How Congress screws the American taxpayer

Does Congress have it’s hand in Big Pharmacy’s wallet?  Read on. . .

When Congress passed Obamacare they blocked Medicare from obtaining lower cost drugs. . .

. . .a powerful bipartisan group of senators inserted a provision into the bill that blocked Medicare, for two years, from getting a better price on an expensive drug used by kidney dialysis patients. This was in addition to a previous two-year extension obtained by Amgen, the drug’s manufacturer. The move saddled Medicare with roughly $500 million in added costs over the next two years and generated a windfall for Amgen.

This is but one example of how Congress publicly criticizes growth of Medicare costs while privately restraining the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, or CMS, from getting a better deal for Medicare patients and U.S. taxpayers.

Here’s another. Genentech, another big pharmaceutical company, makes an anti-cancer drug called Avastin. It also makes Lucentis. . .  (read the full story from the Los Angeles Times)

Can you hear me now, Susan Delbene, Rick Larsen, Jaime Herrera Butler, Doc Hastings, Cathy McMorris Rodgers, Derek Kilmer, Jim McDermott, Dave Reichert, Adam Smith, Dick Heck ?