Joe Manchin Story Archives - Page 65 of 66 - West Virginia Public Broadcasting

Manchin proposes delay to ACA individual mandate

Senator Joe Manchin is proposing a delay in a key component to the federal Affordable Care Act, the individual mandate. Manchin defended his legislation…

Senator Joe Manchin is proposing a delay in a key component to the federal Affordable Care Act, the individual mandate. Manchin defended his legislation saying it allows the administration more time to fix glitches in the enrollment system, but a left-leaning policy group in Charleston maintains a delay will have significant negative impacts on West Virginians.

The individual mandate requires all Americans sign up for health insurance through the federal health care exchange by April 1, or face a penalty of $95 or 1 percent of their annual income, whichever is greater.

The penalty will be collected by the IRS and increases to more than $300 after the first year.

Manchin, however, said it’s too soon to punish Americans who are unable to sign up for health care because of problems with the federal enrollment website. He’s proposing that date be pushed back from April 1 to January 1, 2015.

“This should be a transition year,” he said in a conference call Thursday. “We’re seeing all the problems that they’re having rolling this thing out. It’s going to have some problems and they’re going to have to work through that, but people shouldn’t be facing a fine because they can’t log in.”

But Brandon Merritt, health policy analyst for the West Virginia Center on Budget & Policy, said the individual mandate is key and without it the Affordable Care Act will fall apart.

“The idea of the Affordable Care Act is to provide insurance to those who don’t have insurance and to help control the costs of insurance that has been creeping up for decades now,” Merritt said. “So, the individual mandate is what holds this together.”

Without that mandate, Merritt said healthy individuals won’t purchase plans, preventing more individuals from buying coverage and leaving insurance companies with a pool of sickly customers.

“Essentially what happens is that those who don’t seek as much treatment in any given year are helping cover the costs of those who do seek more treatment, and so under the Affordable Care Act, if the individual mandate is delayed likely what would happen is that only those who are sicker and going to require more care throughout the year are going to be the ones who purchase more health insurance,” Merritt said. “What that does is skews the risk pool so the health insurers essentially get set up with a sicker population that requires more treatment and is going to cost them more money.”

The more providers have to pay to cover their customers, the higher premium rates will climb thus preventing even more individuals from being able to access health care.

Manchin said that notion in Washington is being pushed by the insurance companies.

“I think everybody wants insurance if it’s affordable,” he said. “It’s part of who we are as Americans, but on the other hand, you have to have a marketable product. That’s where the insurance industry has to work with the administration and it has to be market forces that are driving it.”

Republicans have proposed similar delays in the hopes of preventing the ACA from taking root at all.

Manchin said his intention is not to get rid of the ACA in its entirety, but to put more pressure on the Obama administration and the industry to offer an affordable, quality product to consumers and to prevent Americans from being penalized before it is available.

“A lot of my colleagues keep saying delay, delay, delay. They want to delay it and never start it,” Manchin said. “Well, this is such a mammoth undertaking that you have to start down the road of (trying to work) within the marketplace, figure out where the problems are and if they can be fixed or not.”

Merritt doesn’t believe Manchin is trying to sabotage the bill’s implementation, but still, his analysis is blunt, saying straight out the senator’s plan won’t work. Merritt said now is not the time to tread lightly on a subject that affects thousands of West Virginians.

“While I understand Senator Manchin’s approach to say let’s try to find a common ground, I don’t think this is the compromise we really want to see because this is going to have negative impacts not just politically, but here in West Virginia with those who are unable to get insurance and those who do get insurance on the private market will see increased premiums,” he said.

“So, it’s really going to hit us here at home if we delay this aspect of the Affordable Care Act. I think it’s really important that we put it bluntly to say that this is a bad idea.”

When asked if the bill would receive a signature if it made it to the President’s desk, Manchin said he was unsure, but he hopes the bipartisan support will force the President to consider it.

Manchin says default not an option

Twelve Senators are reaching across the aisle on a deal to end the government shutdown and increase the federal debt limit before Thursday, the day the country would likely default on its debts if Congress doesn’t act. One of the 12, Senator Joe Manchin said default is not an option.

The bipartisan Senate deal is fairly straightforward: fund the government through the end of the year, raise the country’s debt limit to avoid default, and mandate a conference committee meeting on the budget between the two Houses. Three things Manchin said are “crucial” in order to get the nation moving forward

“The most important thing we can do is make sure we don’t default at all, nor are we going to default,” he said in a conference call with media Monday afternoon.

