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Secret pricing spikes US healthcare costs
- Thread starter Banjo
- Start date
Quote from quannabe:
It's my understanding that legislation in the U.S. makes it illegal for Medicare to negotiate drug prices! I believe the VA can, but not Medicare. Don't take my word for it, check it out yourself. WAKE UP America!
Yes, of course it is widely known. Medicare administrators have asked that they be allowed to negotiate on drug prices, but Congress has prevented them from doing so.
What is totally inconsistent is the reverence and support the the VA gets from both Democrats and Republicans,; yet it is totally 100% socialist. Where is the consistency of argument from the Republican party. There is a noticeable lack of intellect in the Republican party. That is not to say that Democrats are all geniuses, but the anti-intellectual attitudes of many in the Republican party is palpable.
"When Part D of Medicare narrowly passed Congress in 2003 as a part of the Medicare Prescription Drug, Improvement, and Modernization Act, the law prohibited the government from negotiating bulk price discounts, which kept drug costs artificially high.
After that bill passed, some of the billâs supporters left Congress to work for pharmaceutical companies, including Billy Tauzin, a former Republican congressman from Arizona. Tauzin helped pass the bill while in Congress, then left in 2005 to become president and CEO of Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA) lobbying for pharmaceutical companies."
quote from: http://vtdigger.org/2011/06/21/on-v...o-reduce-prescription-drug-costs-for-seniors/
Quote from piezoe:
Yes, of course it is widely known. Medicare administrators have asked that they be allowed to negotiate on drug prices, but Congress has prevented them from doing so.
What is totally inconsistent is the reverence and support the the VA gets from both Democrats and Republicans,; yet it is totally 100% socialist. Where is the consistency of argument from the Republican party. There is a noticeable lack of intellect in the Republican party. That is not to say that Democrats are all geniuses, but the anti-intellectual attitudes of many in the Republican party is palpable.
"When Part D of Medicare narrowly passed Congress in 2003 as a part of the Medicare Prescription Drug, Improvement, and Modernization Act, the law prohibited the government from negotiating bulk price discounts, which kept drug costs artificially high.
After that bill passed, some of the billâs supporters left Congress to work for pharmaceutical companies, including Billy Tauzin, a former Republican congressman from Arizona. Tauzin helped pass the bill while in Congress, then left in 2005 to become president and CEO of Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA) lobbying for pharmaceutical companies."
quote from: http://vtdigger.org/2011/06/21/on-v...o-reduce-prescription-drug-costs-for-seniors/
Here is the view of the Heritage Foundation, A Conservative Think Tank. http://www.heritage.org/research/re...ongress-should-reject-government-price-fixing
There have been bills introduced in both the House and Senate to reverse the HHS restriction on drug price negotiation, but they have always died. The problem with PDP providers doing the negotiating, is that they bill you for the non-negotiated price (list price) and calculate any deductible, or whether you've fallen into the "doughnut hole" in the case of Medicare, on the billed price, but actually pay a much lower price-- the one they have negotiated. This of course is fraudulent, but until they get sued the practice will continue.
The same thing happened with BC&BS plans a number of years ago. Several States sued, and in those States they had to suspend the practice of lying to you about how much they actually paid. The deductibles you pay are of course computed on the amount you are billed by the provider, but the actual amount paid by your insurance company, because they have negotiated with the provider, may be far less, thus they commit fraud when they compute your deductible on the amount billed rather than the amount actually paid.
What we really need is a Truth in Billing Bill requiring Insurance companies to show their customers the discounted amount they paid on a claim. But there is no way to clean up the insurance industry without first repealing the McCarran Ferguson Act, which underlies insurance company skullduggery and exempts insurance companies from Department of Commerce regulation. Letting HHS negotiate directly with big pharma would get around the McCarran Ferguson Act and end drug plan fraud. That is of course why the insurance companies love McCarran-Ferguson and Republicans everywhere who helped them get the "no HHS negotiating clause into the Part D Medicare Act...
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interesting tidbit; Price of Respimat in U.S. $300; price in Canada,$45; "coincidentally" exactly what the part D PDP plan copay for Respimat in the U.S. is, viz, $45. You may be paying for part D but be receiving no benefit at all from it other then to avoid the hassle of having to get your drugs mail order from Canada!
Other key drivers of the rise in costs are administrative fees incurred when doctors and hospitals seek payment from insurers and individuals. These fees are rising by six percent a year, the research found.
6% a year....
This has gotten so out of hand that there is no simple solution at this point to fix it....zero
Just like the federal reserve has a zero exit strategy
Hahahahahaha
6% a year....
This has gotten so out of hand that there is no simple solution at this point to fix it....zero
Just like the federal reserve has a zero exit strategy
Hahahahahaha
S2007S, your 6% figure is very close to the shadowstats figure for actual inflation if one were to estimate it by the method used in the mid 1980's. In constant dollars it appears that there has been no significant cost increase in either medical care (it's up ~ 6% also) or in administrative costs. These cost increases are computed on the actual cost increases experienced by providers, thus they represent an accurate estimate of what the real inflation rate is. The problem for wage and salary earners is that their raises might very likely be computed using the government's CPI; thus they get short changes by 3 % or so and continually lose to real inflation. When compounded over several years the damage to the middle class becomes acutely evident.
Quote from piezoe:
There is a noticeable lack of intellect in the Republican party. That is not to say that Democrats are all geniuses, but the anti-intellectual attitudes of many in the Republican party is palpable.
Dumb generalization.
"People do not have the right to unregulated rights in this country."
Al "Socrates" Sharpton
Why did this policy come into existence? What harm can it do to negotiate prices for Medicare Drugs and I think harm will come only when there is no negotiation which compels them to ease their pricing.