Max Baucus and Big Pharma join forces to screw us over with a smile....

[marmar]

Drugmakers Offer $80 Billion to Cut Costs for Elderly (Update1)
By Nicholas Johnston


June 20 (Bloomberg) -- Drugmakers have offered to spend $80 billion over 10 years to help elderly Americans afford medicines and lower the cost of a proposed overhaul of the health-care system, U.S. Senator Max Baucus said today.

An agreement reached between Baucus and the drugmakers, with the participation of the Obama administration, narrows the so-called “doughnut hole” in Medicare’s prescription-drug program that raises costs for many seniors.

“This deal will provide significant relief from that burden for millions of American seniors,” President Barack Obama said in a statement. “We are at a turning point in America’s journey toward health care reform.”

Congressional Democrats have been working on draft legislation to fulfill one of Obama’s top campaign promises: expanding health-care coverage and lowering the cost of a system that makes up 17 percent of the economy.

Republicans this past week questioned the price tag of an overhaul when the Congressional Budget Office estimated that a version of the plan being considered by Baucus’s panel would cost at least $1.6 trillion.

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the nation’s largest business group, began a campaign against the plan, criticizing provisions being proposed, including a mandate on employers to provide health insurance to their workers. .........(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aOVDpgSk0Ctc

[havocmom]

1. Max best not come home again

Not to my corner of Montana. He isn't up for the whoppin he needs to get.

[glitch]

2. Psychopaths at work always smile.

I learned that on CourtTV.

[Botany]

3. Max's new name .... Senator Max "They Bought My Office."

:grr:

[Cleita]

5. Good one!

:thumbsup:

[Botany]

6. pass it along

you read it here first ..... the man has no shame

[dflprincess]

8. Instead of "they bought my office"

how about "I sold my office".

"They bought" kind of puts the blame on someone else - "I sold" lays the all the blame right where it belongs.

[Old Codger]

4. Did anyone

Expect it to go any other way?? The final hellth care deal will be the same....

[Skittles]

7. how about finding out why medicine costs so much?

[dflprincess]

9. Because senators and representatives don't come cheap? (eom)