Pharmaceutical Lobby Kills Health Care Reform
So perhaps you have read the earlier post about why — given $2.4 trillion in health care spending, 800,000 uninsured people, 25% of housing crisis generated by underlying medical problems and more than 50% of foreclosures being driven in whole or in part by the uncontrolled cost of health care – we need health care reform.
The industry spends $7 billion per year in gifts, $30 billion in advertising (equal to the TOTAL cost of ALL healthcare spending in the State of Colorado). They plunder databases with your prescription information and use it to promote their highest profit-margin drugs. Given that every person who has ever run for office has probably spoken to you about the high cost of drugs, one might think they would support a chance to do something about it — not so.
Yesterday we had a “hearing” on pharmaceutic reform. The drug lobby was back in full force — and I wasn’t surprised by that. I knew I was taking on the drug lobby.
Yesterday, I was grateful for one senator who listened and kept and open mind.
Voting yes for consumers, patient safety and reducing the cost of drugs:
Sen. Joyce Foster (D-Denver).
Voting against pharmaceutical reform and with the PhRMA lobby were:
Sen. Jen Veiga (D-Denver)
Sen. Lois Tochtrop (D-Adams)
Sen. Rollie Heath (D-Boulder)
Sen. Ted Harvey (R-Highlands Ranch)
Sen. Shawn Mitchell (R-Broomfield)
Sen. Mark Scheffel (R-Douglas)
People have a right of course to vote no and I knew it would be a difficult bill, but what did surprise me was that the Democratic leadership was so complicit in spiking the very health care reform we all campaigned on.
The process of the bill is as telling as the result:
- the health care bill was assigned to a committee on business, not health
- President Groff refused even a short extension to consider amendments that may have achieved pharmaceutical / health care reform, effectively killing the bill on a deadline technicality.
- Chairwoman Veiga refused to even entertain a vote on an amendment — something I have never seen in 5 years, also effectively killing the bill on a flex of bald chairing power.
- Democratic Senator Heath indicated because he had Roche pharmaceuticals in his district he couldn’t vote for the bill.
- Democratic Senator Tochtrop said her concern was about samples, even though samples were exempted from the bill.
- Not one colleague could point to one provision of the bill or recommend one change. Normally, members of the same party will at least attempt to work with a bill sponsor. Here quite the opposite was true.
- The Senators left during the hearing intermittently to talk to the drug lobby outside the hearing, missing key testimony.
During the committee drug lobbyists were lining up to repeat talking points which were rehearsed, and divorced from the actual legislation. Clearly, many had not even read the bill. They were laughing at witnesses, sharing food and gum with Senators, and closed the evening with smiles and celebrations at their excellent handywork in thwarting pharmaceutical health care reforms one more year in one more state.
We can and have to do better than this by the people of Colorado.
February 19th, 2009 at 1:21 pm
Rollie Heath is a disgrace. Boulder’s state senator is the senator from CACI. Every bill he’s carried is pro-business. When he thought he was losing his primary he began promising he’d lead the way on health care reform. His feet need to be held to the fire.
February 19th, 2009 at 8:10 pm
sorry to learn of the defeat of your transparency bill. Thanks for your explanations of the roles of committee choice, amendments and the reasons the Dems voted against. Shameful. Time to look at Pharma campaign donations again. We need publicly funded campaigns and Dems with stronger principles.
February 20th, 2009 at 3:04 am
I will be calling my Senator, Ms. Veiga, and expressing my disapproval for her vote. This bill was an example of what principled political strength looks like. Morgan, I would say “don’t give up,” but we all know you never will.
February 20th, 2009 at 11:08 am
I heard you this morning on Jay Marvin. I would like to say I’m shocked at this, however, we have come to be dupped more than once by campaign promises. The people trust our representatives to look out for our well being. There should be more accountability in State government. Thank you for all you do. Thank you for caring for what is right. I will contact my representative in my district.
