On Wed, 02 Mar 2011 17:40:18 -0500, wrote:

On Wed, 02 Mar 2011 14:02:03 -0800, wrote:

On Wed, 02 Mar 2011 14:18:08 -0500, wrote:

On Wed, 02 Mar 2011 10:11:52 -0800, wrote:



Nope. It's all about lack of ability to negotiate a better price,
e.g., like letting Medicare do it?

You can't negotiate with a monopoly, what is your leverage?

Lower your price or I will do without?

I guess the VA doesn't do that then.

http://www.govexec.com/dailyfed/122105cdpm1.htm

Who is stopping Medicare then?

Is it just that DVA is better than the bumbling bureaucracy at HHS?

Congress is stopping them. But, that can't be fixed, right?

What happened between 2009 and 2011?
It was a democratic congress and the health care bill was passed in a
filibuster proof senate.

Which didn't include anything about letting Medicare negotiate prices.
A failure of both houses of Congress for sure. The Dems wimped out.