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April 8, 2009 Newsletter
Dear CMPI Friends,
On March 5th, at the National Disclosure Summit, CMPI President Peter Pitts debated Peter Lurie (of Public Citizen fame) on the topic of transparency. It was billed as “Dueling Peters.”
To watch this interview, click here:
http://www.icvclients.com/ehcca/disclosure2009/1_500/
HIGHLIGHTS OF THE WEEK
CMPI NEWS
www.cmpi.org
Maryland Health Care Reform Must Address Chronic Diseases
The Washington Examiner
By Gary E. Applebaum, M.D.
April 8, 2009
Earlier this month, Maryland lawmakers outlined a $1.6-billion plan to overhaul the state's healthcare system. Their proposed reforms include a legal requirement that all citizens buy health insurance and new subsidies for private insurance coverage.
Expanding healthcare coverage is a laudable goal. But those without insurance lack it because of the cost. And unfortunately, these measures do nothing to address the main reason healthcare costs are exploding – the rise of chronic disease.
http://www.cmpi.org/in-the-news/in-the-news/maryland-health-care-reform-must-address-chronic-diseases/
When A Crackdown Has Cracks
The Journal of Life Sciences
By Peter J. Pitts
April 7, 2009
Regulator efforts to control certain types of web ads for drugs are too vague to do any good.
After long being ignored, online ads for drugs are now under regulators' microscopes. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration unit that regulates pharmaceutical marketing and communications has sent warning letters to 14 major drug companies including Merck and Pfizer, saying certain web ads are “misleading” and fail to disclose possible risks.
http://www.cmpi.org/in-the-news/in-the-news/when-a-crackdown-has-cracks/
Supreme Court Ruling Could Prove Disastrous
The Buffalo News
By Peter J. Pitts
April 3, 2009
President Obama has promised to reform the American health care system by expanding access to care and lowering costs. A recent Supreme Court decision just made his job a whole lot harder.
In Wyeth v. Levine, the justices upheld a $6.7 million award to a Vermont woman who lost her lower arm because of a botched injection of the anti-nausea drug Phenergan. The verdict will impact not just the case's plaintiff, Diana Levine, and its defendant, Wyeth Pharmaceuticals. It has the potential to unleash a flood of frivolous lawsuits.
http://www.cmpi.org/in-the-news/in-the-news/supreme-court-ruling-could-prove-disastrous/
Focus On Prevention (Letter to the Editor)
Oregonian
By Peter J. Pitts
April 2009
The revelation that statins can cut the risk of developing dangerous blood clots, in addition to lowering cholesterol and helping to prevent heart disease, reminds us that treatment is often the most effective form of prevention ("Study: Cholesterol drug lowers blood clot risk," March 29).
As policymakers consider ways to rein in health spending, they should be sure to emphasize the value of preventative medicine. Managing chronic conditions like hypertension with drug therapies is far more cost-effective than emergency surgery.
http://www.oregonlive.com/opinion/index.ssf/2009/04/print_publication_sunday_april.html
DRUGWONKS BLOG
www.drugwonks.com
The Soros Storm Troopers
By Robert M. Goldberg
April 8, 2009
From the Policymed blog about David Rothman, the colleague of David Blumenthal the new health IT czar for President Obama and director of the Soros funded Institute for Medicine as Profession which believes that it's okay for medical journals to receive advertising revenue from medical device firms, biotech and drug companies but believes these industries should provide no financial support for educational or research activity even as government payers, health plans and left wing think tanks are free to do so.
http://www.drugwonks.com/blog_post/show/6723
When “Cost” Means “Co-Pay”
By Peter J. Pitts
April 8, 2009
A new research study from health-information company Wolters Kluwer Health reports that in the fourth quarter of 2008, U.S. patients failed to fill 6.8% of on-patent prescriptions, a 22% increase from the first quarter of 2007. Patients also abandoned prescriptions for generic drugs at a higher rate, failing to fill 4.1% of generic prescriptions. Why? Because of “cost.”
What does “cost” mean? Does it mean the AWP of a medicine? Not for the 85% of Americans who have health insurance. For them “cost” means “co-pay."
http://www.drugwonks.com/blog_post/show/6722
The View From Germany: Paying For Health Care
By Caroline Patton
April 7, 2009
While returning from a recent vacation in Berlin, an article in Germany's leading weekly magazine Der Spiegel on the German health care system caught my eye. Entitled “Das Tollhaus” or “the madhouse,” it's a rather scathing of exactly what has gone wrong with the recent health reforms in Germany – and a perfect indication of why Americans should spend a little less time debating health care in Canada and the UK and a little more looking elsewhere in Europe. To help in this effort, this will be the first of two posts looking at what Germans have to say about this own system.
