"The same pharmaceutical companies that spent $80 million to tip the 2000 elections will spend over $100 million this year. The new Medicare Drug bill is a windfall to the drug companies, but will cover less than 25 percent of seniors’ drug costs. The bill also contains $14.2 billion in incentives for HMOs to undermine traditional Medicare. The influence of corporate money on health policy and politics has never been greater – or more obvious.

"Polls show that 62 percent of Americans favor national health insurance, while they oppose the Medicare Drug bill by a 3:1 margin. Businesses large and small are looking for alternatives to annual 15 percent increases in insurance premiums. Workers are losing their health insurance in record numbers."

Quentin Young, M.D.
Volunteer National Coordinator

Don McCanne, M.D.
Past President
Author "Quote of the Day"

"Are they liars or just incompetents?

"The Issue: Reports that the Bush administration suppressed release of a government actuarial expert’s study showing the cost of the president’s prescription drug plan was $156 billion higher than official estimates. The bill, which passed the House by just one vote last June, would have been DOA if the higher price tag was known.

"Spin No. 1: The administration insists that if the study was suppressed, it wasn’t done so at President Bush’s behest or at the direction of Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson… whose department employed the expert whose much higher forecast is now accepted as correct. According to his aides, Bush learned about the higher estimate in January, roughly at the same time as Congress and the American public.

"Spin No. 2: Many Democrats say that just as the Bush administration lied about WMDs to sell its biggest foreign initiative – the Iraq invasion – it lied to sell its biggest domestic initiative, the prescription drug bill.

"The Unspin: Spin No. 2 may well be right, but the whole is-Bush-a-liar is wearisome and usually degenerates into partisan shouting. So let’s take the administration at its word about not habitually lying. This is not, however a concession that makes the Bushies look good – because if they’re not liars, they’re incompetents…"

Chris Reed, Orange County Register
Sunday, March 21, 2004

"George W. Bush – Working for the Drug Companies and the HMOs

"…In the midst of this enormous crisis, the Bush administration has done nothing except protect the profits of the insurance companies and the pharmaceutical industry…The horrendous Medicare prescription drug bill that the President recently pushed through the Congress will provide little if any real relief to seniors who cannot afford their medicines, and will do nothing to control skyrocketing costs…"

Congressman Bernie Sanders, D.Vermont
Sanders Scoop, April 2004

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