Add this to the annals of formerly unnoticed provisions of Obamacare: children’s hospitals are facing drug price hikes that will cost them hundreds of millions of dollars to supply needed medicine to children with rare diseases. The New York Times reports:
Over the last 18 years, Congress has required drug manufacturers to provide discounts to a variety of health care providers …
Several years ago, Congress broadened the program to include children’s hospitals. But this year Congress, in revising the drug discount program as part of the new health care law, blocked these hospitals from continuing to receive price cuts on orphan drugs intended for treatment of diseases affecting fewer than 200,000 people in the United States.
The reason behind the change is murky, though some drug makers had opposed expansion of the drug discount program. The discounts typically range from 30 percent to 50 percent, and children’s hospitals say the change is costing them hundreds of millions of dollars. …
A House Democrat who worked on the health care law said the situation had resulted from “an honest mistake in drafting,” and he added, “No one intended to take away any of the drug discounts that children’s hospitals already had.”
Two drug companies — Genentech and Allergan — have already notified hospitals that they will no longer be selling discounted drugs.
While the House has passed legislation that would restore the discount to children’s hospitals, the Senate has failed to do so yet.
This isn’t the first Obamacare provision that hurts children. As Matt Shaffer noted in September, most insurance companies have stopped selling child-only insurance policies, which helped families who couldn’t afford insurance for the entire family but wanted to ensure their children were covered.
Well, as Nancy Pelosi said, “We have to pass the bill so that you can find out what is in it.”
Congress passes a law that removes a government mandate on drug companies and NRO complains?
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseThis is one of those news reports that makes me look like my dog when I ask him to pass the butter.
On one hand it is oddly fun to watch the slow-motion train wreck that is Obamacare. On the same hand it is fun to watch the NYT complain that in their rush to Just. Pass. Anything. the Democrats have hurt the very people they profess to care about.
On the other hand, this is just another example of why our health care costs so much.
Had this mandate not existed in the first place, who is to say smaller manufacturers offering generics would not have been able to meet this market need with stability and at a small profit?
Goverment dictates, everyone pays.
Reply to this commentLinkReport Abuse"Innocent drafting error," my rear end.
By definition, the children who are the subject of the orphan drugs discounts are kids with bad health problems. ObamaCare's architects didn't want their new program to be on the hook for caring for these kids for a long lifespan. By exempting children's hospitals from the discount directive, more of those kids will die young and not throw off the ObamaCare budgets with their pesky health problems.
See how simple? They did the work of the death panels without even having to convene one.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseChildren's hospitals received discounted drugs because they were providing charity care to uninsured kids.
Under ObamaCare, every child will be insured so there is no longer any need for special discounts.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseFred Fred Fred how wrong you are. Not all children in childrens hospitals are charity cases. If Mama and Pappa have insurance, they gladly accept it.
Children with rare diseases go to specialty hospitals like you would go to a cardiologist for a heart attack.
The cost of the medicine for rare diseases is what increases the cost because it isn't produced in bulk. The rareness of the disease makes treating it expensive.
Congress mandated the reduction, it wasn't charity given by the drug companies to the needy.
Obama bowed to the drug companies for them to support his boondoggle. He gave the drug companies a two year extension on their patents to stick it to insurance companies/Medicare/Medicaid.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseFred, you seem surprisingly immune to facts.
Even the government studies show that the Obamanation won't cover everyone. (and we're talking about real kids here, not 26 year olds).
Plus, for every 'patch' they slap on this mess, the cost goes up.
Between this, the FDA decertifying drugs, and some of the examples we see from our friends in Europe, health care will get worse.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseConservatives should be cheering the removal of a government mandate on drug companies. What's with the hypocrisy?
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseI am the wife of a MAN with psoriatic arthritis. He is retired from the US Air Force. We have insurance which we pay for because Tricare did not cover the cost of our care very well. He was on an I.V. chemotherapy medication which helped him very much. Now, Medicare (which he's not on) has decided that he cannot have the amount of medication which was needed to help him, but only the bare minimum. Did you know they have the right to tell doctors how much of a medication they can use under this law? A doctor didn't decide, but non-medical personnel. Every doctor in the very large meeting disagreed, but it didn't matter. My husband is on another medication which is more expensive. It doesn't work as well, but Medicare says he can have it. Stupid, huh?!
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseWhat about the people (children or adult) in the nursing homes who are on Medicare, Medicaid or individual insurance. Will they loose their medication?
Good point, John. I'm a little confused myself. I guess Katrina is just pointing out how sloppily the legislation was implemented. Democrats removed the discount due to a "drafting error" ? That's not very encouraging. Even so, it is weird that NRO complains when a government mandate is removed, even if accidentally.
Reply to this commentLinkReport Abuse