PhRMA campaigns for universal US health care

The Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA) has launched an initiative to promote US federal health care reform,  despite the threat that a more centralized system is likely to impose  price controls on drugs. The group is co-sponsoring an advertising  campaign with other health care-related groups.

Billy Tauzin, the PhRMA's president, said: "as part of our continuing  commitment to improving the health, quality of life and well-being of  American families, [the] PhRMA has banded together with the American  Cancer Society, American Medical Association, Families USA, Service  Employees International Union and Regence BlueCross BlueShield to  sponsor a television ad that iterates the importance of health care  reform for all Americans." He added that the PhRMA and its partners  "also want to highlight that health care reform would have a positive  impact on America's struggling economy by remedying fast-rising costs  and helping patients who have lost health coverage."

However, this point is open to dispute, given that the federal  government has already committed several hundred billion dollars to  bailing out financial institutions and the auto industry, at a time  when the budget deficit was already at record levels. Tom Clougherty,  executive director of the UK-based free market think-tank, the Adam  Smith Institute, told the Marketletter that "any additional government  spending will have to be taxed or borrowed from somewhere." He added  that, without reform, the Medicare and Social Security programs will  already require massive increases in taxation unless reforms are  implemented. For example, the Medicare Part D prescription drug benefit,  although costing considerably less than forecast, still requires a  10-year federal government commitment of $395.0 billion.