Jack McBride: Big medical firms thank Denham

Today I received a slick mailing from the “American Life Sciences Innovation Council” a 501(3)(c) political shell organization funded by the Medical Device, Pharmaceutical and the (for-profit) Cancer Treatment Centers, thanking Jeff Denham for “Protecting Medicare funding for cancer treatments.”

This is the same Jeff Denham who consistently votes to support the Ryan budget, which eliminates Medicare. Plus, he’s voted 40 times to repeal the Affordable Care Act. So what sort of medical care do Denham and the American Life Science Innovation Council advocate? They want no new taxes on high-margin medical device manufacturers, no limits on Medicare payments for unproven high-cost drugs that don’t perform any better than generic alternatives, and unlimited payments to so-called “Community Cancer Centers” that drain off many of the most lucrative patients from the real community hospitals, such as Memorial Medical Center.

This disinformation from the Republicans and their crooked allies should be exposed for what it is: lies. The media, including The Modesto Bee, has a responsibility to expose this fraudulent advertising.

JACK McBRIDE

Modesto

This story was originally published December 3, 2013 at 8:02 PM with the headline "Jack McBride: Big medical firms thank Denham."