Wonkette
Everyone likes the idea of deficit reduction because it’s sort of like paying off the government’s credit card bills. Hell, the Democrats even ran on that platform last year. But, like usual, in attempting to do something about reducing the deficit, the government just fucked more shit up.
In 2005, Congress passed the “Deficit Reduction Act,” which included some provisions to screw the drug companies because, of course, making companies pay more in taxes and fees never has any downstream effects and everyone hates the pharmaceutical companies. Under federal law, pharmaceutical companies refund money to states for drugs covered by Medicaid based on a formula that takes into account the lowest price the companies offer. Starting in 1990, that formula didn’t include birth control provided at huge discounts to colleges and low-income clinics as a way to encourage the pharma companies to sell birth control there at very low prices.
But Congress fretted that Big Pharma was maybe using that loophole and others to screw them out of money (by leaving the lowest-priced products out of the formula) and eliminated the exemption. The new formula went into effect in October and — surprise — pharma companies told colleges and low-income clinics that they couldn’t afford for their rock-bottom prices to be included in the formula by which they had to reimburse states. Since then, many students and low-income women have seen the cost of their preferred birth control method double or more.
Never mind that the law was scheduled to go into effect for 2 years and that (I’m sure) the pharma companies told anyone in Congress who would listen that this was going to happen. Fixing their mistakes in advance of harm to constituents isn’t exactly the strong suit of our elected leaders. Lawmakers are all claiming they had no idea (they swear!) this could happen and have introduced legislation to reinstate the exemption for colleges and low-income clinics. It might or might not get passed before Christmas and go into effect next year (if they get around to it), but it won’t be retroactive anyway. In the meantime, states are getting the same refunds as they always got and pharma companies are probably making more money anyway so who knows if they’ll go back to selling birth control to colleges and low-income clinics so cheaply. But, hey, I’m sure the deficit got smaller, right? And we need more kids to prop up our underfunded Social Security system anyway.
