Bill Moyers: Foul Play in the Senate

[ErikJ]

13. Props to US Rep. Welch who is going after them.

By Chad Terhune-LA Times
January 24, 2013, 12:03 p.m.
A bipartisan group of U.S. lawmakers is seeking to repeal a Medicare-pricing provision in the recent "fiscal cliff" deal that benefits biotech giant Amgen Inc.

U.S. Rep. Peter Welch (D-Vt.) filed legislation this week to eliminate the exemption for a class of drugs, including Amgen's Sensipar, that are used by kidney dialysis patients.

The fiscal-cliff legislation approved earlier this month excluded these oral medications from Medicare price controls for an additional two years.

"Amgen managed to get a $500-million paragraph in the fiscal-cliff bill and virtually no one in Congress was aware of it," Welch said. "It's a taxpayer ripoff and comes at a really bad time when we're trying to control healthcare costs. Amgen should not be allowed to turn Medicare into a profit center."

The Thousand Oaks company said it supports the two-year delay so patient care isn't disrupted while federal officials examine concerns raised in a 2011 report by the Government Accountability Office..............

http://www.latimes.com/business/money/la-fi-mo-amgen-house-bill-20130124,0,1382046.story