Concessions lawmakers won in the health bill

Here's a look at some of the concessions lawmakers and interest groups won in the latest version of the Senate's health care overhaul bill:

_Gun rights lobbyists pushed for language to ban collection of data on gun ownership in the bill.

_The American Medical Association announced its coveted endorsement Monday after Reid made a series of change to please doctors, including eliminating a 5 percent tax on elective cosmetic surgery procedures, replacing it with a 10 percent tax on indoor tanning services; eliminating payment cuts to specialty and other physicians that were to be used to pay for bonuses to primary care physicians and general surgeons in underserved areas (the bonuses remain); and dropping a proposed $300 fee (to be used to fight fraud) on physicians who participate in Medicare.

_Makers of brand-name biotech drugs — expensive pharmaceuticals made from living cells — won 12 years of protection against would-be generic competitors.

_Drugmakers fended off proposals to allow importation of cheaper drugs from Canada and other countries, and to let the government negotiate drug prices for Medicare recipients.

Read the rest here:

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5jSnc6xKS4IaEamw0pgkwIHaHXiYAD9CO7S403

---------------------------------------------

This bill is a disgrace.

The two things you never want to watch being made: laws and sausages.

I can gaurantee you that pretty much every law ever passed by Congress was loaded down with this kind of crap. It's the cost of doing business in Washington.