Thread: Drug industry to buy $150 Million ads backing health plan

Drug industry to buy ads backing White House health plan

Lobbyists given OK to spend up to $150 million

By David D. Kirkpatrick
NEW YORK TIMES NEWS SERVICE
2:00 a.m. August 9, 2009

WASHINGTON – The drug industry has authorized its lobbyists to spend as much as $150 million on television commercials supporting President Barack Obama's health-care overhaul, beginning over the August congressional recess, people briefed on the plans said yesterday.

The unusually large scale of the industry's commitment to the cause helps explain some of a contentious back-and-forth playing out in recent days between the odd-couple allies over a deal that the White House struck with the industry in June to secure its support.

The terms of the deal were not fully disclosed. Both sides had announced that the drug industry would contribute $80 billion over 10 years to the cost of the health-care overhaul without spelling out the details.

With House Democrats moving to extract more than that just as the drug makers finalized their advertising plans, the industry lobbyists pressed the Obama administration for public reassurances that it had agreed to cap the industry's additional costs at $80 billion. The White House, meanwhile, has struggled to mollify its most pivotal health industry ally without alienating congressional Democrats who want to demand far more of the drug makers. White House officials could not immediately be reached for comment.

Many Democratic lawmakers have railed for years against what they consider the industry's excessive profits and pointedly insisted in recent days that they do not feel bound by the White House's commitments.
Sources briefed on the drug industry's plans, speaking on condition of anonymity because the details remain confidential, say top officials of the industry's trade group, the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, or PhRMA, are scheduled to meet this week to finalize its fall plans.

By comparison, Obama's presidential campaign spent about $236 million on television commercials while the campaign of the Republican candidate, Sen. John McCain of Arizona, spent about $126 million. Few expect the opponents of the health care overhaul to muster as much advertising muscle as its backers, including sympathetic business groups, labor unions and ideological allies. The drug makers stand to gain millions of new customers from the expansion of health care coverage.

Ken Johnson, a spokesman for PhRMA, declined to discuss the specific sums. “Our board has agreed to make a significant investment in support of comprehensive reform,â€

We know who will make a profit from the plan.[/b]

I was at the Congressional Minority Health Conference this year and the drug companies were definitely there in a big way. They are betting that with a Democratic President, Senate and House the opponents can not hold the line so they might as well be on the winning side and at least cover their behinds.