Prescription drugs

Medicare Improvements for Patients and Providers Act of 2008

hmoroz — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 17:04:39 -0400

Legislation

The middle class

Supports

Video Summary

Injustice Facts

Percent by which the cost of private Medicare Advantage plans exceeds the cost of traditional Medicare: 13

Amount saved between 2009 and 2017 by setting payments to private Medicare plans at the same level as traditional Medicare: $149 billion

Number of elderly and disabled Americans insured by Medicare: 44 million

Number of uninsured Americans: 47 million

Price of a hospital bed according to Medicare’s fixed price schedule, according to The Chicago Tribune: $2,174

Price of a hospital bed that can be found online, according to The Chicago Tribune: $754

Overview/Summary

Middle Class Position Analysis

The Middle Class Supports. Skyrocketing health care costs are increasingly burdening the middle class: 47 million Americans lacked health insurance in 2006, an increase of 2.2 million from 2005. According to the Kaiser Family Foundation, health care premiums increased 78% between 2002 and 2007, while wages grew only 19%. Medicare has shielded elderly Americans, who spend more on health care than the non-elderly, from these increasing health care costs, helping them maintain a middle-class standard of living. The scheduled payment cut for doctors offering Medicare services risked forcing many doctors to leave Medicare. Indeed, the American Medical Association reports that 60% of physicians say the cut would force them to limit the number of new Medicare patients they could treat. Stopping the scheduled payment cuts encourages that these doctors continue to accept Medicare beneficiaries.

Further, the legislation funds these cuts by reducing payments to a private Medicare program – Medicare Advantage – that inflates the costs to middle-class taxpayers. Indeed, it is estimated that private Medicare plans are paid 13% more than traditional Medicare plans would be to cover the same beneficiaries. Not only is the Medicare Advantage plan more expensive for the public than traditional Medicare, but it also undermines the principle of universal health insurance for the elderly. By reducing payments to private plans, this legislation begins to move Medicare back to its original purpose to provide public health coverage to elderly Americans to ensure their access to affordable preventive care, hospital care, and prescription medication.

Quotes from Experts

Beyond this Bill

Additional Resources

Medicare Policy Project, from the Kaiser Family Foundation

“Informing the Debate about Curbing Medicare Advantage Overpayments,” from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities

Report on Competitive Bidding for Medical Equipment, from the Government Accountability Office

Plain Language in Government Communications Act of 2008

hmoroz — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 12:24:33 -0400

Legislation

The middle class

Supports

Video Summary

Injustice Facts

Response rate to a Veterans Benefits Administration (VBA) letter to veterans asking them to update their beneficiaries, written before the VBA switched the letter to plain language: 43%

Response rate to the VBA letter after the agency switched the letter to plain language: 65%

Amount saved by the VBA’s use of plain language in the same letter in staff time spent researching valid beneficiaries when veterans’ have not updated their beneficiaries, in dollars: 5 million

Amount of time to answer questions about a Federal Communications Commission regulation not written in plain language by experienced people affected by the regulation, in minutes: 2.43

Amount of time to answer questions about the same regulation written in plain language, in minutes: 1.5

Overview/Summary

Middle Class Position Analysis

Middle Class Supports. Middle-class Americans should be able to easily understand communications from their government. Yet legalese is not confined to legislation and internal government memoranda. Americans who rely on Social Security benefits or veterans’ benefits to make ends meet, anyone who fills out tax paperwork, and any American who uses medication must interpret the convoluted technical language of benefits and tax documents and medicine warning labels. The audience-focused approach of the plain language standard would make benefits available to more Americans by making both application for federal benefits and eligibility requirement less confusing. Public access and transparency are key elements of good government and using plain, understandable language in government communications is a modest step toward both. The federal government would benefit because individuals and small businesses are more likely to comply with notices and instructions that they are able to understand easily and quickly. Additionally, the standard would reduce the customer support services that federal agencies must employ to explain obscure instructions. In general, the legislation would save time, money, and errors both inside of government and outside, benefiting middle-class Americans who rely on government services that are run effectively and efficiently.

