Media that empowers working people – that's how we build a More Perfect Union.

Don't Miss a Video!

Access our exclusive reporting and rapid response actions directly in your inbox, so you don’t miss a beat in the fight for working people nationwide.

Be a part of a community backing up independent journalism with action.

Ideas

Have a story to tell or idea to share?
Email [email protected]
© 2021 More Perfect Union Action

Together we can build power for working people.

We’re asking questions that really matter, and telling the stories of people who really need to be seen and heard.

You can support our work by donating today.

Amount

Make It Monthly

Don't Miss a Video!

Access our exclusive reporting and rapid response actions directly in your inbox, so you don’t miss a beat in the fight for working people nationwide.

Be a part of a community backing up independent journalism with action.

Big Pharma’s 20-Year War On America

It started with a foolproof strategy: just lie.

YouTube Thumbnail

Big Pharma turned the U.S. into the world’s most lucrative market by rigging the system. For 20 years they denied our government the ability to negotiate drug costs.

Then Congress gave Medicare the power to negotiate medicine prices.

So Pharma is launching a legal war.

How did we get here?

In 2003, drug prices were rising and Medicare didn’t really cover prescription drugs. Some lawmakers were pushing to change that, but the bill was stalled in the House.

Republicans believed that the bill would be too costly. Democrats said the whole thing was an industry handout.

So, to break the gridlock, the pharmaceutical industry started throwing around a bunch of money.

A Republican congressman inserted language into the bill barring Medicare from negotiating prices, despite the fact that the bill would make Medicare the largest purchaser of drugs in the world.

Then the Bush administration stepped with a foolproof strategy to convince hold-outs in Congress: just lie.

The head of Medicare told his staff that if they told the truth about the cost, they would be fired.

The plan became law, and dozens of elected officials and staff went on to work for the pharmaceutical industry.

How it works today

Now, Medicare is spending more and more on prescription drugs each year.

Peter Maburduck, head of the Access to Medicines Program at Public Citizen, points to Medicare’s inability to negotiate drug prices as the cause.

“People in the United States are paying more than all people in all other countries of the world put together,” Maburduck told us. “And it’s because we don’t negotiate price.”

That’s finally starting to change.

Last year, through the Inflation Reduction Act, the Democrats finally gave Medicare the ability to negotiate the prices of ten drugs. Those ten drugs make up around 20 percent of the program’s total cost.

By the end of the decade, the law will expand to 60 drugs.

The industry reaction

Unsurprisingly, the pharmaceutical industry has launched a legal war to keep drug prices high.

There are now almost ten lawsuits from drug companies and lobbyists aimed to block Medicare’s new negotiation powers.

Most legal experts say that the lawsuits are a stretch—but there is a real concern that the lawsuits might work.

What the industry is looking for is a circuit split, when two or more judges rule differently on the same issue, making it much more likely for the Supreme Court to hear the case and resolve the issue.

It’s hard to speculate how this will turn out. This is a fight that has been going on for decades. The pharmaceutical industry wins most of the time, but the Democrats delivered a rare victory. And now it might be in jeopardy. 

“It’s important to understand that the industry has more than two lobbyists for every member of Congress,” Maburduck said. “So it’s important collectively that we fight back and turn that aggressiveness back against pharma and say, ‘actually, you know what? The American people think negotiating is very reasonable and fair pricing is essential.'”

The Latest

YouTube Thumbnail
What Scorpion Venom Has To Do With Amazon’s Monopoly
Read More
YouTube Thumbnail
Our Camera Footage Got Raided. You Won’t Believe Why.
Read More
YouTube Thumbnail
Michigan’s Bold New Solution to High Drug Prices
Read More
YouTube Thumbnail
Why U.S. Hospitals Are Closing At An Alarming Rate
Read More
YouTube Thumbnail
We Went to the Most Unequal Place in America
Read More
YouTube Thumbnail
Big Pharma’s 20-Year War On America
Read More
YouTube Thumbnail
Whistleblower Exposes Health Insurance Companies’ Most Evil Scheme
Read More
YouTube Thumbnail
What Disney Doesn’t Want You to Know About Visual Effects
Read More
YouTube Thumbnail
Inside the Exploitation at Vegas’s MGM and Caesar’s Palace
Read More
YouTube Thumbnail
How Four Companies Took Over Our Food Supply
Read More
YouTube Thumbnail
How Internet Companies like Verizon And Comcast Abandoned Rural America
Read More
YouTube Thumbnail
What Nestle and Abbott Don’t Want You to Know
Read More
YouTube Thumbnail
Trump Could Lose These Voters. Here’s Why.
Read More
YouTube Thumbnail
Chicago’s Radical Solution For Broken Tipping Culture
Read More
YouTube Thumbnail
The Hidden Reason Manufacturing Jobs Have Disappeared
Read More
YouTube Thumbnail
The Truth About Medicare Advantage
Read More
YouTube Thumbnail
Marvel workers won the first union in visual effects history
Read More
YouTube Thumbnail
We Uncovered a Shocking Right-Wing Plot to Eradicate Public Schools
Read More
YouTube Thumbnail
The Government’s Radical Solution to Lower Drug Prices
Read More
YouTube Thumbnail
This New Deal Jobs Program Is Coming Back
Read More