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GOP blocking investigation into high drug prices

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Doc Savage Fan said:
Don't divert...I never referred to Boehner's claim. Also your link indicates that many of those bipartisan bills blocked by the Senate would have indeed been beneficial for job creation and the economy.
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The core argument that the bills were truly bipartisan is still incorrect, regardless of who's mouth it comes out of.

And as far as job creation goes:

Matthew J. Slaughter, a former member of George W. Bush’s Council of Economic Advisers, told the New York Times that some of the GOP bills on Boehner’s list may help, but they won’t create many jobs.
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K1052 said:
But why should that argument excuse the House from investigating?

I don't think it does.
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I'm not making an argument to excuse the House from investigating...I'm merely shining a light on the shear depth of Democratic hypocrisy we're dealing with regarding this issue.
 
Blackjack200 said:
🙄
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Last time I checked the topic was related to political bickering over high drug prices...not John Boehner's exaggerated comment regarding the number of blocked Senate bills. I made a point by contrasting Jaskalas' question to me with a question, and K1052 responded with some off-the-wall comment. Is this really that difficult for you to follow?
 
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crashtech said:
High drug prices are partly a result of the market distortions that occur due to health insurance having morphed over the last half century or so into comprehensive plans that are expected to pay for everything. It would be great if consumers would just shun companies that charge too much for their products, but due to a majority of people being insulated from the true cost, "voting with the wallet" is not as powerful a force as it ought to be. So distortions will inevitably beget more distortions in the form of more regulations that, if not very carefully managed, risk stifling the innovation that brings new and better treatments for illness.

So much more complicated than "them is bad, we is good," but whatever.
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Now explain why in other countrys with universal health care, costs have gone down?
 
Doc Savage Fan said:
Last time I checked the topic was related to political bickering over high drug prices...not John Boehner's exaggerated comment regarding the number of blocked Senate bills. I made a point by contrasting Jaskalas' question to me with a question, and K1052 responded with some off-the-wall comment. Is this really that difficult for you to follow?
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I argued that you assertion that the "bipartisan jobs bills" that the Senate had not passed were in fact not actually bipartisan. If the former speaker was talking about entirely different "jobs bills" than you please feel free to enumerate the bills you had in mind so we can compare your list to his.
 
Newell Steamer said:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news...blocking-investigation-into-high-drug-prices/



The GOP's priorities are made clear, once again.

Both parties are totes the same...

🙄
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Untrue! They may not be on board for congressional hearings but they haven't blocked any investigations.

Valeant under federal investigation for how it prices drugs - Forbes
Federal Prosecutors Target Martin Shkreli in a Criminal Investigation - Newsweek
Valeant Pharmaceuticals Under Investigation by Federal Prosecutors - WSJ

There are all kinds of federal and state investigations going on into possible violations by drug companies. The Republicans not letting the Democrats have the issue for a bit of good old fashioned grand standing doesn't equal blocking an investigation. Congressional hearings aren't investigations. Congress has no Prosecutorial or Judicial authority.

Republicans control Congress currently. It is their prerogative to determine the congressional agenda Just as the democrats do when they control congress.

Easy to change convince a lot of people to vote for democrats next time around.
 
Doc Savage Fan said:
Obama made a huge concessions in his backroom deal with Big Pharma and you heard next to nothing from Democrats.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/08/13/internal-memo-confirms-bi_n_258285.html

But this lack of willingness of Republicans to do the Democrats bidding...well, they're outraged of course!
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You are so confused, Bush made the deal with Big Pharma not to negotiate drug prices, Obama just got the dirty end of the stick and had it continued in his model of healthcare.
 
WHAMPOM said:
Now explain why in other countrys with universal health care, costs have gone down?
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I don't necessarily accept your premise, but if a fair examination were to show that to be so, their lower costs could partially be due to the fact that US consumers are bearing much of the cost of healthcare innovation. Lower costs can be attributed to a host of issues, from quality of care to cultural norms to societal expectations, and of course the way the care is managed. There are lots of factors to consider, and it is obvious to me now that a thread like this is not a place to actually discuss the issue. Since I'm entirely uninterested in scoring points for a political party, it might be time to stop participating?
 
Earth to DSF, the Republicans are blocking this action on high drug prices, not Democrats. Democrats are the ones proposing it.
 
If democrats really wanted to stop rising healthcare costs they wouldnt pass 2200 page corporate monstrosity bills guaranteed to jack up costs across the board. It is funny how they could vote for something like that, and then hold hearings over rising drug prices. If they want drug prices to go down then they need to remove the monopoly protections drug makers currently enjoy.
 
