that insurers are earning "profits and bonuses while enjoying a privileged exception from our antitrust laws, a matter that Congress is rightfully reviewing."

The developments came as Democrats struggled in both houses of Congress to enact Obama's call for legislation to expand health care to millions who lack insurance, provide greater consumer protections to millions more, and rein in the cost of medical care in general.

In the Senate, Reid, key committee chairmen and White House aides are at work crafting legislation the Senate can vote on later this fall.

The House is also on track for a vote this fall, although weeks of private negotiations among Democrats have yet to produce agreement on a bill.

Among the most controversial unresolved issues concerns proposals for the government to sell insurance in competition with private companies.

The House bill is certain to include such a provision, although the rank and file have yet to come to an agreement on key details, slowing action on the overall measure.

It is unclear what type of so-called "public option" will be incorporated into the Senate measure, where Democratic moderates are wary of the idea, even though public polling consistently shows its popularity.

Until recently, the insurance industry has played a noncommittal role as legislative proposals developed in both houses of Congress.

AHIP announced months ago it supported comprehensive health care reform and Obama called on Ignagni to speak at a televised White House event designed to showcase widespread agreement that the time had come to change the current system.

Essentially, industry offered a trade.

It agreed to abandon practices such as denying coverage on the basis of pre-existing medical conditions if the legislation required nearly universal coverage, a step that would give it access to millions of new customers.

At the same time, it vigorously opposes any legislation that would allow the government to sell insurance.

The tone began to change when the Finance Committee voted to excuse an estimated two million lower income Americans from a requirement to purchase insurance, at the same time it greatly reduced the penalties for those who were still covered, but refused to buy coverage.
___

Associated Press writer Erica Werner contributed to this report.

Aw shucks, jimiray dude ....

You know full well that me and the boys can't take all the credit for that ....

Why, if it hadn't of been for you and bigtom and all the stuff you dudes taught us, well, hell jimiray ....

We probably couldn't even have gotten to first base here ....

And well, now that we are on top, me and the boys want to share the spotlight with you and bigtom ....

Afterall, you are the dudes that got us here ....

Well, along with graham, of course ....

But his part wasn't artistic like yours and bigtom's ....

And so ...

So, graham ....

Where is the major healthcare cisis in your life then?

Where is the crying need for what Obama is calling a massive healthcare overhaul?

Do you see what I am saying here?

WHO are all these pills for?

And so ...

Obama didn't sell out to Big Pharma, that was done years ago.

Of the 200 most prescribed drugs in 2007 almost all of them were for stress or obesity related conditions....Depression drugs, anti-psychotics, mood stabilizers, sleeping pills pain killers, anti-anxiety pills, acid reflux times four, high blood pressure meds, viagra and other ED drugs (though I suppose I shouldn't complain about those at all), diabetes drugs and then, way down on the list are anti-biotics and anti-virals. It wouild be much less expensive to enroll everyone in T'ai chi or yoga and put everyone on a diet. We could use tax subsidies for locally grown produce, real juice and real whole grains, and tax sugary substances like cola and "juice drinks" but just the the hint of that brought out the "stupidest commercial of the year" about how Americans don't want their "soda and juice drinks taxed"....Has anyone else seen it but me?

the major crisis is figuring out where I am going to keep getting the $2750 a month for health care insurance livyjr
which will go up 15% every single year each May. You do the math.

I do not understand how say, indianhead's $300 a month does not rise...what kind of plan doesn't have price increases in 15 years?


by the way-this 1990s 2000s thing of diagnosing kids as needing daily meds to zombitize them is ridiculous too
Let kids be kids
soon enough they won't be, and under these meds, they won't know later what they missed (maybe that is the point)

tomorrow is never better than yesterday

I am reading this around 5AM while drinking the first of many cans of cherry zero coke.

Thanks for joining in, heart ...

And for bringing out some points in here that need to be brought out ...

WHERE IS THERE ANY EMPHASIS GIVEN BY OBAMA TO A HEALTHY LIFESTYLE?

A: There is NONE!

WHERE IS THERE ANY EMPHASIS GIVEN BY OBAMA TO A HEALTHFUL, UNPOLLUTED ENVIRONMENT THAT WON'T KEEP MAKING US SICK?

A: There is NONE!

So, heart .....

THIS IS NOT REFORM OF HEALTHCARE!

IT IS A POWERGRAB, PLAIN AND SIMPLE ....

CUI BONO?

Not us ....

And so ...

HEALTHCARE REFORM IN A PIG'S EYE, MR. PRESIDENT ....

The obvious beneficiaries of this action by Obama right now, outside of DEMOCRATS holding stock in BIG PHARM, is BIG PHARM itself ....

More Viagra sales, which will make women in America happy, apparently ....

And that is politically important to the DEMOCRATS and AMERICA'S MOMMY NANCY, because these happy women will not only vote DEMOCRAT then, but will contribute money to the DEMOCRATS so they can hold power in America for the next thousand years ....

And more sales of MOOD DRUGS ....

More sales of obesity drugs since the insurance companies will now have to support your habit forever .....

More sales of all kinds of meds ....

Because Obama is going to make sure that the pushers of these meds, the medical doctors, have more people to push them to, which directly benefits BIG PHARM ....

And their shareholders, of course ....

And Obama, because if he wasn't getting something out of this as a QUID PRO QUO, it wouldn't be happening ....

And so ...

WHEN ARE YOU GOING TO CALL FOR ENFORCEMENT OF THE ENVIRONMENTAL LAWS AND REGULATIONS WHICH ARE SUPPOSED TO PROVIDE US WITH A HEALTHFUL ENVIRONMENT THAT WON'T KEEP MAKING US SICK, MR. OBAMA?

THEY HAVE ONLY BEEN ON THE BOOKS SINCE 1969 ....

