The Price Of Corruption: How Tommy Thompson Personally Cost Taxpayers $20 Billion A Year [View all]

[Report1212]

Ever wonder why we can't get cheap drugs?

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In 2003, the Bush administration aggressively pushed for the creation of Medicare Part D, a subsidized drug benefit. Thompson was the “point man” for the administration during these negotations, serving as Bush’s Health and Human Services (HHS) secretary.

While helping seniors afford prescription drugs was a laudable goal, the Bush administration, via Thompson, pushed for a special carve-out for the pharmaceutical industry. The part D bill specifically barred Medicare from negotiating drug prices with Big Pharma, meaning that it essentially told the government it can’t even ask for a good deal.

This made the new law wildly more expensive than it should be, and most Democrats in the House voted against it. After the benefit was passed, Big Pharma rewarded its most fervent congressional supporter, Louisiana congressman Billy Tauzin, with a $2 million-a-year lobbying job.

But while Tauzin was getting a payoff, taxpayers were losing out. Authoritative studies on the issue estimate that drug negotiation could save as much as $20 billion a year for Medicare.

Read more: http://boldprogressives.org/tommy-thompson-cost-taxpayers-20-billion/