Quotes from Experts

Beyond this Bill

Additional Resources

Examples of Plain Language, from PlainLanguage.gov

Center for Plain Language

FDA Amendments Act of 2007

atraub — Wed, 12 Dec 2007 15:29:15 -0500

Legislation

The middle class

Supports

Video Summary

Injustice Facts

Number of letters sent by the FDA to pharmaceutical manufacturers warning them that they had violated regulations for prescription-drug advertising in 1997: 142

Number of letters sent in 2006: 21

Percentage of the warning letters regarding direct-to-consumer advertisements between 1997 and 2006 that admonished drug companies for minimizing drug risk or exaggerating drug effectiveness: 84

Pounds of imported foods the average American eats in a year: 260

Percentage of food imports currently inspected by the FDA: 1

Estimated number of Americans who become sick each year due to food-borne illness: 76 million

Overview/Summary

Middle Class Position Analysis

The Middle Class Supports. Middle-class Americans depend on over-the-counter and prescription drugs for everything from relieving aches and pains to sustaining life. Because these medications are so important, and because every drug has risks associated with it, the power this legislation provides the FDA to more closely regulate the pharmaceutical industry is vital. Middle-class Americans, inundated with advertisements extolling the benefits of innumerable and at times indistinguishable medications, need the FDA to ensure that the drugs they rely upon are safe and appropriate for the individuals to whom they are marketed.

For more than five years, 20 million Americans took the arthritis pain medication Vioxx before studies demonstrating an increased risk of heart attacks associated with the drug forced Merck to withdraw it. The new authority that this legislation grants the FDA to demand post-approval studies of medications is a regulatory tool that could have exposed the risks associated with Vioxx much sooner, saving many Americans from heart attack and death. Fines to punish false advertisements will do much to ensure that Americans are not misled about the purposes, risks, and benefits of the medications they are taking. Finally, the concealment and obfuscation of safety information that puts consumers at risk of taking dangerous drugs – a charge that Merck has faced in the products liability litigation involving Vioxx – will be made difficult by the FDAAA’s expansion of public access to safety data. A public database of clinical trial data with mandatory disclosure requirements will allow consumer advocacy groups, concerned academics, and products liability litigators, along with jealous industry competitors, to expose misinformation, ultimately protecting middle-class consumers.

Quotes from Experts

Beyond this Bill

Additional Resources

“Drug Safety: FDA Needs to Further Address Shortcomings in Its Postmarket Decision-making Process,” from the GAO

“Prescription Drugs: Improvements Needed in FDA’s Oversight of Direct-to-Consumer Advertising,” from the GAO

“The Future of Drug Safety: Action Steps for Congress,” from the Institute of Medicine

Medicare Fair Prescription Drug Price Act of 2007

atraub — Wed, 26 Sep 2007 17:52:29 -0400

Legislation

The middle class

Supports

Video Summary

Injustice Facts

Percentage increase between 2000 and 2006 in the cost of brand-name drugs commonly prescribed to seniors: 53.6

Percentage rate of general inflation during this period: 20.1

Percentage of Americans who support the idea of Congress allowing the federal government to negotiate with drug companies for lower prices on Medicare prescription drugs: 80

Estimated amount taxpayers and Medicare beneficiaries would save in 2008 alone if the federal government negotiated drug prices directly with pharmaceutical companies: $30 billion

Lowest Medicare Part D price in 2006 for a year of treatment with Zocor, a popular drug for patients with high cholesterol: $1,485.96

