US Pres Obama's new health plan melds House and Senate Bills, with implications for Pharma and generics, in a $950-billion overhaul

The proposal that US President Barack Obama will bring to his Thursday (February 25 health 'summit' with congressional leaders to help thrash out health care reform which has become stalled since the loss of the Democrat Senate seat in Massachusetts on January 19 - contains many of the ideas from the bills already passed by the Democratic House of Representatives and the Senate, including a mandate that individuals buy insurance and a promise to "end discrimination" from pre-existing conditions.

President Obama's revised health care plan would cost $950 billion over the next decade and would require the pharmaceutical industry to pay $10 billion more in fees over 10 years starting in 2011.

The President's Proposal, as released by the White House yesterday, states that it puts American families and small business owners in control of their own health care. It also makes provisions for closing the Medicare prescription drug 'donut hole,' as well as addressing delays in generic approvals as a result if 'sweetheart' deals between copy and originator drugmakers, which are already under investigation in the USA and the European Union (The Pharma Letters passim).