http://www.drugwonks.com/blog_post/show/6720
Conflicts Of Dys-Interest
By Tim Franson
April 6, 2009
Can one be an active participant within any professional domain without having some potential conflicts of interest? The enthusiastic pursuit of any scientific endeavor requires that an informed person take positions on various matters where controversy may exist, and one must presume that any and all experiences a practitioner endures may influence that party's perception of certain issues. The NIH website defines that a conflict of interest... “occurs when individuals involved with the conduct, reporting, oversight or review of research also have financial or other interests, from which they can benefit, depending on the results of the research.”
http://www.drugwonks.com/blog_post/show/6714
CMPI VIDEO
CMPI President Peter J. Pitts on “Getting Your Money's Worth” with Judith West. Discussed in this interview was President Barack Obama's $635 billion budget allocation request to advance to his Healthcare reform agenda and the Comparative Effectiveness Research authorized by the president's Stimulus bill.
To watch this interview, click here to download:
http://www.gettingyourmoneysworthnyc.com/GYMW-048b.htm
Congressman Louie Gohmert (R-TX) was first sworn in January 4, 2005 by Speaker Dennis Hastert as Congressman for the First District of Texas. Congressman Gohmert is currently serving his third term in the House of Representatives.
In our interview with Congressman Gohmert, we discussed Comparative Effectiveness research and the impact it would have on patients, the massive expansion of S-CHIP, and President Obama's public health plan.
Watch interview here:
http://www.biggovhealth.org/testimonials/policymakers/louie-gohmert
ARTICLES OF NOTE
The Misguided Quest For Universal Coverage
New York Times
By Ramesh Ponnuru
April 2009
America's dysfunctional health care financing system needs to be reformed. But the goal should not be universal coverage. Reform should simply aim to make health insurance more affordable and portable.
Universal coverage has so dominated the health care discussion that even some Republicans have tried to devise market-friendly ways to achieve it. The case for doing so is presented in practical, moral and political terms.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/09/opinion/09ponnuru.html?_r=2&ref=opinion
Health Care In The Offing
The Washington Times
By Tony Blankley
April 2009
Of all President Barack Obama's transformative domestic policy proposals, none is more far-reaching and less transparent than health care. What most Washington policy people mean when they talk about his health care proposal was described in the first two paragraphs of Robert Pear's meticulous article in The New York Times on April 1.
http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2009/04/health_care_in_the_offing.html
It's Time To Fight The ‘PharmaScolds'
Wall Street Journal
By David A. Shaywitz and Thomas P. Stossel
April 2009
Relationships between university researchers and medical product companies are under relentless attack by critics who portray these associations as a morality play in which noble academics struggle to resist the dark, corrupting influence of industry. So why are leading disease-research foundations increasingly choosing to partner with industry rather than condemn it?
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123914780537299005.html#mod=djemEditorialPage
Obama Healthcare 2.0
The American
By Thomas P. Miller
April 2009
The release by the Obama administration of its initial budget “outline” reinforced its strong commitment to step on the health spending accelerator, notwithstanding some rhetorical cover suggesting purported cost savings within its roadmap for universal coverage. Any selective application of the budgetary brakes would only maneuver around some tight political corners, because the overall goal is to re-allocate any “savings” to spend more and more, with Washington in the driver's seat.
http://www.american.com/archive/2009/april-2009/obama-healthcare-2.0
The Public Plan Threat To Your Health Care
The Heritage Foundation
April 2009
A new study released today by the Lewin Group, one of the most well-respected health care consultancies in Washington, gives new estimates on “The Cost and Coverage Impacts of a Public Plan” like the one being considered by President Obama and the congressional leadership. The Lewin Group says that “If the public plan is opened to all employers... at Medicare payment levels we estimate that about 131.2 million people would enroll in the public plan. The number of people with private health insurance would decline by 119.1 million people. This would be a two-thirds reduction in the number of people with private coverage (currently 170 million people).”
The study also examined what the proposed plan might do to provider reimbursement rates. Lewin says that if current Medicare payment rates were to be used for a public plan option, physicians would see their net income drop by $33 billion dollars, and hospitals would see their revenue fall by $36 billion.
http://blog.heritage.org/2009/04/06/the-public-plan-threat-to-your-health-care-2/
Don't Let Europe's Health Failure Drag U.S. Down
The Detroit News
By Grace-Marie Turner
April 2009
For years, Americans have been told that European governments deliver high-quality, universal health coverage at a low cost. Now, as the Obama administration embarks on a major push to overhaul the country's health sector by year's end, many legislators want to import key elements of these European systems.
It's true that there are lessons to be learned from Europe. Countries that have advanced much farther down the road toward government involvement in their health sectors can help Americans learn what we would best avoid.
http://www.detnews.com/article/20090406/OPINION01/904060313/1008/opinion01/Don+t+let+Europe+s+health+failure+drag+U.S.+down
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