Lowest VA price in 2006 for a year of treatment with Zocor: $127.44

Overview/Summary

Middle Class Position Analysis

The Middle Class Supports: Often living on fixed incomes, America’s seniors struggle to cope with prescription drug prices that increase every year. The new Medicare prescription drug plan was ostensibly designed to save these seniors money on needed medications. But the plan provides far less savings than it could – both for the seniors it covers and for the taxpayers who bear the costs of the new plan – because it fails to take advantage of the federal government’s ability to negotiate for better prices by buying drugs in bulk. For example, if the federal government were to buy a million pills of cholesterol-lowering medication, enough for every Medicare recipient in the country, they could receive a very low price because of the huge quantity. Instead of realizing these savings, the program relies on individual insurance plans to make drug purchases. Because none of these individual insurers has the purchasing power of the federal government, the result is a less efficient system with higher prices.

Most industrialized countries, including Canada, use the government’s bulk purchasing power to bargain for better drug prices. Domestically, the United States Department of Veterans’ Affairs (VA) also uses this common-sense practice to reduce its costs. Studies suggest that the prices negotiated by the VA for many drugs are substantially lower than those offered under the new Medicare plan. Middle-class Americans, whether they are senior citizens, taxpayers or both, cannot afford to see the federal government squander this opportunity to rein in the ever-escalating costs of prescription drugs.

Quotes from Experts

Beyond this Bill

Additional Resources

“Medicare: Prescription Drugs,” from Families USA

National Legislative Association on Prescription Drug Prices

“Celebrating Pork: The Dubious Success of the Medicare Drug Benefit,” by Dean Baker from the Center for Economic Policy Research

“Price Negotiation Would Dramatically Lower the Cost of Prescription Drugs for Medicare Beneficiaries,” from the National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare

Medicare Prescription Drug Price Negotiation Act of 2007

atraub — Wed, 26 Sep 2007 17:48:40 -0400

Legislation

The middle class

Supports

Video Summary

Injustice Facts

Percentage increase between 2000 and 2006 in the cost of brand-name drugs commonly prescribed to seniors: 53.6

Percentage rate of general inflation during this period: 20.1

Percentage of Americans who support the idea of Congress allowing the federal government to negotiate with drug companies for lower prices on Medicare prescription drugs: 80

Estimated amount taxpayers and Medicare beneficiaries would save in 2008 alone if the federal government negotiated drug prices directly with pharmaceutical companies: $30 billion

Lowest Medicare Part D price in 2006 for a year of treatment with Zocor, a popular drug for patients with high cholesterol: $1,485.96

Lowest VA price in 2006 for a year of treatment with Zocor: $127.44

Overview/Summary

Middle Class Position Analysis

Quotes from Experts

Beyond this Bill

Additional Resources

“Medicare: Prescription Drugs,” from Families USA

National Legislative Association on Prescription Drug Prices

“Celebrating Pork: The Dubious Success of the Medicare Drug Benefit,” by Dean Baker from the Center for Economic Policy Research

“Price Negotiation Would Dramatically Lower the Cost of Prescription Drugs for Medicare Beneficiaries,” from the National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare

Pharmaceutical Market Access Act of 2003

atraub — Tue, 25 Sep 2007 16:12:22 -0400

Legislation

The middle class

Supports

Video Summary

Injustice Facts

Amount spent by American consumers on prescription drugs in 2003: $193 billion
Ratio of the cost of some of the most common American made prescription drugs in the U.S. to Canada: 2:1
Percentage of the 2.4 million newly uninsured American who are middle class: 40

Overview/Summary

Middle Class Position Analysis

The Middle Class Supports: America is the only industrialized country in the world without universal health care. In 2003, American consumers spent more than $193 billion on prescription drugs, many of which could have been purchased for as much as half the cost in Canada. While the elderly comprise a large share of the domestic market for prescription drugs, concern over the rising cost of prescription drugs is not limited to low income seniors; increasingly, many middle-age, moderate and high-income Americans without health insurance—about 18 million—are finding themselves forced to shoulder the full price of prescription drugs. This bill would give U.S. consumers the option of purchasing domestically manufactured FDA approved drugs from foreign vendors at a substantially lower cost.