But Manchin said in the two weeks of negotiations between the Senators, that third element—a conference between the House and Senate—is what stood out to him as the most important part of the deal.

“Our main goal was to get the budget conference in a meeting and look at the differences of the budget and have a full report to Congress,” Manchin said. “This a chance for a bigger deal, a longer deal.”

Congress hasn’t passed a full budget since 2009 and every few months must vote to keep funding the government until a budget deal can be reached, but Manchin said members of both Houses haven’t even come together to discuss their proposed funding bills and that’s what has to change.

“There’s a lot of skeptics that will say that will never happen. I’m not going to sit here and tell you it will or it won’t. What I’m telling you is it’s got to happen sooner or later,” he said, “but this is our best opportunity to get into that and I’m sick as every one else out there going through this scenario every 3 to 6 months. It’s awful, but this one gives us a chance to at least put them into conference.”

The bipartisan deal mandates a conference committee be formed and the two budgets discussed to come up with a solution.

“Will they deal in good faith, I can’t guarantee that, but I can guarantee they’ll get in a room,” he said.

The Senate deal also includes some concessions on the Democratic side.

The medical device tax, which applies to devices like artificial joints and pacemakers, will be delayed for two years to allow companies to transition toward the fee under the Affordable Care Act.

A second compromise was reached for income verification on the healthcare exchange website. It will prevent fraud and ensure only eligible individuals receive their subsidies on the exchange.

“So people can’t come in a fraudulently claim their income and not have proof of that. That made sense to a lot of us,” Manchin added,

Manchin said, however, the specifics of the plan are still up in the air.

He wants to see the government funded until the first of the year, the debt ceiling extended a few months beyond that and a conference committee convened, but said when or for how long those things will happen is up to the President and Congressional leaders as they hash out a final deal.

Manchin expected a deal and an official vote from Congress to come Thursday morning in time to avoid hitting the federal debt ceiling.

Manchin calls for invesitgation of FDA

U.S. Senator Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) Wednesday sent a letter to the Commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration informing them he will be calling for a…

U.S. Senator Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) Wednesday sent a letter to the Commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration informing them he will be calling for a full senate investigation into allegations of unholy links between the pharmaceutical industry and FDA officials overseeing safety regulations of painkiller medicine—this in light of a recent report that West Virginia has the highest drug overdose mortality rate in the United States.
The Trust for America’s Health released a report earlier this week that says over the past decade, overdose deaths in WV have increased more than 600 percent. Rich Hamburg, the Deputy Director of the Trust for America’s Health, largely blames access to drugs like Oxycontin, Vicodin, Xanax, Ritalin and especially hydrocodone.

This report coupled with a story in The Washington Post which alleges that private companies paid as much as $25,000 to participate in FDA advisory panel discussions on federal regulations for prescription painkillers, has Senator Joe Manchin calling for action.

“I am gravely concerned by the allegations of ‘pay to play’ between the FDA and pain medicine companies and am calling for a full investigation to see how deep this goes,” said Senator Manchin. “If these allegations are true, they explain why it has taken the FDA almost a year to reach a decision to reschedule hydrocodone even after their own expert advisory panel recommended it. It is a shame that some of these companies were able to influence the FDA’s decision with a $25,000 contribution, while West Virginian families are destroyed by the addiction these pills cause.”

Manchin sent a letter to Commissioner Margaret Hamburg, outlining his concerns and requesting more information about the meetings that have taken place:

