Wednesday, January 23, 2013

Amgen Pimps US Senator Baucus Et Al For Pennies On The Dollar

Amgen Gets a Gift From Congress - NYT
For a disheartening example of how intense lobbying and financial contributions can distort the legislative process in Washington, consider what happened to the “fiscal cliff” bill approved three weeks ago by Congress.

Senators who play a major role in federal health care financing were happy to help Amgen, the world’s largest biotechnology company, evade Medicare cost-cutting controls by delaying price restraints on a class of drugs used by kidney dialysis patients, including Sensipar, a drug made by Amgen. That provision was inserted into the final fiscal bill by Senate aides. Many members of Congress did not know it was in the bill until just hours before it was approved.

Although other companies will benefit financially from that delay, Amgen, which has 74 lobbyists in Washington, was the only company to lobby aggressively for the provision. The delay will cost the Medicare program up to $500 million over a two-year period.

The disturbing details were revealed in a report by Eric Lipton and Kevin Sack of The Times on Sunday. The maneuvering to exempt these drugs undercuts a five-year effort to change the incentives used to pay for kidney dialysis care. Previously, Medicare had paid providers separately for the drugs and for administering dialysis treatment, a system that often encouraged overprescribing.

But, in 2008, Congress reversed the incentives by requiring Medicare to pay a single, bundled rate for a patient’s dialysis treatment and related medications, starting in 2011. But certain oral drugs, including Sensipar, were given a two-year reprieve, to expire in 2014, from being included in that more cost-effective bundled system. The fiscal bill has now extended that exclusion for an additional two years.

Supporters of the delay — notably, Senator Max Baucus, a Democrat of Montana, who leads the Senate Finance Committee, and Orrin Hatch, of Utah, the ranking Republican on that committee — say it is needed to give the Medicare system and dialysis providers time to absorb other complicated changes in federal reimbursements for kidney care. But there is good reason to suspect other factors were involved as well. Both senators have political and financial ties to Amgen, as does Mitch McConnell, the Senate minority leader, who exerted great influence over the fiscal negotiations and praised the Medicare provisions.

A top aide to Mr. Hatch, who was involved in negotiating the dialysis delay, previously worked as a health policy analyst for Amgen. The current lobbyists for Amgen include former chiefs of staff for both Mr. Baucus and Mr. McConnell. And the three senators have received substantial contributions from Amgen’s employees and its political action committee since 2007 — almost $68,000 to Senator Baucus, $59,000 to Senator Hatch, and $73,000 to Senator McConnell.

Amgen’s strong influence prevailed even though it had pleaded guilty just weeks ago to marketing an anti-anemia drug illegally and agreed to pay criminal and civil penalties of $762 million, a record settlement for a biotechnology company.

This dreadful episode is a classic example of the power of special interests to shape legislation and shows how hard it may be to carry out the reforms needed to cut health care costs.


See Original NYT story (here).

James C. Collier

READ MOST RECENT POSTS AT ACTING WHITE ACTING BLACK...

Technorati Tags: , , , , ,

Tuesday, January 15, 2013

Racism In European Football Kicked Into Spotlight

The lid has come off of Euro-football after Italian fans insisted on making racist monkey gestures/sounds directed to AC Milan star-player, Kevin-Prince Boateng, in a 'friendly' game Jan 2 against team Pro Patria. (here)

It seems that the German-Ghanaian Boateng walked off the pitch (field) at the repeated actions of a group of Italian fans. His teammates followed, and the game ended. Boateng also received the support of his team president, Silvio Berlusconi. The former Italian prime minister, media mogul, and non-stranger to controversy said, "This is an uncivilised problem that needs to be stopped. I congratulated my players for their decision to leave the field during the friendly in Busto Arsizio." (here)

It is interesting watching Europeans and their authorities attempt to deal with such obvious racism in their most beloved sport. The more the authorities try to curb it, the more determined the fans seem to become, especially the Spanish and the Italians. Gone is the smug superiority the Europeans had when witnessing images of US racism, back int he 1960's, eh?

James C. Collier

READ MOST RECENT POSTS AT ACTING WHITE ACTING BLACK...

Technorati Tags: , , , , ,

Monday, January 14, 2013

Aaron Swartz: 1986 -2013

There are some rare people who are driven to put it all on the line for what they believe - despite the risks. Swartz was one of those people. As an independent researcher, I often ran into the closed doors he fought so hard to prop open. Thanks. RIP.

P.S. To read a petition requesting the government terminate the US District Attorney for overreach against Swartz, click (here).

James C. Collier

READ MOST RECENT POSTS AT ACTING WHITE ACTING BLACK...

Technorati Tags: , , , , ,