Washington, D.C. – Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren addressed the annual Health Action Conference sponsored by Families USA, a left-leaning health care advocacy group. Standing before the conference, Warren touted the success of Obamacare despite the fact that tens of millions of voters were deceived with promises they could keep their existing health insurance and physicians if they liked them. Even after Obamacare architect Jonathan Gruber admitted that deception was used in the law to hide taxes and punitive aspects of the health care measure from the public.
Still, Warren took the political left’s “ends justify the means” position that the law is doing remarkable improvements for the nation.
The firebrand senator went on to direct her populist ire at big pharmaceutical companies that abuse existing laws regarding their products. In this regard, the senator has a point. From 2007 to 2012, drug makers were fined $13 billion dollars for various offenses ranging from withholding the true nature of side effects from the public, and setting up kickback schemes for doctors to prescribe the medication to as many patients as possible.
In addition, she took on her common theme that since taxpayers pay for R&D grants used by drug makers, they share in the success of the medications drug makers produce. This in turn should provide a benefit to the public. Warren announced she’ll soon bring up legislation to have drug makers share the benefits of their drugs with the public. This will be done by having them donate more money to the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to achieve more medical advancements.