What's A Little Heart Damage Among Friends?

"(T)hese data should not see the light of day to anyone outside of GSK."

Cole: "If only we had de-regulated the pharmaceutical market and got rid of the heavy hand of the FDA, the free market would have discovered this well in advance and SmithKline would be punished by consumers."

We're Saved!

Bloomberg (05.14.07):

"Profits at U.S. companies rose by more than 10 percent for the 19th straight quarter in the period ended March 31 as MasterCard Inc., Hewlett-Packard Co. and Prudential Financial Inc. surprised analysts with better-than- estimated earnings.

Companies in the Standard & Poor's 500 Index through May 11 reported an average earnings gain of 13 percent in the quarter, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The last time growth was less than 10 percent was the second quarter of 2002."

Profit Growth in U.S Tops 10 Percent Again, Surprising Analysts

"Health-care companies reported 14 percent profit growth for the quarter, the largest increase since the second quarter of 2004. The eight biggest U.S. drugmakers beat first-quarter estimates in April and half of them raised their forecasts. The companies are being helped by a new U.S. drug insurance program as they head toward their biggest gain since 2000."

The drug insurance program helping BigPharm is Medicare's Plan D, which has a really great profit-enhancing feature built right in. As passed by Congress back in the day, Plan D prohibits Medicare from negotiating drug prices with the drug companies. The Veterans Administration, which can negotiate, "pays 58% less for drugs, on average, than Medicare Part D. For example, Medicare pays $785 for a year's supply of Lipitor (avorstatin), while the VA pays $520. Medicare pays $1,485 for Zocor, while the VA pays $127."

The difference, of course, is coming straight out of your pocket.

Which is not to suggest in any way that the fix was in when the thing was passed. "Former Congressman Billy Tauzin, R-La., who steered the bill through the House, retired soon after and took a $2 million a year job as president of Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA), the main industry lobbying group."

"Medicare boss Thomas Scully, who threatened to fire Medicare Chief Actuary Richard Foster if he reported how much the bill would actually cost, was negotiating for a new job as a pharmaceutical lobbyist as the bill was working through Congress."

Nothing like a free, unfettered market, eh?

Socialist Bastards

How dare they? Toronto Star (04.17.07), via DailyKos:

"Health outcomes for patients in Canada are as good as or better than in the United States, even though per capita spending is higher south of the border, suggest Canadian and U.S. researchers who crunched data from 38 studies.

The findings were published in the inaugural edition of Open Medicine, a new online medical journal launching Wednesday in the aftermath of a rift last year between some editors and the publisher of the Canadian Medical Association Journal."

Canadian health system fares well in study

"'In looking at patients in Canada with a specific diagnosis compared to Americans with the same diagnosis, in Canada patients had at least as good an outcome as their American counterparts – and in many situations, a better health outcome,' said one of the 17 authors, Dr. P.J. Devereaux, a cardiologist and clinical epidemiologist at McMaster University in Hamilton."

"'And that is important because in the United States, they're currently spending a little over $7,100 per individual on health care annually, whereas in Canada we're spending a little over $2,900 per individual annually,' he said in a telephone interview from Brantford, Ont."

"Some explanations for the results include the fact that American health care has administrative inefficiencies that public funding – without multiple competing insurance companies – eliminates. And because drug prices are controlled, Canada saves on prescription drug costs."

Meanwhile, back at the ranch. Washington Post (04.19.07):

"Senate Republicans blocked legislation yesterday that would have allowed the federal government to negotiate Medicare drug prices, denying Democrats a victory on their 2006 election vow to lower prescription costs for senior citizens."

Republicans Block Medicare Drug Price Bill

Our good buddy Senator John Cornyn (R - TX) "denounced the bill as 'a step down the road to a single-payer government-run health care system'"

And by golly that might just be too damned much like Canada's cheaper and more effective system. Wouldn't want that now, would we.