One of the most objectionable aspects of the healthcare reform legislation might be on its last legs:
President Obama is pushing for a last-minute change in the final health care bill that would shorten the time that expensive biotechnology drugs would be shielded from generic competition, pharmaceutical industry officials said Thursday.
Any White House intervention would be welcome news to generic pharmaceutical companies, as well as to some consumer groups, insurers and big employers, which have complained that the proposed House and Senate bills would not allow for robust competition.
If I were to pinpoint three of the shittiest things about the two bills, the rules extending drug patents is one of them. For a while, I was taking a medication that cost around $300 a month, and there wasn't a generic -- not for another 10 years from right now. Robbery. The fact that patents would actually be extended is the exact opposite of "bending the cost curve." Hopefully this is problem is being solved now.