Bartlett: Medicare Doesn’t Need To Negotiate Lower Prices Because Drugs Are Already Cheap Enough
Bartlett: Medicare Doesn’t Need To Negotiate Lower Prices Because Drugs Are Already Cheap Enough
Today on Fox News Sunday, White House counselor Dan Bartlett said the federal government does not need to negotiate lower prices for seniors. Bartlett said that prices have “come down” and drugs are already cheap enough. He concluded, “the proof is in the pudding.” Watch it:
Here are the facts about the Medicare prescription drug plan:
– Taxpayers “could save as much as $190 billion over the next 10 years” if Medicare negotiated prices with drug makers.
– Medicare pays substantially more for drugs that the Veterans Administration, which negotiates prices with drug makers.
– Since the program does not require any discount over list prices, “drug makers are being paid as much as 20 percent more for the same drugs that they had already been providing to recipients under the Medicaid program [for the indigent].”
The New York Times reports, “For big drug companies, the new Medicare prescription benefit is proving to be a financial windfall larger than even the most optimistic Wall Street analysts had predicted.” If Congress passes a bill allowing Medicare to negotiate lower prices, the drug industry is counting on President Bush to veto it.
Transcript:
WALLACE: Is he willing to allow Medicare to negotiate lower drug prices?
BARTLETT: Well, we had this debate during the prescription drug debate when the medicare reforms went in place two years ago. The interesting thing about it, we now have some experience. All the estimates saying that prices wouldn’t come down were proven wrong. And when Democrats made their point about having a price control system where the government dictated prices, they turned down the estimates they were making were far higher in costs for the American seniors than what is actually happening today out in America.
WALLACE: You’re saying you don’t need to have Medicare negotiate lower prices. it’s already happened.
BARTLETT: The marketplace is working. We’re more than happy to have that debate with Republicans, Democrats, whoever wants to talk about it. The proof is in the pudding. It’s been working. It’s been benefitting America’s seniors.
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63 Responses to “Bartlett: Medicare Doesn’t Need To Negotiate Lower Prices Because Drugs Are Already Cheap Enough”
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OK - Let Bush veto a bill that requires the government to bargain with drug companies for lower priced drugs. It will make a great campaign issue for the Dems in 2008.
November 12th, 2006 at 10:34 amLiar!
November 12th, 2006 at 10:36 amI want to know how these people can outright lie to the American public like that and still sleep at night.
November 12th, 2006 at 10:41 amA lot of drugs are available to veterans at half the cost to our seniors. Half.
He ought to be ashamed of himself.
I see. So the Veterans Administration is wasting millions of dollars each year negotiation drug prices with private companies. Makes perfect sense.
Some people will make anything up to support trickle-down economics.
November 12th, 2006 at 10:44 amCompassionate COnservatism!
What ELSE!!!
It’s the who gives a crap about you after your born values!!
November 12th, 2006 at 10:47 amOf Course, Dog_named_Boo.
November 12th, 2006 at 10:53 amHow silly of me.
;)
Mr Bartlett, I hear your smirk buddy bush talk about Iwo JIma, and how proud he is of those Americans that fought in those wars. Yet many of these senior citiznes fought during those wars, and they paid the taxes that supported those wars, and they fought those wars, and they ask for so very little.
And this is how you repay them?
November 12th, 2006 at 10:55 amCome on guys, Its trickle down medicare economics. The drugs are cheaper because US drug companies are making a killing in profits, which they give to their CEO’s who then buy expensive cars and jets which help local economies. And if the people in these local economies are working they don’t feel sick. So the drugs are cheaper,.. right?
November 12th, 2006 at 10:55 amMore proof that these buffoons are completely out of touch with Americans.
November 12th, 2006 at 10:58 amAmerica’s Least Wanted
You wonder how he can sleep at night after lieing like that. Asshole don’t sleep at night they do it during the day
November 12th, 2006 at 11:00 amFOX news is the poster child for corruption and greed!!
November 12th, 2006 at 11:01 am“The proof is in the pudding.” These people are dorks.
November 12th, 2006 at 11:02 am“The proof is in the pudding.” These people are dorks.
