http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/06/health/policy/06insure.html?_r=1White House Affirms Deal on Drug Cost
By DAVID D. KIRKPATRICK
Published: August 5, 2009
WASHINGTON —
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Mr. Tauzin said the administration had approached him to negotiate. “They wanted a big player to come in and set the bar for everybody else,” he said.
He said the White House had directed him to negotiate with Senator Max Baucus, the business-friendly Montana Democrat who leads the Senate Finance Committee.Mr. Tauzin said
the White House had tracked the negotiations throughout, assenting to decisions to move away from ideas like the government negotiation of prices or the importation of cheaper drugs from Canada. The $80 billion in savings would be over a 10-year period. “80 billion is the max, no more or less,” he said. “Adding other stuff changes the deal.”
After reaching an agreement with Mr. Baucus, Mr. Tauzin said,
he met twice at the White House with Rahm Emanuel, the White House chief of staff; Mr. Messina, his deputy; and Nancy-Ann DeParle, the aide overseeing the health care overhaul, to confirm the administration’s support for the terms.
In an interview on Wednesday, Representative Raul M. Grijalva, the Arizona Democrat who is co-chairman of the House progressive caucus, called Mr. Tauzin’s comments “disturbing.”
“We have all been focused on the debate in Congress, but perhaps the deal has already been cut,” Mr. Grijalva said. “That would put us in the untenable position of trying to scuttle it.”
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http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/08/us/08lobby.htmlObama Reverses Stand on Drug Industry Deal
By DAVID D. KIRKPATRICK
Published: August 7, 2009
WASHINGTON — Caught between a pivotal industry ally and the protests of Congressional Democrats, the Obama administration on Friday backed away from what drug industry lobbyists had said this week was a firm White House promise to exclude from a proposed health care overhaul the possibility of allowing the government to negotiate lower drug prices under Medicare.
The reversal underscored the delicate balancing act the White House has pursued in its strategy of negotiating behind-the-scenes deals to win industry support without alienating liberal supporters on Capitol Hill.
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Several people involved in the negotiations of the original drug industry deal with the White House said there had been some ambiguity in the original discussions,
conducted primarily through the Senate Finance Committee, over whether the overhaul might include the government negotiations of drug prices.
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http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/13/health/policy/13health.htmlObama Is Taking an Active Role in Talks on Health Care Plan
By DAVID D. KIRKPATRICK
Published: August 12, 2009
WASHINGTON —
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Early last month, for example, hospital officials were poised to appear at the White House to announce a deal limiting their industry’s share of the costs of the overhaul proposal when a wave of jitters swept through the group.
Senator Max Baucus, the Finance Committee chairman and a party to the deal , had abruptly pulled out of the event. Was he backing away from his end of the deal?
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Some Democrats and industry lobbyists now argue that,
in negotiating deals through Mr. Baucus’s committee with powerful health care interests, the White House was tacitly signaling as early as last spring that it might end up accepting something more modest than the government insurer the president has said he prefers.
Industry lobbyists and moderate Democrats in both chambers, though, argue that
the White House’s actions behind the scenes show a recognition that the finance panel’s anticipated compromise is the most likely template for any final legislation. “The House has largely been a sideshow,” said Representative Jim Cooper of Tennessee, a member of the so-called Blue Dog caucus of conservative Democrats.
“The Senate Finance Committee is where it really matters. That’s the bottleneck.” *************************************************************************************************************************************
I hope you'll take the time to read the three stories in order completely.
The Big Boys with all the chips are busily trading them away in the Finance Committee. Note how involved the President and the White House are with this committee. All this pretense of just standing back and letting the various committees do their own thing is complete total utter BS.
Notice too how possibly things like drug negotiation and rebates are being traded away, in order to get industry support for the bill. Why wouldn't they support a deal that extracts very little from them, gives them millions of new consumers and protects their profits? I thought reduction of drug prices was supposed to fund a large part of the Public Option. Oh.
It looks like the Finance Committee is hot and cold running lobbyists.
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