PNHP

Are AHIP and PhRMA the enemies?

Drug coverage called key to reforming healthcare

By Jeffrey Young
The Hill
January 14, 2009
More generous insurance coverage of prescription drugs should be an essential part of any comprehensive proposal to overhaul the U.S. healthcare system, Big Pharma’s top lobbyist said Wednesday.
“Just getting insurance for everybody doesn’t do a doggone thing if it doesn’t insure the things you need and the things you ought to get in healthcare,” Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA) President and CEO Billy Tauzin told reporters.
“Let me say it as emphatically as I can: The pharmaceutical industry and the products we make are going to be a major part of the solution to healthcare access and affordability in this country,” said Tauzin, a former Republican House member from Louisiana.
“What we are deeply concerned about is if all of a sudden you decide to move to a single-payer system or you crowd out private competitors,” Tauzin said.
http://thehill.com/business–lobby/drug-coverage-called-key-to-reforming-healthcare-2009-01-14.html

And…

Obama, Reid take dead aim at Medicare HMOs

By Jeffrey Young
The Hill
January 14, 2009
Rep. Pete Stark (D-Calif.)… said last month that while even a Democratic bugbear like the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA) should be consulted on health reform, health insurers could twist in the wind, as far as he was concerned.
“We’re not going to pass these plans if we don’t have the American Medical Association, the American Hospital Association — even PhRMA. You’re not going to get the insurance companies on board, I don’t think, but they’re the easiest to roll because nobody likes insurance companies. So, if they don’t like what we’re doing, I guess somebody has to be the bad guy,” said Stark, who chairs the Health Subcommittee of the Ways and Means Committee and will be one of the lead authors of House Democratic health reform legislation.
Stark has a sharper tongue than most of his colleagues, but his comments point up the challenges facing the health insurance industry as the health reform debate approaches.
http://thehill.com/leading-the-news/obama-reid-take-dead–aim-at-medicare-hmos-2009-01-14.html

The lobby organizations, America’s Health Insurance Plans (AHIP) and the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA), have been amongst the most visible targets of those of us who have been fighting for comprehensive reform that would best meet the health care needs of all of us.
AHIP represents an administratively burdensome middleman industry that has impaired health care access for their own beneficiaries while failing to provide the financial security that is the very purpose of insurance. There is no moral basis for including them in a health care system designed to best meet the needs of patients.
PhRMA represents an industry that has thrived on over-priced products that often have been marketed to professionals and the public in a dishonest manner, frequently overstating the benefits of their products while failing to adequately reveal the potential for very serious adverse consequences that their products may cause. They have also obstructed efforts for us to be sure that the prices of their products are based on reasonable costs plus fair profits.
Both organizations have earned their tarnished reputations, since their self-serving advocacy has had a serious negative impact on patient/consumers, both financially and health-wise. But there is a very crucial difference between these two entities. Pharmaceuticals are an essential component of the health care system, whereas the private insurance industry is not essential and provides us with only negative value. We need to work with the pharmaceutical industry, but we need to tell the private insurers to go “twist in the wind.”
Pete Stark is right. We do have to sit down with representatives of the health care delivery system: the drug industry (PhRMA), the hospital industry (AHA), and physicians (PNHP instead of the AMA), amongst others. But the process should prohibit up front the trade-off of beneficial policies.
Pete Stark’s Health Committee needs to lay out the policies that will best serve the interests of patients. Then, without any compromise in the fundamentals, they can work with these sectors to refine those policies in order to maintain a vibrant health care delivery system that would best serve the interests of patients. Self-seving measures that don’t benefit patients should be rejected automatically.
While Karen Ignagni is twisting in the wind (AHIP), we should honor Billy Tauzin’s white flag (PhRMA). But as he enters the reform process, he needs to be reminded that single payer isn’t about the pharmaceutical industry; it’s about health care justice for everyone in America. Therefore, it’s not negotiable.