November 12th, 2006 at 11:04 amIt’s the drug addicts Like Lush Rimjaub that keep drug prices high!
November 12th, 2006 at 11:04 amThere’s absolutely no reason to lower the prices. After all, the drug companies set whatever price they want, and the taxpayer picks up the bill. The excess profits thus generated are paid out in dividends to those who are rich enough to own stocks in the drug companiees. Thus tax dollars redistribute wealth from the working class to the wealthy class. What could be more American than that?
November 12th, 2006 at 11:16 amFunny that these Chickenhawks expect the middle and lower classes to not only fight the wars they expect them to pay for them as well.
And when you, as an Americam Citizen, paid those taxes that paid for that war, that built those ships, and those warplanes, and those tanks, and those guns and bullets, and those million dollar missiles, all designed to kill and maim, which bush cares for more than humanity itself, as do many GOP, Get nothing in return?
How is it we can spend trillions on war, and not assist our elders?
How is it we can begin a freedom campaign to free the people of another country, that Bush says hates us, and spend so much on freeing them, and regime change, do so little to assist it’s own population?
The GOP is not the party of life, they are the party of death.
November 12th, 2006 at 11:16 amBasically the democrats need to use Bush’s tax cuts as leverage.
The Democrats should allow the Bush tax cuts to expire in 2011 unless they start to negotiate drug prices.
November 12th, 2006 at 11:24 amNow that Democrats have gained control of both Pr [ ] leverage those tax cuts against the sleazy bass turds!!
November 12th, 2006 at 11:26 ampoor thing. he is all they have left to attack democracy having a small victory. he doesn’t see the bus that is coming his way
November 12th, 2006 at 11:41 am#1–I agree. Bush won’t dare veto this law, if it passes.
November 12th, 2006 at 11:44 amThis is why all people should not vote for rich people. No exceptions!
November 12th, 2006 at 11:45 amTHE PROOF IS IN THE PUDDING?? Yeah thats right, all those going to Mexico and Canada to buy the same drugs for way less are proof this asshole is a lying pathetic bastard. STFU Danny boy.
November 12th, 2006 at 12:07 pmI know a US citizen that pays $21.78 per pill for medication. That same medications is sold in India by an American company for $6.00 a pill. ’nuff said.
November 12th, 2006 at 12:19 pm[…] Watch Video […]
November 12th, 2006 at 12:24 pmI worked at one of the largest pharmaceutical companies in the world during the period of years that the crafting of the Medicare Drug bill was being crafted. I belonged to their PAC (primarily to keep an eye on them) and there is no doubt that Pharma was largely responsible for writing that bill which resulted in FORBIDDING the federal government from negotiating drug prices with the manufacturers. The insurance companies were the other guys writing the bill. Bartlett and that whole crew are nothing but LIARS.
November 12th, 2006 at 1:04 pmIs Bartlett the same nitwit who agreed with BUSH,,Chaney,,,Rumsfeld,,, Wolfovitz,,,Doug Feith,,,Condi Rice,,,Rush Limbaugh,,,Sean Hannity,,,Laura Ingram,,,Ann Coulter on all the other ISSUES that they have totally been out to lunch on. Bartlett,,follow KEN MEHLMAN out the Door or show ROVE where the EXIT sign is. This administration is TOTALLY INEPT—–if only this was their greatest SIN!!
November 12th, 2006 at 1:33 pmis he counting on fox viewers being so healthy that none of them are on medication, all blissfully unaware of the cost of prescriptions?!?!?!?!!?
November 12th, 2006 at 1:46 pmGee…I wonder how much money the pharmaceutical lobby paid this fella to say that “drugs are already cheap enough”, considering that the price of some drugs is already in the double digits (if not higher) per pill!
November 12th, 2006 at 1:50 pmInsane corporate greed just rolls on… The GOP greedmeisters just don’t seem to care that they have been soundly rejected by American voters in an election several days. It’s “business as usual” with these thugs…
November 12th, 2006 at 1:55 pmCheers.
im sure their own investment portfolios’ have nothing to do with it either. how rude to charge that they would think of themselves when it comes to legislation. bush and mr bartlett are always thinking about the little guy. how rude you guys are.
