A new trove of emails shows President Barack Obama’s White House agreed to help
drug companies block a proposal to bring down medicine prices so they would back
Obama’s healthcare plan.
House Republicans obtained the three-year-old
correspondence between the Obama administration and representatives of the drug
industry and released more of them to the public on Friday, The New York Times reported.
The exchanges show the
compromises as they were being negotiated that laid the groundwork for the
health care law now awaiting the judgment of the Supreme Court.
The Times
reported that in 2009 drug industry lobbyist — concerned after weeks of talks
about a proposal for the reimportation of prescription medicines at lower
prices — e-mailed White House health care adviser Nancy-Ann DeParle about the
matter.
DeParle assured the lobbyist, according to the Times, saying
that athough Obama was overseas, White House officials had “made decision, based
on how constructive you guys have been, to oppose importation” on a different
proposal.
In the end, the drug industry agreed to provide $80 billion to
expand health coverage in exchange for protection from policies that would cost
more, the Times reported.
The paper said Obama felt the deal had to be
made if he was to be successful in getting his healthcare proposals — nicknamed
Obamacare — accepted.
The Chicago Tribune reported that the healthcare
industry agreed, as part of the plan, to funnel $70 million to two groups,
Healthy Economy Now and Americans for Stable Quality Care, which were running
advertisements supporting reform.
The e-mails also reveal discussions
about an advertising campaign to support Obama’s health plan. “They plan to hit
up the ‘bad guys’ for most of the $,” a union official wrote after an April
meeting, according to the Times. “They want us to just put in enough to be able
to put our names in it — he is thinking @100K.”
In another email
reported by the Times, a drug industry official urged colleagues to sign a joint
statement with the White House: “Rahm is already furious. The ire will be turned
on us,” it said, referring to former White House chief of staff Rahm
Emanuel.
The emails drew fire from Republicans who see the closed-door
dealing as hypocritical.
“He said it was going to be the most open and
honest and transparent administration ever and lobbyists won’t be drafting the
bills,” Rep. Michael Burgess, of Texas, told the Times.
“Then when it
came time, the door closed, the lobbyists came in and the bills were
written.”
But Democrats hit back. Rep. Henry Waxman of California claimed
there is nothing new in the emails. "The Republicans spent over a year on this
investigation, received and reviewed countless documents from a dozen different
organizations, and conducted multiple interviews — only to learn what was
publicly reported years ago," Waxman said.
Read more on
Newsmax.com: NY
Times: Obama Colluded with Drug Companies to Keep Prices High
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