February 20th, 2009 at 11:47 am
Someone in my family has told me that she was on 27 prescriptions at one time. She said that some of the prescriptions were prescribed to manage the interactions of other prescriptions. She was basically living the life of a zombie while taking all of these medications, and eventually rebelled. She now has different doctors, and while her medical condition isn’t entirely under control, she is able to manage her life better.
We see what power the pharmaceutical companies have over the powerful entity of state government. Consider what power they can bring to bear on individual doctors, and their patients. I cannot imagine any doctor prescribing so many prescriptions, absent some external incentive such as kickbacks. And i cannot imagine how a for-profit medical system can ever have the best interests of the patient at heart.
I will be contacting my senator in District 24 to complain about her vote.
February 20th, 2009 at 3:51 pm
What is up with Sen. Veiga? Over the past couple of months I’ve read a few disturbing things about her….first on her blocking restrictions on Payday Loan businesses and now this.
As a gay man I expect more from a “fellow traveller”. I am deeply, deeply disappointed in her. Is she aware of the costs associated with HIV medications? Does she care? What is she willing to do about it?
February 22nd, 2009 at 8:22 pm
In the Sunday Denver Post, there was a full page ad on the back page of the first section. Picture of a guy in hard hat with goggles.
“Let’s Get Back to Work.” It says “Thank you Senators Mark
Udall and Michael Bennet for supporting an economic recovery plan that
will get Colorado working again.” This is paid for by SEIU and PhRMA, America’s Pharmaceutical Companies. I don’t have any real problems with the text of the ad…Just intrigued by the
joint sponsorship….
Incidentally, at the AFL-CIO lobbying day at the State Capitol in Denver, we were told that Udall and Bennet haven’t signed up as
co-sponsors of the Employee Free Choice Act. All of the
Colorado members of the U.S. House of Reps had signed on except Jared Polis. We were asked to write letters to these three to urge them to
support EFCA.
I was with a group trying
to visit Morgan Carroll.
Not really to lobby her but
just to say hi and thank her
for her consistent support
for labor. But she was
presiding over the Senate
…I left to go to lunch.
February 23rd, 2009 at 12:25 pm
Hmmmm. It sounds like this bill died because of its sponsor, not its content. I guess that’s what happens when you make a career of pissing people off.
February 23rd, 2009 at 11:43 pm
It is interesting to note that “Chase’s” post comes from an IP address to Colorado Oil & Gas Association at 1660 Lincoln Street, Denver. It is curious why the Oil & Gas lobby would choose to blog against the sponsor of a healthcare / pharmaceutical reform bill. The public can look up lobbyists for all of these organizations at the Secretary of States website – http://www.sos.state.co.us/
February 24th, 2009 at 12:30 am
sponsor has never talked with anyone in the industry affected by her bill. analysis of the process is her opinion, and only half true…
February 24th, 2009 at 12:38 am
Bill: As one of several of the lobbyists for PhRMA you should know we had 3+ meetings where I invited input and suggestions and received none. That is hardly “never talked with anyone in the industry”.
February 24th, 2009 at 12:47 am
by the way, isn’t sharing food and gum a violation of amendment 41?
February 24th, 2009 at 3:21 pm
I just wrote Ms. Veiga, and I am angry that our Democrats are on the side of big buisness as much as the Republicans
March 23rd, 2009 at 11:07 am
[...] Sen. Carroll has broken with etiquette, and written about the matter on her blog. [...]
March 23rd, 2009 at 1:24 pm
As Ms. Carroll says, she didn’t get elected to make friends. If our legislature has come down to a popularity contest, as “chase” alludes to, it’s even more disgusting. The merits of the bill should be all that matter. I am a fiscally conservative Dem, and applaud Sen. Carroll’s attempts to reign in this corruption on the part of ALL politicians- it’s no longer a Dem/Repub issue- our reps. no longer represent us, only their own interests. Good Luck, you will need it.