The Health Care Reform Corner – From the editors of "The Pink Sheet" 10/06/2009
What are policymakers and stakeholders in Washington saying and doing about health care reform? In this periodic BioPharma Today feature, the editors of "The Pink Sheet" and "The Pink Sheet" DAILY highlight some of the major developments chronicled in those publications.
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The Health Care Reform Corner – From the editors of "The Pink Sheet" 10/06/2009
WASINGTON, D.C. – From the drug industry's point of view, the health care reform bill emerging from the Senate Finance Committee has few negative surprises.
Despite interest among Finance Committee Democrats in seeking additional revenue from the biopharmaceutical industry to help pay for health care reform, the committee did not pass any amendments that would specifically raise the fees on industry or add to the concessions that were already part of the chairman's mark.
Committee Chairman Max Baucus, D-Mont., wrapped up the panel's two-week markup Oct. 2 with a marathon session that went past 2 a.m.
Next, the amended bill will get a new score from the Congressional Budget Office. At the start of the public markup the revised chairman's mark was unofficially scored as costing $900 billion over 10 years and including $924 billion in offsets, resulting in a net deficit reduction of about $23 billion over the budget window. Read the story here….
The amended bill includes a proposed new basic insurance plan targeting a subsection of the uninsured that would allow states to negotiate prices with drug manufacturers.
During markup Oct. 1, the Senate Finance Committee approved the proposal to establish the basic insurance plan by a 12-11 vote. Sen. Blanche Lincoln of Arkansas was the lone Democrat to vote "no" on the amendment.
The amendment calls for HHS to establish a "basic health plan," through negotiations between the state and private insurers, which would provide more affordable coverage to people with incomes between 133 percent and 200 percent of the federal poverty level. Read the story here….
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