Drug Companies Making $50 Billion in Excess Profits Under Medicare Plan D

[Dems Will Win]

The Donut Hole is less than half the $50 billion in excess profits to Big Pharma! THis word has to get out to senior voters on how the GOP screwed them with Plan D and the Donut Hole just to pay a windfall profit to Big Pharma.

WASHINGTON - August 15 - Pharmaceutical companies are making billions in excess profits under the new Medicare drug benefit, according to a report by the Center for Economic and Policy Research. In the first year of the Medicare Part D program, Pfizer will make $1.2 billion in excess profits on Lipitor and $585 million on Zoloft; Wyeth will make nearly $1 billion on Protonix; and Merck will make $1.6 billion on Zocor.

The report, "The Origins of the Doughnut Hole: Excess Profits on Prescription Drugs," by economist Dean Baker, calculated the difference between the average cost of 20 common drugs used by seniors and the cost when obtained through the Veterans Administration. It found excess profits totaling more than $7 billion in the first year of the program. The study also calculated prices for prescription drugs such as Actonel, Aricept, Celebrex, Fosamax, Nexium, Norvasc, Plavix, Prevacid, Toprol XL, and Xalatan. To read the report, see: http://www.cepr.net/publications/part_d_drug_profits_2006_08.pdf

Thousands of drugs cost more than necessary under the Medicare drug plan because Congress prohibited Medicare from negotiating drug prices directly with the pharmaceutical industry, as is done by the Veterans Administration. In the case of many drugs, the prices paid by insurers participating in the plan are more than twice as high as the prices paid by the Veterans Administration.

Millions of seniors and disabled Americans enrolled in Medicare Part D drug plans are discovering the "doughnut hole" - the $2,850 gap placed into the plan in order to save the government money. The Center for Economic and Policy Research has pointed out that this gap was only necessary because the plan's overall design added significant costs and complexity.

"The excess profits from just a small number of drugs account for a very large portion of the doughnut hole," said Baker. "The excess profits for the drug industry as a whole will be close to $50 billion in the first full year of Medicare drug benefit program. This is more than twice the size of the doughnut hole."

http://www.commondreams.org/news2006/0815-06.htm

Remember this mantra for the election: the Donut Hole is all excess profit to Big Pharma.

Repeat that 100 times so the seniors around you feel the GOP pain when they his the Donut Hole and know it is their fixed income going to for excess Big Pharma profits!

[Demeter]

1. Quelle Surprise! Pardon my French.

[rodeodance]

2. 50 Billion!! my gawd!!

[Dems Will Win]

6. Remember to recommend this to spread the word!

[me b zola]

7. Yeah, huh. Big oil and Halliburton are gonna get jealous...

Oh no, wait. Big oil & Halliburton have nothing to be jealous over--they are all laughing themselves all the way to the bank. :grr:

[Roland99]

11. That's, what, 6 weeks in Iraq? Pffft...

[elehhhhna]

3. donut hole is a lame term for "you paid the premium but SCREW YA"

I'd prefer we call it the SCREW-HOLE

[MadMaddie]

4. And in the meantime the Government is confiscating any

Medication coming over the Canadian border....So many Seniors don't know what happened to their medication until they call the vendor......What happened with Free Trade...anyone remember that....it was supposed to benefit US citizens too....

See Uncle Sam is forcing Amercan Seniors to buy the costly US drugs with the bullshit Medicair plan.....

Shameful!!

[me b zola]

8. But, but...bush* is keeping our seniors safe from those Canadian drugs!!

</sarc>

[Monkeyman]

5. Got to ask?Is this the Bill Hastert and Frist took to White House

That went to court

[Webster Green]

9. People will die because they can't afford their meds....

A little bonus for the war-chimp. His buddies get richer, and he gets to kill people. (His favorite pastime)

[Horse with no Name]

15. But by killing off elderly Americans

It a two-fer.
1. They can't draw Social Security
2. Ones that are on medicine are usually sick and cost more money than Medicare wishes to spend.

[Stargazer99]

10. The doughnut holes are approaching

One woman almost died because she could not afford the RX on Medicare Part D. I've heard where an individual had to sell their home. I'll bet you would hear a lot more of stuff like this but mass media will make damn sure you never find out.

[OhioChick]

12. How pathetic......

K&R

:kick:

[Initech]

13. That's what happens with unregulated capitalism

The rich get richer, the poor get poorer, and the only winners are big enterprises like the energy, health care, and pharmaceutical industrys. It sucks.

[mad-mommy]

14. meanwhile...

while Pharmaceutical companies earn 50 billion, the Deficit Reduction Act (DRA) of 2005, now supposed to start in January 2007, will save the government another 50 billion or so over the next 5 years http://www.heritage.org/Research/Budget/wm911.cfm

while outpatient imaging (x-ray)centers will suffer reimbursement cuts of 25%. This may lead to many imaging centers going out of business, or offering fewer services. This will force patients to seek services in hospital settings where they will wait hours, and hours and hours for their x-ray tests, after waiting hours and hours and hours in doctor office and hospital ER rooms. For the outpatient imaging centers that can manage to stay in business, what will that mean to the patient?

http://www.rsna.org/Publications/rsnanews/may06/cuts_may06.cfm

an excerpt from the web page article:

"Farnsworth and Cooper said they envision other consequences for patient care as well, including less frequent equipment upgrades, reductions in staff and increased demand, which could result in longer wait-times for patients. But most troubling, they said, are the difficult economic decisions outpatient practices will have to make regarding the procedures they offer."

So here again, our seniors as well as others will suffer. How will the outpatient imaging services be able to keep up the best standards through upgrading equipment, if there is no money to spend? Economically speaking, how can any business go back wards and survive? While every other thing goes up, Gasoline, groceries, utilities, and that's ok, healthcare reimbursement goes down.

Moving on, what will this mean to x-ray professionals who provide these services, they will be downsized, those remaining will have more work dumped on them, less benefits (for example: health insurance, how ironic)or cutting of benefits, and there will be little compensation for the extra work, IF ANY, because God forbid the people signing the employees paychecks should suffer any loss in salary/investment, due to this act.

So the gov't can save billions over the next 5 years...while spending trillions to fight a war.

I think I'm going to have to start this in another thread.

[Rosemary2205]

16. Excuse me but the ENTIRE program screws poor seniors.

Prior to Medicare D the pharms had freebee programs on just about every medication they manufacture to people below a certain income (each Pharm set their own standard). With just a little help from the doctor the poorest seniors were getting some pretty expensive meds absolutely free.

Now it's actually ILLEGAL for the pharms to give away prescriptions to anyone over 65 thanks to the Medicare D program. This was done so it would FORCE the ultra poor to pay up for the program instead of sticking with the freebee program. Now poor senior are having to pay the premiums and copays but also are most likely to end up in that EXPENSIVE "donut hole".