Drugmakers led by Pfizer (PFE) Inc. agreed to run a “very significant public campaign” bankrolling political support for the 2010 health-care law, including TV ads, while the Obama administration promised to block provisions opposed by drugmakers, documents released by Republicans show.
The internal memos and e-mails for the first time unveil the industry's plan to finance positive TV ads and supportive groups, along with providing $80 billion in discounts and taxes that were included in the law. The administration has previously denied the existence of a deal involving political support.
The documents were released today by Republicans on the House Energy and Commerce Committee. They identify price controls under Medicare and drug importation as the key industry concerns, and show that former Pfizer Chief Executive Officer Jeffrey Kindler and his top aides were involved in drawing it up and getting support from other company executives.
Got it?
What have I talked about since the beginning of this?
Drug and device cost-shifting onto the back of Americans, along with price controls of all sorts -- all backed and enabled by jackbooted government policies -- without which these "features" would instantaneously collapse.
You've been fleeced America, all in the guise of "health care access."
It has been, and is, a lie.
The cost-shifting -- all of it -- must stop now as it is the primary driver in the more than 9% annualized health care spending increase in the Federal Budget. That in turn has driven Federal health spending from $53 billion in 1980 to approximately $820 billion last year.
At this rate roughly 1/2 of the current Federal Budget -- up from 1/5th this last year -- will be health spending within less than 10 years and the entire budget will be consumed by health spending within 15-20 years.
Neither will happen. We cannot possibly absorb another $400 billion in annual deficits four years from now, $800 billion more in seven to eight years, and $1.5 trillion within 15 years.
The government will collapse if our present course of action is not altered here and now, not in some promised "day in the future."
This is arithmetic, not politics.
