Do you think all those dollars that the government takes out of your pay check will guarantee you a safe health care program when you retire? Nope. A new leak reveals the controversial trade deal, TPP, is actually targeting Medicare. Elizabeth Warren has actively campaigned against this trading deals for months.
Trading Deals’ Leak
Wikileaks revealed the 12-nation Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) is getting knotted up over Medicare ? specifically Part D, which currently provides prescriptions at a reasonable price. The problem is within the TPP health care transparency section. That section shows how our senior and disability medical program would be jeopardized. TPP would undermine the drug price negotiation our government currently has put in place.
International Judges Decide US Law
If an international judge tribunal thinks our laws unfairly limit trading deals? investments, TPP’s investor-state dispute settlement process (ISDS)?empowers?companies from any of the 12 Pacific countries participating in TPP to challenge our country’s domestic laws. This means that government drug purchasing programs will be challenged by pharmaceutical companies in any TPP country. Peter Maybarduk, director of Public Citizen’s Global Access to Medicines project says, told the Huffington Post,
?The language previously was a little more specifically designed to attack the reimbursement rates? (of government drug insurance programs.)
“Now it is more about process rather than outcomes.?
Deborah Gleeson public health lecturer at La Trobe University in Australia who examined the leaked section, told The New York Times, it was ?a victory for the non-U.S. partners to some extent.?
AARP And Union Against TPP
The AARP and the U.S. labor union, American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees oppose TPP. The reason is because?pharmaceutical and medical devices companies operating within these trading deals will challenge the U.S. government drug purchasing programs. The TPP language specifically mentions Medicare for the first time in the “transparency and procedural fairness for pharmaceutical products and medical devices.” This does not apply to state programs such as Medicaid. The more I learn about TPP, the more I see what a bad deal it is for the U.S.
