prescription drug plan on 60 minutes

Today, 60 minutes just did an expose on the perscription drug plan - the most expensive entitlement in 40 years.

Here are some hi (low) lights they reported:

1. The drug industry has two lobbyists for every congressman. They spent over $10 million to lobby for the drug plan.

2. The drug lobby itself wrote the 1,000 page bill. 

3. On the day the House passed the bill, the congressmen received the bill the morning of the voting, so they did not have a lot of time to study it.  The voting took place at midnight, when they knew that most C-Span viewers went to bed.

4. The voting was supposed to take 15 minutes but, when the Republican leadership saw that a lot of republicans were siding with the democrats to vote against it, the voting was kept open for 3 hours, and the arm-twisting began.  The bill was finally passed at 3 am.

5. Congressmen were told that the program would cost $390 billion over 10 years, even though the latest revised estimates were for over $500 billion.  The revised numbers were not released until after the bill passed.

6. Billy Tauzin (R-La) led the passage of the bill.  Afterwards, he left congress and was hired by the pharmaceutical industry for $2 million / year.

7. The bill forbids Medicare from negotiating volume drug purchasing. The Veteran's Administration negotiates drug prices.  Today, an average Lipitor perscription costs Medicare $785/month vs. $520/month for the VA.