November 12th, 2006 at 1:58 pmThe charlatans in the White House are lying to their own grandmothers!
November 12th, 2006 at 2:00 pmTypical Republican thought process = “I got mine, you can go fend for yourself.”
It is obviously of great comfort to him - so much so that he can’t even fathom that it isnot the same for most people - that he never has to worry about his own health care or how to pay for it — we do.
They are so out of touch with real life for Americans, they are in need of intervention; a walk in the shoes of the rest of us.
This is just more double talk from Bush&Co in their perpetual support of their friends in big pharma and the elite CEOs and stockholders in those industries.
#16, right on.
November 12th, 2006 at 2:01 pmBARTLETT: The marketplace is working. We’re more than happy to have that debate with Republicans, Democrats, whoever wants to talk about it. The proof is in the pudding. It’s been working. It’s been benefitting America’s seniors.
This one of the people that before the election tried to equate Democrats or anyone else with a different opinion from what the standard whitehouse talking points as a terrorist sympathiser, these people have no credibility at all. Don’t you forget that.
November 12th, 2006 at 2:26 pmDid Bartlett go to his church this morning? Is his the “christian” attitude?
November 12th, 2006 at 2:35 pmHis opinion is a prime example of the hypocrisy of the right wing - they do not care about the less fortunate, the average worker, the sick or the elderly — their compassion brings tears to my eyes.
That would be tears of rage and outrage. I am not a religious person, but Bartlett should be asked WWJD?
Pharisees, all of them.
November 12th, 2006 at 3:05 pmA comment so absurd you just have to laugh.
November 12th, 2006 at 3:12 pmAs long as the CEOs etc of the pharmas make more than 10x what the average pay at their company is, and I don’t mean fancy accounting, contracting out work etc, I mean the average pay at their company world wide of all who work for them, then the drug prices are NOT cheap enough.
November 12th, 2006 at 3:23 pmIts not coming out of the emperor’s pocket, so why would he care what it costs everyone else? Bidness as usual.
November 12th, 2006 at 3:28 pmAnd some side questions:
- If drugs are so cheap, why so many people from USA travels to Canada and Mexico to buy them, or use Internet to buy dubious drugs?
- If Republicans are so eager to reduce Medicare expendings, why are against negotiating prices with insurance and pharma companies?
November 12th, 2006 at 3:40 pmEvery Conservative should be outraged about this waste of money, instead they allow others to line their pockets. This is exactly why the Conservative Party is on the verge of extinction. The base knows what conservative means, but the politicans under that banner have forgotten. Well, now days most conservatives are too busy on the intertubes looking a new young gay lover, and the only drug prices they care about are meth and viagra.
November 12th, 2006 at 4:30 pmRx drugs are horrendously expensive for US Citizens, especially difficult and impossible for Seniors to afford.
They also account for our HUGE medical insurance costs for drug coverage.
Bush and his rich boys don’t give a hoot about average Americans.
Bush HATES average Americans and wants nothing to do with ‘em.
Bush created a welfare state for corporations: our Tax Dollars are pouring into CORPORATE WELFARE QUEEN pockets for six years.
Americans finally woke up and smelled the stench of CORRUPTION, lies and video tape propaganda. They voted out Republicans.
There’s no substance to Bush. He’s a trumpeter for the rich. And an insulter for everybody else.
Brazen comments like “Drugs Are Already Cheap Enough” should be
November 12th, 2006 at 5:18 pmconfronted. Nobody should get away with such lies!
I’d like to know what he’s on and how much he pays for it!
November 12th, 2006 at 5:32 pmThere it is, plain as day. The Bush administration represents big pharma and Democrats represent citizens.
November 12th, 2006 at 7:04 pmIn this mornings newspaper a woman wrote this in her letter to the editor:
I guess Bartlett thinks that’s reasonable! I wonder what world he lives in?
November 12th, 2006 at 7:21 pmDan Bartlett was the guy who helped Karen Hughes scrub the bad information from Dubya’s National Guard personnel file before he ran for Governor of Texas and the presidency…I guess you can take what he says to the bank. Would a man like that ever tell a lie?
