July 31, 2009
BILL MOYERS: Watching the people in those lines waiting patiently and hopefully for free medical treatment, I couldn't help but think about how little chance they have against the powerful interests that are deciding the health care debate underway in Washington right now. In the weeks since my interview with Wendell Potter was first broadcast, the reports have kept piling up, and the message is the same: money trumps need.
Look at this recent story by Alicia Mundy and Laura Meckler in "The Wall Street Journal:"
"The pharmaceuticals industry, which President Barack Obama promised to 'take on' during his campaign, is winning most of what it wants in the health-care overhaul."
The story describes "...a string of victories." plucked from the Senate Finance Committee by lobbyists for the pharmaceutical industry known around town as "Big Pharma." Here's what Big Pharma got:
-No cost-cutting steps
-No cheaper drugs to be imported from Canada.
-No direct federal government negotiations with the pharmaceutical companies to lower Medicare drug prices.
And that's not all. The Senate Health Committee is giving the biotech industry monopoly protection against competition from generic drugs for 12 years after those drugs go on the market. Twelve years! That prompted the economist Robert Reich to throw up his hands in disgust and say that is "...guaranteed to keep prices sky high."
Obviously, to the pharmaceutical industry "free market" means a cartel protected against competition.
Now, in Washington you don't get something for nothing. It cost the drug industry plenty to buy that protection. So take a look at Alan Fram's story for the Associated Press. He reports that the industry spent more money on lobbying in the second quarter of this year than any other health care organization.
So far this year, PhRMA has spent $13.1 million dollars lobbying. One drug company alone, Pfizer inc., went almost that high — $11.7 million dollars.
Here's what some other health-related organizations put out for lobbying during the second quarter of the year:
American Medical Association: $4 million dollars
Eli Lilly & Co.: $3.6 million dollars
The American Hospital Association: $3.5 million
Blue Cross and Blue Shield: $2.8 million dollars
I'd call this a health care bonanza for lobbyists, lobbyists we can be sure, who are not working for those thousands of people who showed up at the Wise County Fairgrounds in Virginia just last weekend for another free clinic run by the organization Remote Area Medical. They came for eye exams and glasses, dental care, hearing tests, chest x-rays, and dermatology treatments, among other needs. This is the clinic's tenth year, and all the care is still provided by volunteers. In three days last year they pulled 3,896 bad teeth and saved another 1,888 by filling them.
Wendell Potter went back to Wise County last weekend, back to the place where after spending almost 20 years in corporate suites, he discovered for himself that the people most in need of care are precisely those least able to pay.
With nothing to give Washington, these people get nothing from Washington in return.
Log onto PBS.org, click on "Bill Moyers Journal" and we'll link you to more information about Remote Area Medical. That amazing organization behind the clinics and hear more from Wendell Potter. That's it for the Journal. I'm Bill Moyers. Thanks for tuning in.
