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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsThe Price Of Corruption: How Tommy Thompson Personally Cost Taxpayers $20 Billion A Year
Ever wonder why we can't get cheap drugs?
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In 2003, the Bush administration aggressively pushed for the creation of Medicare Part D, a subsidized drug benefit. Thompson was the point man for the administration during these negotations, serving as Bushs Health and Human Services (HHS) secretary.
While helping seniors afford prescription drugs was a laudable goal, the Bush administration, via Thompson, pushed for a special carve-out for the pharmaceutical industry. The part D bill specifically barred Medicare from negotiating drug prices with Big Pharma, meaning that it essentially told the government it cant even ask for a good deal.
This made the new law wildly more expensive than it should be, and most Democrats in the House voted against it. After the benefit was passed, Big Pharma rewarded its most fervent congressional supporter, Louisiana congressman Billy Tauzin, with a $2 million-a-year lobbying job.
But while Tauzin was getting a payoff, taxpayers were losing out. Authoritative studies on the issue estimate that drug negotiation could save as much as $20 billion a year for Medicare.
Read more: http://boldprogressives.org/tommy-thompson-cost-taxpayers-20-billion/
Lint Head
(15,064 posts)pulled from the perspective of inside impacts to the system. He was a waste of space.
Angry Dragon
(36,693 posts)Report1212
(661 posts)He comes off as someone who was more interested in hawking these companies than a public servant.
Lint Head
(15,064 posts)Wellstone ruled
(34,661 posts)a lick from your College days,have you. Still a shit and always will be one. But,you were the big stud in the YGOP on campus. Always full of yourself just like Willard,Wisconsin maybe finally waking up to your spiel.
For the life of me,can't figure out what the hell seniors in Wisconsin are thinking,this guy has and always will carry water for the highest bidder. Tommy is nothing more than a shill for J&J,Kimberly and the Koch's.