November 12th, 2006 at 9:22 pmDrugs are cheap enough?? Okay, Dan, you pay my 300.00 a month prescription bill.
November 12th, 2006 at 11:11 pmWonder if Mr. Bartlett would like to pay
November 13th, 2006 at 7:36 amfor my arthritis medicine Enbrel? Its
only $1,400 a month.
If US agencies negotiate somewhat lower prices with the top ten or twenty pharmaceutical firms, the real worries are:
November 13th, 2006 at 10:23 am- MFN (”most favored nation”) clauses among HMOs, pharmacy benefit managers, and others may kick in, lowering everyone’s prices throughout the US economy
- existing contracts with other nations’ health services cannot be renegotiated “up” quickly enough over the next 2 or 3 years to account for foregone revenue from lowered US prices.
–
Currently, high prices in the US cross-subsidize lower prices outside the US. However, there is plenty of intellectual firepower in the largest pharmaceutical companies to manage a transition in which US customers (Federal and State governments, notably, but also private employers) less generously subsidize 700 to 800 million middle class consumers abroad.
–
The good news is that these dirtbags are all on the way out……thank you America!! Bush, Cheney, Rove, Fox News and all their minions are an absolute disgrace and history will deal with them accordingly. Drug, Insurance, Energy, HMO and other select companies (Halliburton, KGB, etc.) will hopefully be dealth with by a more democratic Congress that understands just how deeply resentful the American public is over being relegated to the “use me anyway you want” pile thanks largely to Dick Cheney. I can’t wait for Joe Biden to start serious hearings.
November 13th, 2006 at 10:26 amOne of the front page stories in our local newspaper last week was about a waitress who suffered a massive stroke because she couldn’t afford the $300.00 a month her blood pressure medication cost. Wonder if this douchebag would like to drop by and explain to her how drug prices are cheap enough. After all, she has the motor control and speech abilities of a pudding now.
November 13th, 2006 at 10:33 amGuess who Dan will be working for before long.
November 13th, 2006 at 11:52 amFolks- you don’t see the ironclad reasoning here: if drug prices and treatments were cheaper, it would just encourage people to be sick! We don’t want to send out the message to kids that it’s cool to have a disease! I mean, bring down the price of a tetanus shot and antibiotics, and then everybody but everybody’s going to start stepping on rusty nails.
November 13th, 2006 at 12:26 pmBesides, being fatally ill builds character.
How did this puny ignorant dick even get a place on the TV screen. Talkin bullshit like he even had a clue. Jeez TV is really hard up if they have to interview turds like this.
November 13th, 2006 at 2:23 pmNot to mention the campaign contributions to the Republicans by the drug companies. How can those bucks keep rolling in if the drug companies aren’t making obscene profits off of the sick andl elderly. My kid has CF and guess how much drug companies make off of her meds.
November 13th, 2006 at 2:36 pmUnbelievable what these crooks will try to sell to the elderly. The VA negotiates on med prices all the time, it’s nothing new, they are just stroking their big Pharm buddies at our expense.
November 13th, 2006 at 5:00 pm“The proof is in the pudding”? So many ignorant people—-that adage makes no sense–it has been corrupted from the correct adage: “The proof of the pudding is in the eating”.
November 13th, 2006 at 7:29 pmFrom Nov 95 until last month, Bush had an order in effect that instructed customs to confiscate drugs that were being shipped from Canada to the US. Of course, the reason given was “safety” concerns. Those who ordered these drugs and who had them confiscated where still stuck with paying the charges but were never informed that their drugs were confiscated. I HATE THESE PEOPLE. They will have to answer for these deeds someday.
November 14th, 2006 at 10:07 amtrueblue… Ambien!
Why do you think Ambien is one of the biggest selling drugs in the US?
That’s how they are able to sleep at night!
November 14th, 2006 at 10:56 amAnyone who knows Part D knoiws it’s under budget and has resulted in an 80% satisfaction rate among enrollees.
Bullet point #3 ONLY applies to the duals…if any of you liberal monkeys know what that means!
