Obama in bed with Big Pharma – while Traditional Democrats Urge Importation from Canada

The President ran on a platfom advocating importation from Canada. Now, he is allied with the same industry he used to beat up. Politics does indeed make strange bedfellows. And it is not only Liberals who endorse importation from Canada. Senators John McCain ( R ) Arizona and Olympia Snowe ( R ) Maine, are both sponsors of Senate Bills to legalize importation from Canada and they consistently team with Senator Byron Drogan ( D ) of North Dakota on Senate Importation Bills.

Drug Industry Backing Obama’s Health Care Plan

Associated Press – Aug. 09, 2009

WASHINGTON–The nation’s drugmakers stand ready to spend $150 million to help President Barack Obama overhaul health care this fall, according to numerous officials, a staggering sum that could dwarf attempts to derail his chief domestic priority.

The White House and allies in Congress are well aware of the effort by Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, a somewhat surprising political alliance, given the industry’s recent history of siding with Republicans and the Democrats’ disdain for special interests.

The campaign, now in its early stages, includes television advertising under PhRMA’s own name and commercials aired in conjunction with the liberal group, Families USA.

Numerous people with knowledge of PhRMA’s plans said they had been told it would likely reach $150 million and perhaps $200 million. They spoke on condition of anonymity, saying they were not authorized to divulge details.

Additionally, the industry is the major contributor to Healthy Economy Now, which recently completed a $12 million round of advertising nationally and in several states. The ads were made by companies with close ties to Democrats and the White House and generally reflected the administration’s changing rhetoric on health care.

In an interview, Ken Johnson, senior vice president of PhRMA, said, “We will have a significant presence over the August recess, both on television and newspapers and on radio, but we have not finalized details for our fall campaign.”

Ron Pollack, executive director of Families USA, said the partnership with the deep-pocketed drug industry is one of mutual self-interest, even though the two groups disagree on numerous issues. “We want to achieve coverage for everyone. For PhRMA, this would improve volume for prescription sales because everyone” would have better access to medicine, he said.

Any health care bill that makes it to Obama’s desk is expected to extend health insurance to the nearly 50 million who now lack it. That would mean a huge new pool of potential customers for drug companies and other health care providers. That, in turn, has created an incentive to offer concessions to the White House and lawmakers in hopes of shaping the bill, rather than simply opposing it.

Drugmakers were the first group to reach agreement with the White House and Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus, D-Mont., announcing several weeks ago that they would absorb $80 billion in costs over a decade.

Even before the announcement, according to several individuals, the White House sought help from PhRMA in passing legislation.

Now, with the legislation under attack, the industry is providing key support during August as Republicans work to inflict a high-profile defeat on the president.

A significantly more ambitious advertising effort by PhRMA is expected to begin around Labor Day.

Jim Messina, a deputy White House chief of staff who is deeply involved in the administration’s health care effort, brought Democratic senators up to date recently on the help PhRMA, labor unions and other outside groups are providing.

At the same time, the drugmakers are counting on the White House to block efforts by House Democrats to extract more than $80 billion from their industry in the legislation.

The partnership is complicated because many Democrats in both the House and Senate oppose key goals of the drug industry. Liberals, in particular, favor the importation of prescription medicine from Canada and other countries. They also want the government to have authority to negotiate directly with companies for lower drug prices under Medicare.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., has been critical of drug manufacturers, and Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, said several weeks ago the House was not bound by PhRMA and Baucus’ agreement.

By the White House tally, overall advertising so far by PhRMA and other supporters of the bill has swamped efforts by opponents. Republican strategists concede it would be extremely difficult to match an effort of the size PhRMA is planning.

For comparative purposes, 2008 Republican presidential candidate John McCain was limited to spending $84 million a year ago when he accepted government money for his fall campaign.

Independent calculations show Healthy Economy Now has spent about $12 million on three ads that ran nationally and in 17 states and the District of Columbia.

The messages meshed with the White House’s changing rhetoric. An ad that began in mid-June said patients would be able to choose their own doctors. Another, launched in mid-July, focused on consumer protections, including a ban on insurance companies denying coverage due to pre-existing medical conditions.

To make the ads, the group hired GMMB, a political consulting and advocacy advertising firm with close ties to the White House and Senate Democrats, as well as AKPD, top White House strategist David Axelrod’s former firm.

Jeremy Van Ess, a spokesman for Health Economy Now, said the decisions were made by the organization, and not at the White House’s request.

“Absolutely not. … It’s no secret in Washington that these two firms we had are the best out there,” he said.

PhRMA/Families USA spent about $5.7 million in nationwide advertising for the two months ending Aug. 9, according to information compiled by a different organization.

Two weeks ago, the drug industry added another weapon to its arsenal, launching a series of ads under its own name in a few key states at a cost of about $1 million so far.

Among them is Nevada, where the industry has purchased time through Labor Day to air commercials thanking Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid for his efforts to pass health care reform. Reid’s public approval is weak in the state, although he does not yet have a Republican opponent for 2010.

While the White House and Democrats benefit from PhRMA’s help, they seem reluctant to discuss it openly.

When PhRMA became the first big health care provider to agree to accept reductions as part of legislation, Obama made the announcement at the White House with the head of AARP in attendance. Billy Tauzin, the former Republican congressman who is head of PhRMA, was not invited.

