Thursday, December 24, 2009

Big Pharma's Wet Sloppy from Herb Kohl and Russ Feingold

Sure, there's a payoff! Hell, if Nebraska can score $100 million, and the swampland at the mouth of the Mississisppi can score $300 million, what's a few hundred million more?

John Berlau, my former colleague at the Competitive Enterprise Institute, adds to my list of the goodies big drug companies receive in the Senate health-care reform bill. Berlau flags the bill's provision prohibiting the use of pre-tax Health Savings Account money to buy over-the-counter drugs. This tax hike thus pushes more people to buy more expensive prescription drugs, which still, of course, get favorable tax treatment. OTC drugs are much cheaper those available for prescription, but they could now be more expensive to individual consumers given that prescription drugs would still be eligible for favored treatment in the tax plans, and that insurance companies would be mandated to cover many of them

Neat. A wealth-transfer from you directly to Pfizer.

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