Quotes from Experts

Beyond this Bill

Additional Resources

Amendment on Negotiating Medicare Drug Prices of 2005

jon — Wed, 29 Aug 2007 13:24:19 -0400

Legislation

The middle class

Supports

Video Summary

Injustice Facts

Percentage increase in the cost brand-name drugs commonly prescribed to seniors between 2000 and 2005: 40.5
Percentage rate of general inflation during this period: 17.5
Percentage of Americans who support the idea of Congress allowing the federal government to negotiate with drug companies for lower prices on Medicare prescription drugs: 77
Projected cost to the federal government of the first ten years of the Medicare prescription drug benefit: $723 billion
Minimum estimated savings compared to the current system if Medicare were to negotiate drug prices directly with pharmaceutical companies over the first eight years of the program, according to the Center for Economic Policy Research: $332 billion
Median reduction in the annual cost of 49 of the 50 most frequently prescribed drugs when purchased through the VA rather than by using Medicare drug discount cards: $220.44

Overview/Summary

Middle Class Position Analysis

Often living on fixed incomes, America's seniors struggle to cope with prescription drug prices that increase every year. The new Medicare prescription drug plan was ostensibly designed to save these seniors money on needed medications. But the plan provides far less savings than it could -- both for the seniors it covers and for the taxpayers who bear the costs of the new plan -- because it fails to take advantage of the federal government's ability to negotiate for better prices by buying in bulk. Instead, the program relies on individual insurance plans, none of which has the purchasing power of the federal government, to make drug purchases, resulting in a less efficient system with higher prices. Not only do most industrialized countries, including Canada, use their bulk purchasing power to bargain for better drug prices, but the United States Department of Veterans' Affairs (VA) also uses this common-sense practice to reduce its costs. Studies suggest that the prices negotiated by the VA for many drugs are substantially lower than those offered under the new Medicare plan. Middle-class Americans, whether they are senior citizens, taxpayers or both, cannot afford to see the federal government squander this opportunity to rein in the ever-escalating costs of prescription drugs.

Prescription drugs

Medicare Improvements for Patients and Providers Act of 2008

Legislation

The middle class

Video Summary

Injustice Facts

Overview/Summary

Middle Class Position Analysis

Related Blog: Header

Quotes from Experts

Related Blog: Text

Beyond this Bill

Related Blog: Link

Additional Resources

Plain Language in Government Communications Act of 2008

Legislation

The middle class

Video Summary

Injustice Facts

Overview/Summary

Middle Class Position Analysis

Related Blog: Header

Quotes from Experts

Related Blog: Text

Beyond this Bill

Related Blog: Link

Additional Resources

FDA Amendments Act of 2007

Legislation

The middle class

Video Summary

Injustice Facts

Overview/Summary

Middle Class Position Analysis

Related Blog: Header

Quotes from Experts

Related Blog: Text

Beyond this Bill

Related Blog: Link

Additional Resources

Medicare Fair Prescription Drug Price Act of 2007

Legislation

The middle class

Video Summary

Injustice Facts

Overview/Summary

Middle Class Position Analysis

Related Blog: Header

Quotes from Experts

Related Blog: Text

Beyond this Bill

Related Blog: Link

Additional Resources

Medicare Prescription Drug Price Negotiation Act of 2007

Legislation

The middle class

Video Summary

Injustice Facts

Overview/Summary

Middle Class Position Analysis

Related Blog: Header

Quotes from Experts

Related Blog: Text

Beyond this Bill

Related Blog: Link

Additional Resources

Pharmaceutical Market Access Act of 2003

Legislation

The middle class

Video Summary

Injustice Facts

Overview/Summary

Middle Class Position Analysis

Related Blog: Header

Quotes from Experts

Related Blog: Text

Beyond this Bill

Related Blog: Link

Additional Resources

Amendment on Negotiating Medicare Drug Prices of 2005