WHEN CAN WE EXPECT YOU TO START ENFORCING THEM?

And so ...

Do you think you should have to pay a special tax for that privilege, graham?

Just curious, of course ....

I don't drink soda, myself, so I haven't considered the question ....

And so ...

And graham, there are only two people in here right now ....

Do you think that we should wait for a third before conversing?

Or should we jump over to GOGGLE CHAT do you think?

I don't watch TV myself, so I wouldn't have seen it ....

Did I miss something?

Should I rush down to Walmart's and buy myself a wide-screen high-def TV just to see what I am missing?

No, I think I'll forego that experience, because I might get my @$$ trampeled in the process ...

And so ...

you know, this bullcrap word "hijacking" they throw it around
but my name is not Jack, so why do they keep saying Hi to me?

Nobody can hijack the original post in a thread, and in that thread magmak is talking about, other people continued magmak's thought
without problem for the other person and myselfs words (of which, my first post that mag thinks was off topic had 100% to do with the thread anyhow, in an oblique way)

we can wait for bill to opine about it with mag

I would say, graham, that when a person does start a thread, it falls on that same person to then nurture the thread ....

Like a garden ....

If you don't nurture a garden, then it grows where it will ....

So too conversations between people ....

And I do not mind a little light-heartedness to come into my threads every now and then ....

Break the tension ...

Otherwise, it can get so stuffy that you can no longer even breathe ...

And so ...

Thanks for the support, heart ...

Thanks again, heart ...

I remember Pepsi ONE.

WTF is Coca Cola ZERO?

It's corn syrup and artificial sweetener!

It will clean your car battery of all corrosion. You should see what it will do to a plastic cup! Not something I want to put in my stomach (well, I limit it to a few times a year).

Good morning, jeffmoskin ...

And thanks for having the courage to step up to the plate in here and ask that very question ...

I was wondering that myself, but was too afraid of appearing grossly ignorant of contemporary American culture to ask ....

And so ...

I find it worthwhile to make explicit to one's self what one will remain ignorant about--given my limited capacity to process, store and retrieve information...

For me, rla, I think that answer is more and more each day ....

PLEASE, THANK YOU VERY MUCH, BUT NO, I DON'T WANT TO KNOW ....

And so ...

On the radio news this noon, it was reported that Obama sees his alleged "healthcare reform" as a boon to the health of the American ECONOMY ....

NOT the health of the American people ....

And so ...

it's tab with cherry flavoring in it
used to be

just for the taste of it DIET COKE

now its COCA COLA OR COKE ZERO

It still not as good as the real coke drink was in the 1960s on a hot summer day in those little green bottles at Long Beach, Long Island
after walking in the shack withthe door that squeaked down that one concrete step
no airconditioning back then in the shack

and it burned on the way down it was so good

That stuff is real great for taking rust off of bolts and tools as well, graham ...

And so ...

"Healthcare system wastes up to $800 billion a year"

By Maggie Fox, Health and Science Editor

26 OCTOBER 2009

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. healthcare system is just as wasteful as President Barack Obama says it is, and proposed reforms could be paid for by fixing some of the most obvious inefficiencies, preventing mistakes and fighting fraud, according to a Thomson Reuters report released on Monday.

The U.S. healthcare system wastes between $505 billion and $850 billion every year, the report from Robert Kelley, vice president of healthcare analytics at Thomson Reuters, found.

"America's healthcare system is indeed hemorrhaging billions of dollars, and the opportunities to slow the fiscal bleeding are substantial," the report reads.

"The bad news is that an estimated $700 billion is wasted annually."

"That's one-third of the nation's healthcare bill," Kelley said in a statement.

"The good news is that by attacking waste we can reduce healthcare costs without adversely affecting the quality of care or access to care."

One example -- a paper-based system that discourages sharing of medical records accounts for 6 percent of annual overspending.

"It is waste when caregivers duplicate tests because results recorded in a patient's record with one provider are not available to another or when medical staff provides inappropriate treatment because relevant history of previous treatment cannot be accessed," the report reads.

Some other findings in the report from Thomson Reuters, the parent company of Reuters:

* Unnecessary care such as the overuse of antibiotics and lab tests to protect against malpractice exposure makes up 37 percent of healthcare waste or $200 to $300 billion a year.

* Fraud makes up 22 percent of healthcare waste, or up to $200 billion a year in fraudulent Medicare claims, kickbacks for referrals for unnecessary services and other scams.

* Administrative inefficiency and redundant paperwork account for 18 percent of healthcare waste.

* Medical mistakes account for $50 billion to $100 billion in unnecessary spending each year, or 11 percent of the total.

* Preventable conditions such as uncontrolled diabetes cost $30 billion to $50 billion a year.

"The average U.S. hospital spends one-quarter of its budget on billing and administration, nearly twice the average in Canada," reads the report, citing dozens of other research papers.

"American physicians spend nearly eight hours per week on paperwork and employ 1.66 clerical workers per doctor, far more than in Canada," it says, quoting a 2003 New England Journal of Medicine paper by Harvard University researcher Dr. Steffie Woolhandler.

Yet primary care doctors are lacking, forcing wasteful use of emergency rooms, for instance, the report reads.

All this could help explain why Americans spend more per capita and the highest percentage of GDP on healthcare than any other OECD country, yet has an unhealthier population with more diabetes, obesity and heart disease and higher rates of neonatal deaths than other developed nations.

Democratic Senator Charles Schumer said on Sunday that Senate Democratic leaders are close to securing enough votes to pass legislation to start reform of the country's $2.5 trillion healthcare system.

and it took off all the rust in the body too

Sooo ....

Then what on earth do you need that flu shot for then, graham?

To replace some of the rust you lost?

And so ...