Are AHIP and PhRMA the enemies?

Drug coverage called key to reforming healthcare

By Jeffrey Young
The Hill
January 14, 2009

More generous insurance coverage of prescription drugs should be an essential part of any comprehensive proposal to overhaul the U.S. healthcare system, Big Pharma’s top lobbyist said Wednesday.

“Just getting insurance for everybody doesn’t do a doggone thing if it doesn’t insure the things you need and the things you ought to get in healthcare,” Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA) President and CEO Billy Tauzin told reporters.

“Let me say it as emphatically as I can: The pharmaceutical industry and the products we make are going to be a major part of the solution to healthcare access and affordability in this country,” said Tauzin, a former Republican House member from Louisiana.

“What we are deeply concerned about is if all of a sudden you decide to move to a single-payer system or you crowd out private competitors,” Tauzin said.

http://thehill.com/business–lobby/drug-coverage-called-key-to-reforming-healthcare-2009-01-14.html

And…

Obama, Reid take dead aim at Medicare HMOs

By Jeffrey Young
The Hill
January 14, 2009

Rep. Pete Stark (D-Calif.)… said last month that while even a Democratic bugbear like the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA) should be consulted on health reform, health insurers could twist in the wind, as far as he was concerned.

“We’re not going to pass these plans if we don’t have the American Medical Association, the American Hospital Association — even PhRMA. You’re not going to get the insurance companies on board, I don’t think, but they’re the easiest to roll because nobody likes insurance companies. So, if they don’t like what we’re doing, I guess somebody has to be the bad guy,” said Stark, who chairs the Health Subcommittee of the Ways and Means Committee and will be one of the lead authors of House Democratic health reform legislation.

Stark has a sharper tongue than most of his colleagues, but his comments point up the challenges facing the health insurance industry as the health reform debate approaches.

http://thehill.com/leading-the-news/obama-reid-take-dead–aim-at-medicare-hmos-2009-01-14.html

Comment:

By Don McCanne, MD

The lobby organizations, America’s Health Insurance Plans (AHIP) and the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA), have been amongst the most visible targets of those of us who have been fighting for comprehensive reform that would best meet the health care needs of all of us.

AHIP represents an administratively burdensome middleman industry that has impaired health care access for their own beneficiaries while failing to provide the financial security that is the very purpose of insurance. There is no moral basis for including them in a health care system designed to best meet the needs of patients.

PhRMA represents an industry that has thrived on over-priced products that often have been marketed to professionals and the public in a dishonest manner, frequently overstating the benefits of their products while failing to adequately reveal the potential for very serious adverse consequences that their products may cause. They have also obstructed efforts for us to be sure that the prices of their products are based on reasonable costs plus fair profits.

Both organizations have earned their tarnished reputations, since their self-serving advocacy has had a serious negative impact on patient/consumers, both financially and health-wise. But there is a very crucial difference between these two entities. Pharmaceuticals are an essential component of the health care system, whereas the private insurance industry is not essential and provides us with only negative value. We need to work with the pharmaceutical industry, but we need to tell the private insurers to go “twist in the wind.”

Pete Stark is right. We do have to sit down with representatives of the health care delivery system: the drug industry (PhRMA), the hospital industry (AHA), and physicians (PNHP instead of the AMA), amongst others. But the process should prohibit up front the trade-off of beneficial policies.

Pete Stark’s Health Committee needs to lay out the policies that will best serve the interests of patients. Then, without any compromise in the fundamentals, they can work with these sectors to refine those policies in order to maintain a vibrant health care delivery system that would best serve the interests of patients. Self-seving measures that don’t benefit patients should be rejected automatically.

While Karen Ignagni is twisting in the wind (AHIP), we should honor Billy Tauzin’s white flag (PhRMA). But as he enters the reform process, he needs to be reminded that single payer isn’t about the pharmaceutical industry; it’s about health care justice for everyone in America. Therefore, it’s not negotiable.