In the special interest war over health care, the White House and congressional Democrats have the nation’s drug makers and hospitals generally on their side.
Now the bill’s supporters are making a play to lock in the American Medical Association, the organization that says it represents 250,000 doctors and medical students in every state and congressional district. The principal enticement, a $247 billion measure making its way to the Senate floor, aims to wipe out a scheduled 21 percent rate cut for doctors treating Medicare patients.
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The AMA began airing ads last week saying the increase would “protect seniors’ access to quality care.”
Yet the AMA won’t yet pledge support for the major health care bill that is the chief objective of the White House and congressional Democrats, despite a request that several officials say was made at a meeting last week with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev.
The dance is one of many in the long-running health care debate, the issue that has consumed Congress, the administration and a vast constellation of outside groups for months.
On the Senate Finance Committee, a key vote pitted drug makers and the White House on one side and most of the committee’s Democrats on the other.
At issue was a plan by Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla., to sweeten drug benefits for certain Medicare beneficiaries — normally something all lawmakers can favor. In this case, Nelson proposed raising fees on drug companies by $106 billion over a decade to cover the costs. “Did PhRMA come to the table in the agreement with the White House with enough? A number of us feel that is not the case,” he said of the industry.
But his approach happened to run afoul of a deal the industry made months ago with the White House and Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., the committee’s chairman. Drug makers would cover $80 billion of the cost of the legislation over a decade, and the White House and Baucus would help shield them from attempts by other lawmakers to impose additional fees or taxes.
Left undisclosed for weeks was a critical codicil — that the industry would bankroll an expensive advertising campaign to promote the bill’s passage, at a cost of $100 million or more.
Passage of Nelson’s proposal “may well undermine our ability to pass comprehensive health care reform in this Congress and I think that would be a great tragedy,” Sen. Tom Carper, D-Del., said shortly before the vote.
Of Nelson, Baucus said, “I frankly wish the senator had decided not to push” for a vote.
Not only Baucus, but also the White House had urged Nelson to drop his amendment, according to Senate sources who spoke on condition of anonymity. On the vote, the chairman, Carper and Sen. Bob Menendez, D-N.J., joined all committee Republicans in opposing the plan, and it failed on a vote of 13-10.
The drug deal was secure, and so, too, the bill.
