(Reuters) A Senate Democrat asked top drugmakers on Wednesday to explain why Americans pay higher prices for prescription drugs than patients do in other developed nations.
Senator Herb Kohl, who chairs the Special Committee on Aging, sent letters to AstraZeneca, GlaxoSmithKline, Eli Lilly, Novartis, Pfizer, and Sanofi-Aventis.
Kohl said Americans on average pay twice as much as people in other industrialized countries…
Some Democrats have attacked drugmakers as the U.S. Congress works on an overhaul of U.S. healthcare system.
The pharmaceutical industry has pledged to pay $80 billion over 10 years in price cuts and other concessions to help fund wider insurance coverage as part of a healthcare overhaul under consideration in Congress.
Some lawmakers have criticized that amount as a small price to pay for a $315 billion-a-year industry that stands to gain tens of millions of new customers if insurance coverage expands. Democrats are trying to pass a final bill for President Barack Obama to sign into law in the coming weeks.
Community: Senator Kohl knows very well why we pay more here. It’s because of backroom deals like the one mentioned above that President Obama made with the pharmaceutical companies, which keeps our governmental healthcare providers from negotiating lower prices, the way other countries do.
And why have members of Congress been so reluctant to point out that we pay more than twice for ALL health care than other industrialized nations, yet have worse outcomes? That fact should be hammered into Americans’ brains every single day.
[Click the title, above, to post a comment.]
0 comments:
Post a Comment
Please do not give advice. We can best help each other by telling what works for us, not what we think someone else should do.