why has no one even mentioned negotiating drug prices for medicare?

[rurallib]

don't we piss away @ $300 billion/ yr by paying full price?
THAT would be a medicare change I could endorse.

[Saturday]

1. Quit being so logical. nt

[KittyWampus]

2. How do you know no one is mentioning It?

[rurallib]

11. OK, maybe I am deaf, but I sure haven't heard anything

do you have a link where they are?

[polichick]

3. For one thing, the prez is too close to big pharma. Lobbyist Billy Tauzin...

...has spent a lot of time at the WH - which is why we couldn't negotiate prices in the healthcare bill.

[WinkyDink]

4. Because Bush made it illegal?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medicare_Prescription_Drug,_Improvement,_and_Modernization_Act

[rurallib]

12. things change - my recollection is that can be changed also.

[TheKentuckian]

5. Because big Pharma' profits are sacrosanct.

[lamp_shade]

6. If Durbin's in the room, they're talking about it.

[polichick]

9. I heard Tauzin on the radio yesterday - he says Congress knows that...

businesses negotiate prices for their plans, and that's the way they want to leave it.

He's the pharma lobbyist who has visited the WH so much - is Durbin standing up to that? I hope so.

[rurallib]

13. I hope you're right. Durbin's been a disappointment

in this whole thing to me.

[pscot]

16. He's gone from earnest liberal

to made guy.

[SoCalDem]

7. because pols need their contributions to stay in office .. n/t

[pnwmom]

8. Excellent question. n/t

[Fire1]

10. Maybe he could make up for it by putting the money we lose,

when he "cuts" medicare and ups the age of eligibility, on our prescriptions to reduce costs.

[Booster]

14. Another thing I don't understand is I sleep with a CPAP machine

and so do a whole lot of other people. Medicare RENTS the thing at $175 a month and it would cost $400 to buy it. This isn't a machine that I will use a couple of months and be cured of sleep apnea; I will need the damn thing the rest of my life. I'm sure this is just one little thing, but I'll bet there's thousands of various medical machines that Medicare rents at a ridiculous monthly cost when buying it would be a whole lot cheaper. Before you ask why don't I buy one, if I did the supplies needed would really cost me a lot of money in the long run. If Medicare were willing to make some kind of deal, I would be willing to listen.

[kestrel91316]

15. Must NOT lay a finger on the Holy Corporate Profits.