Maybe Republicans should repeal their blank check to big pharma in form of Medicare ban on negotiating lower prices.
 
Doc Savage Fan said:
Last time I checked the topic was related to political bickering over high drug prices...not John Boehner's exaggerated comment regarding the number of blocked Senate bills. I made a point by contrasting Jaskalas' question to me with a question, and K1052 responded with some off-the-wall comment. Is this really that difficult for you to follow?
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...then why did you bring up Boehner's exaggerated claims without any prompting? (funny, though: they weren't exaggerated until this was pointed out)

Don't divert my diversion! It's the same thing!
 
Earth to DSF, the Republicans are blocking this action on high drug prices, not Democrats. Democrats are the ones proposing it.
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Earth to ATP&N - No need for a congressional investigation because they are currently under investigation by the DoJ:

which is now being probed by federal prosecutors
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I believe congressional investigation at the same time of federal prosecutors complicates the picture and can make the 'real investigation' by the DoJ more difficult.

Poor article. I see no explanation for why companies setting the price for products they make is illegal.

How can Dems complain that their constituents are dying for lack of access due to high price? Silly Dems, use your Obamacare and expanded Medicaid.

Also thread title is inaccurate implying this post is trollish. OP edited out this bit in his article:

The Senate, meanwhile, has launched an investigation into Turing, Valeant and a third company.
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I'm pretty sure the Senate is run by Repubs. So no, GOP isn't blocking investigations, it's actually pursuing them.

Seems the House is merely uninterested in holding redundant investigations simultaneously. Neither the article or the Dems have a made a case why we need 2 congressional investigations (plus one from the DoJ) all at the same time.

Looks like faux outrage over a non-story.

Fern
 
Without a hyper-partisan angle it would be boring; people might have to think critically, examine all the parameters, and envision workable solutions. Yuck, the thought of all that cogitation makes me want to go back to the talking points.
 
sm625 said:
If they want drug prices to go down then they need to remove the monopoly protections drug makers currently enjoy.
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^ This is the only point that anybody should be talking about. This fixes everything.

The rest of the bickering about investigations and crap is just politicking and distraction.
 
My initial thought was to side with the Democrats on this one. Then I read the article and discovered there is already an investigation by federal prosecutors and by the Senate.

Do we really need private companies being forced to deal with three separate federal investigations?
 
Doc Savage Fan said:
And my point is that Obama is orders of magnitude more culpable for the problems we see today with Big Pharma. Apparently many Democrats don't want any importation in order to reduce costs...at least those in the Senate don't.

30 of 48 Nay votes were Democrats (2009)
https://www.opencongress.org/articl...tion-Amendment-Protects-the-Secret-PhRMA-Deal



24 of 53 Nay votes were Democrats (2012)
http://thehill.com/policy/healthcare/229397-republicans-senators-slam-obama-on-drug-reimportation
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I think drug importation is a highly complex issue. Yes it would potentially result in cheaper prices*, but may also result in the importation and use of drugs where quality is essentially unregulated.

Furthermore, what does that do to drug prices in countries that aren't as affluent? Would it destabilize their health industry by making drugs unaffordable for their people since you'd essentially be creating a global market for drugs (meaning every country pays essentially the same price, assuming best case scenario, unrestricted cross importation)? Finally, what if the drugs are cheapest in a country or region the US doesn't want to support? How would that work?

*(even this I am not completely sure of. I think there may be a significant decline, but certainly the world market cost of drugs will rise as well. Where those prices will settle out, ie closer to what we pay vs closer to what everyone else will pay is unclear because whilst there are a lot of other countries, 75% of all prescription drugs are sold here)

Overall, I am in favor for such a law but I think it'd have to be carefully carefully written.

The easier thing to do would simply to allow medicare to negotiate drug prices like the VA does and with the largest purchaser setting the market for drug prices (hopefully aggressively), everyone else would follow. Or allowing the government to directly make or subsidize the private production of generic drugs in the same way it does with produce and other things (after all the government already foots 85% the cost of the basic research for those drugs anyway).

Cozarkian said:
Do we really need private companies being forced to deal with three separate federal investigations?
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Yes. Absolutely.

The threat of long and painful and costly investigations is something that should always be present as a tool to keep industries that carry such power (which corrupts) in line as well as the threat of heavy sanctions. Unfortunately, currently neither really exists.
 
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