You want Canada’s prices but you want Americas access to physicians and procedure timelines…sorry you can’t have it both ways. The Canadian pricing system is subsuidized by TAXES. Is that what you want higher taxes??
November 14th, 2006 at 1:33 pmBullet point #3 ONLY applies to the duals…if any of you liberal monkeys know what that means!
Hey Tom…Guess What??? I am a DUAL due to multiple medical problems ALONG with being a transplant patient! It’s the DUALS that are being raped right now and prepared for burial starting next January 1st!
And sir, as to your comment regarding Canada’s pricing system being subsidized by taxes….WHAT THE HELL DO YOU THINK IS PAYING FOR PART “D”, Bushes Fairie Dust that he smoked or snorted in College????
Canada’s pricing system is low mainly for the reason that the drug maufacturers do NOT have the EXPENSES that they have here in the USA….THEY are NOT permitted to ADVERTISE their drugs as they do here in the States and so their cost of doing business is MUCH lower and so are their drug prices!
Don’t count out the “duals” just because the republicans are hoping that we all roll over and die next January……it ain’t gonna happen cause we “duals” have this funny way of fighting like hell to stay alive and become VERY vocal when IDIOTIC and UNTRUE statements are made such as what you posted! Remember, a lot of the “duals” are well educated, life-long voters and taxpayers who, due to medical circumstance, became eligible for Medicaid and then Medicare, due to a catestrophic illness or injury! I pray that you and all others NEVER have to find out just WHAT it means to fall into the “Dual” category! It is a very “special” Medical Hell that the republicans in power at that time sentenced us to….and I also pray that the Democrats in Power now do something about it….and do it QUICKLY so we “duals” can survive after January 1, 2007!
November 15th, 2006 at 1:39 amgo for it.
November 24th, 2006 at 6:59 pmI myself am on meds that cost over a 1,000 a month, but they are all I have to live with. I can’t believe it, and I do not qualify for insurance or medicaid.
November 27th, 2006 at 10:12 pmTom Price Tells Retirees Their Prescription Drug Costs are Already Low Enough
The Cherokee Ledger News recently reported that Dr. Price voted not to let Medicare negotiate drug prices to help save both the program and retired Americans money. He did so against the wishes of the AARP and in contrast to most of his colleagues in congress. The Veterans Administration does negotiate prices, and saves vets millions.
Why the “no†vote, you ask? Because he’s bought and paid-for by the medical lobby. His votes are easy to predict. If the bill moves money into the hands of the medical lobby, he’s all over it. If it moves money out of the medical industry, it’s a no-go (I’m sorry, it’s “bad for patientsâ€).
But let’s take a look at Price’s excuses:
• “The less involvement government has in medical care, the better.â€
–So does this mean Price wants to eliminate Medicare? No, I didn’t think so. This is just meaningless rhetoric.
• 90 percent of AARP members support giving Medicare the power to bargain for lower drug costs.
– To them Price says, “I’m sorry that AARP’s taken such a partisan approach on this.â€
• “Washington bureaucrats will decide which drugs will be available for patients, not from a scientific or safety standpoint, but purely based on money. Many drugs would be knocked off the approved list if Medicare had the power to negotiate, resulting in a smaller choice of drugs being available to seniorsâ€
– False. The bill (unfortunately) did not authorize Medicare to remove a non-discounted drug from coverage. The stronger Veterans Administration policy does.
• “Nobody negotiates with the federal government. The federal government tells you what to do.â€
– Well, he voted to make sure the first sentence remained true.
• “Government never has quality in mind when it comes to medical care; its whole objective is decreasing costs.â€
–As opposed to health insurance companies, who think of nothing but quality and don’t care about expenses? Sure.
• “The free market has continually proven more adept at lowering expenses.â€
–Whoops, I thought it was the government that was manically focused on decreasing costs. Well, his quote is true, if you realize it’s referring to health insurance company expenses, not patients’ out-of-pocket expenses.
• “Many quality physicians have been forced out of business by Medicare requirements.â€
February 1st, 2007 at 3:49 pm– Even if that’s true, it was no doubt due to Medicare’s reimbursements for office visits and other direct physician care, not its prescription reimbursement policies.