The biggest savings in the Democrats' plan would be a pledge to give the federal government the authority to negotiate lower drug prices for Medicare. Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.) and Rep. Henry A. Waxman (D-Calif.) have estimated that Medicare could save $190 billion over the next decade if the seniors' program adopted the price-negotiating model of the Department of Veterans Affairs.
Let's translate: "The price negotiating model" is the one 40 percent of veterans want to LEAVE but can't, robs seniors of half the drugs now they choose from, forces them to buy from government run pharmacies, and denies them access to 90 percent of the 80 or more drugs the FDA gave priority approval to since 1997. Oh, and the whole process shortens the lives of seniors.
If seniors want many of the medicines they now depend on for their health, they will have to pay for them out of pocket to the tune of billions of dollars a year. And the loss of profits -- yes profits -- over ten years will hurt biotech firms and their investments, reducing the number of new medicines for fatal and degenerative illnesses by 50 percent.
Let's translate: "The price negotiating model" is the one 40 percent of veterans want to LEAVE but can't, robs seniors of half the drugs now they choose from, forces them to buy from government run pharmacies, and denies them access to 90 percent of the 80 or more drugs the FDA gave priority approval to since 1997. Oh, and the whole process shortens the lives of seniors.
If seniors want many of the medicines they now depend on for their health, they will have to pay for them out of pocket to the tune of billions of dollars a year. And the loss of profits -- yes profits -- over ten years will hurt biotech firms and their investments, reducing the number of new medicines for fatal and degenerative illnesses by 50 percent.