More recently, Reid omitted the drugmakers from a list of outside interests trying to help pass legislation.
The drug industry’s campaign is the culmination of a broader shift it has undertaken. A few years ago, the industry hired Steve McMahon, a longtime Democratic strategist, to oversee its political advertising.

Drugmakers have also funneled more money to Democrats in recent years, a trend that began soon after they gained control of Congress.

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On the Net:

PhRMA: http://www.phrma.org/
Healthy Economy Now: http://healthyeconomynow.org/
Families USA: http://www.familiesusa.org/

Written by:
Warren Armstrong
VP Marketing
Global Health Management

RX for Savings

When I started to think about my parents’ retirement, I was overwhelmed by the thoughts of all the “things that needed to be done should something go wrong”.  I was a single mom working full-time and I thought “time is not my friend in this” and set up a company to help my parents.  My parents oblivious to my obvious concern for their life and health and the piles of stuff accumulated proceeded to act as any snowbirds do and purchased a place in the sun.  Their annual trek to Lah-Lah land, as my mom puts it, was one of no worries, and be “happys”.  They were healthy and financially able to finance their simple needs and even could satisfy their wants occasionally.

Last year 2 things happened that brought home the reality of living 6 months in a different country than your own …both of them had medical issues.  Mom, who is 77 and a nurse, knew she had an infection and needed medication. They when to a clinic and $400.00 dollars later had the diagnosis “infection” and a prescription in hand and needed to shell out a further $385.00 for the medication.  She asked me to mail her prescription. I did it cost 10.00 to mail and their health plan covered the cost of the medication.  She saved $375.00.

Later that same year, Dad who is 80 and still the only handyman that my mom trusts, replaced the white broadloom throughout the Florida home and put in laminate.  It looked beautiful ….but Dad’s health paid the price.  In severe pain from being on his knees all day, he discovered that his medical insurance had run out.  Painfully, he got into his car and drove the two days back to Canada in the dead of winter to reapply for his insurance and to see his doctor about the problem that he was having. The doctor immediately diagnosed the problem, but said the medication that works the best was only available in the states.  He could give him a sample but he would have to fill the prescription in the states, as it hadn’t been approved by the Canadian Health Protection Branch yet.  That medication brought relief for the first time in several weeks.

So, owning a business to help seniors find the help they needed, I saw a real opportunity to make a difference.  My thoughts were to find a company that could fill prescriptions in Canada, and could also provide medication that was only available in the states.  I began my search and being for my own parents I did my due diligence in finding a safe alternative to the high cost of buying medication in the states.

The FDA encourages online prescriptions purchases and published their tips to finding a good online source which is:

• Make sure the site requires a prescription and has a pharmacist available for questions.
• Buy only from licensed pharmacies.
• Don’t provide personal information such as credit card numbers unless you are sure the site will protect them. That they will not sell contact information

It was with those tips in mind I began a search for a licensed pharmacy that complied with those guidelines. For my Dad’s situation I found a US pharmacy that is licensed and provides US Brands and US Generics located in Lakeland Florida.  They partnered with a Canadian pharmacy which is located in Alberta, Canada called Extended Care Pharmacy license no. #1636. This pharmacy is owned by a pharmacist, Andy Troszok, the first president of the Canadian International Pharmacy Association, who is a pioneer and advocate for low cost importations of prescription drugs to US Citizens.  I told my parents that by faxing their prescription to Extendicare Pharmacy they would be ordering the drugs directly from Canada.  They would pay only the shipping and pharmacy fee but their medication would be covered by OHIP. Any medication that is only available in the states would be provided by their US counterpart in Lakeland Florida and that wouldn’t be covered but would be available to them with a prescription. They loved the idea and told me I should include this information on my website, knowing that I would never sell contact information as I set the company up to protect seniors.  They were wondering if their American friends in Florida could take advantage of the link that I created.  I researched the process online and realized that the American Drug Companies were protecting their huge profit margins by scaring the general public into believing medication from Canada was “fake” and they continued their propaganda campaign by painting all foreign pharmacies with the same brush.

I was at a party in Florida to celebrate my friend’s victory over Cancer and spoke to her about her medication. She had already done a lot of online searching to discover a pharmacy that could provide her with her medication. That said, her friends were warning her of medications from Canadian pharmacies.  Canada is not a third world country, but protected by more restrictive rules about medication then in the states.  However, because of our public health insurance, it is simply a country that legislated that Pharmaceutical companies were only allowed to charge so much. Lipitor is Lipitor period.  A licensed pharmacy would lose their license if they tried to pass off “fake” drugs.  This would be evident quickly from complaints.

My thoughts were confirmed when the Governor of Minnesota, Tim Pawlenty visited Canada and established a website providing information to Americans on how to import safety.  I decided to create a link on my website so that Americans can exercise their rights as free citizens to make their own choices. It’s up to you now. However, the following state Governments are using Canadian Pharmacies to lower the cost of running their states, why shouldn’t you? What do they know that you should too?

MINNESOTA, NEVADA, ILLINOIS, KANSAS, MISSOURI, VERMONT, RHODE ISLAND, WISCOUSIN, MAINE.