Published on September 4, 2009 at 12:06 AM
Lobbying on health care increases and, despite differences, drug makers and consumer groups unite to push for their version of health care reform.
The Seattle Times reports on a multimillion-dollar campaign including mailings and television ads produced by PhRMA and Families USA: "Yes, Democrats and Republicans in Congress appear irreconcilably divided on the key tenets of a health-care overhaul. But two strange bedfellows — the pharmaceutical industry and a left-leaning national consumer-advocacy group — have united to promote a consensus health-care bill in Washington and 10 other key states."
"The two organizations don't make for natural political allies. Families USA, a Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit that calls itself the voice for health-care consumers, has accused drugmakers of charging excessive markups. Families USA also strongly supports creating a public health-insurance plan that would compete with private insurance to drive down costs. Phrma, though it has not taken a formal position on a public plan, favors expanding choices among private health insurers" (Song, 9/3).
Meanwhile,
NPR interviews lobbyist Paul Lee, a founder of Strategic Health Care, and examines how
"Washington lobbyists are pushing the interests of health insurance companies, drug companies, hospitals and many more" (9/2).