Medicare Part D
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- Category: Politics: Political Science
- Date Submitted: 05/26/2011 06:17 PM
- Pages: 7
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Medicare Part D |
How did it get passed Homeland Security? |
|
Professor Lee, HA540, Kaplan University |
|
Anna-Marie |
5/17/2011 |
|
*
* (Credit: Wikimedia Commons)
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Medicare Prescription Drug Improvement and Modernization Act of 2003, (MMA) became law through an extremely long list of inequities, illegal charades, political-back-scratching, manipulative, high-stakes-lobbying. The long list of staffers, responsible for the details of the bill, turned lobbyists for the drug companies, with billions at stake.
It is hard to imagine how drug companies have been handed the reins, so-to-speak, when we examine how the self-centered industry’s interests prevailed when Part D was created in 2003.
As details of the prescription drug benefit were being debated, different proposals were introduced that would have allowed the government to negotiate for lower drug prices, just like it does for the drugs it buys for Medicaid and for the Department of Veterans Affairs. After lobbying by pharmaceutical companies, and aggressive tactics by House leaders, the final bill specifically prevented the government from negotiating for lower drug prices. It also banned importation of cheaper drugs from Canada and gave drug companies stronger protections against their generic competitors. Congressional leaders made sure the bill passed. In violation of House rules, members were given less than 24 hours to read the 850-page document, and the final vote was called about 3 a.m. Instead of closing the vote 15 minutes after voting began, as required by House rules, leaders kept the vote open for almost three hours, the longest roll call vote in the history of the House of Representatives, while they worked the floor. In 2006, Rep. Louise Slaughter, D-N.Y., called that night “the worst abuse of the legislative process I have seen during my 20 years in Congress.” Indiana Republican Rep. Dan Burton also recalls the night as being ugly. “The votes...
How did it get passed Homeland Security? |
|
Professor Lee, HA540, Kaplan University |
|
Anna-Marie |
5/17/2011 |
|
*
* (Credit: Wikimedia Commons)
*
Medicare Prescription Drug Improvement and Modernization Act of 2003, (MMA) became law through an extremely long list of inequities, illegal charades, political-back-scratching, manipulative, high-stakes-lobbying. The long list of staffers, responsible for the details of the bill, turned lobbyists for the drug companies, with billions at stake.
It is hard to imagine how drug companies have been handed the reins, so-to-speak, when we examine how the self-centered industry’s interests prevailed when Part D was created in 2003.
As details of the prescription drug benefit were being debated, different proposals were introduced that would have allowed the government to negotiate for lower drug prices, just like it does for the drugs it buys for Medicaid and for the Department of Veterans Affairs. After lobbying by pharmaceutical companies, and aggressive tactics by House leaders, the final bill specifically prevented the government from negotiating for lower drug prices. It also banned importation of cheaper drugs from Canada and gave drug companies stronger protections against their generic competitors. Congressional leaders made sure the bill passed. In violation of House rules, members were given less than 24 hours to read the 850-page document, and the final vote was called about 3 a.m. Instead of closing the vote 15 minutes after voting began, as required by House rules, leaders kept the vote open for almost three hours, the longest roll call vote in the history of the House of Representatives, while they worked the floor. In 2006, Rep. Louise Slaughter, D-N.Y., called that night “the worst abuse of the legislative process I have seen during my 20 years in Congress.” Indiana Republican Rep. Dan Burton also recalls the night as being ugly. “The votes...