Dear Commissioner Hamburg: I write regarding recent reports describing the improper relationship between the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the pharmaceutical industry. Specifically, private companies have paid thousands of dollars to participate in FDA advisory panel discussions concerning federal regulations for prescription painkillers. These allegations clearly demonstrate a conflict of interest by allowing pharmaceutical companies to have undue influence over the FDA’s decision making process. I plan to call for a full congressional investigation into this issue to determine whether these relationships have impacted the FDA’s rescheduling of hydrocodone combination drugs. According to reports, two medical professors organized a panel in consultation with the FDA on how to test the safety and effectiveness of painkillers. According to e-mails between these two professors, pharmaceutical companies paid as much as $25,000 each to have a seat at the table with FDA officials. When challenged by the companies on the cost, one of the professors responded that “20k is small change, and they can justify it easily if they want to be at the table.” The professor continued to justify the high cost of admission to these closed-door meetings by pointing out that the pharmaceutical companies are “impact[ing] FDA thinking…for very little money.” The FDA is responsible for protecting and promoting public health through the regulation and supervision of various products, including painkillers. This task requires the FDA to evaluate scientific data and put the public first. These recent reports raise serious doubts about the FDA’s ability to make objective and scientifically based decisions regarding the proper treatment of prescription painkillers. Even worse, when challenged by another federal agency, the National Institutes of Health, on the stigma of this “pay to play process,” the FDA balked and continued with the arrangement. The painkiller industry is a booming business, with profits growing to $9 billion in the United States. As the painkiller market grows, so does the “epidemic” of addiction and abuse. Recent data from the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) demonstrates the role that opioid pain relievers play in overdose deaths. The CDC study showed that drug overdose deaths increased for eleven straight years since 1999. Sixty percent of the drug overdose deaths (22,134) involved pharmaceutical drug products, and prescription drug products containing oxycodone, hydrocodone, methadone and others represented three-quarters of those deaths (16,651). This is a problem that the FDA must address. As we have discussed on many occasions, I have been urging the FDA to reschedule hydrocodone combination drugs from Schedule III to Schedule II. In spite of these conversations, I continue to be frustrated with the amount of time the FDA has taken to properly schedule these drugs. It has been 4 years since the second petition requesting that the FDA and the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) evaluate the proper scheduling of hydrocodone combination drugs. Even more concerning, it has been over 8 months since I testified at the Drug Safety and Risk Management Advisory Committee (DSaRM) where the FDA’s own advisory panel, consisting of leading scientists and researchers in the field, overwhelmingly voted to recommend rescheduling hydrocodone combination drugs. These press reports raise troubling questions about the FDA’s delay in issuing a recommendation regarding this petition. I truly hope that the FDA is not allowing their relationship with the pharmaceutical industry to influence their duty to protect the American public. Mr. Douglas Throckmorton, a deputy director of the agency, said that because the panel was not initiated by the FDA, the rules prohibiting “pay to play” did not apply. I find that claim questionable and truly hope that the FDA will rethink their extremely misguided policy on this matter. If the FDA is seriously alleging that its conduct is proper and that payments by the pharmaceutical industry to participate in closed-door advisory panels is not impacting its decisions, then the FDA should have no problem disclosing the following information to my office in a prompt manner: The location, date and time of all meetings, discussion panels and conferences attended by FDA personnel where private companies, individuals and/or interest groups were able to attend if payments over $1,000 were made to the FDA or the organizing entity. Examples of these meetings, discussion panels and conferences were described in the Washington Post article “Pharmaceutical Firms Paid to Attend Meetings of Panel that Advises FDA,” Peter Whoriskey, Oct. 6, 2013; The location, date and time of all meetings, discussion panels and conferences organized by Professors Robert Dworkin and/or Dennis Turk that involved the FDA; A list of all companies that paid to attend the meetings, discussion panels and conferences described in the first bullet and the amounts that they paid; The topics of discussion at these meetings, discussion panels and conferences described in the first bullet; All recommendations arising from these meetings, discussion panels and conferences; All e-mails written by Professors Robert Dworkin, Dennis Turk, and Mr. Douglas Throckmorton or anyone else at the FDA regarding these meetings, discussion panels and conferences described in the first bullet; The total cost of each of these meetings, discussion panels and conferences described in the first bullet broken down by category of disbursements (e.g., food costs, venue costs, etc.); Any funds related to these meetings, discussion panels and conferences described in the first bullet that directly went to the FDA or any individuals at the FDA; All individuals who attended these meetings, discussion panels and conferences described in the first bullet; A list of all former FDA employees who left the FDA for employment at any company that paid funds to attend these meetings, discussion panels and conferences described in the first bullet. I respectfully request responses to these requests in a prompt and timely manner. I look forward to your answers.

Manchin said he’s especially frustrated with this recent report and news story because he hasn’t been able to get significant progress with the FDA in getting hydrocodone reclassified as a Schedule II narcotic—which would classify it as having “a high potential for abuse which may lead to severe psychological or physical dependence.”

“Everybody on the front lines, everybody from drug treatment, everybody in the hospitals, law enforcement, totally support rescheduling hydrocodone from Schedule III to Schedule II,” said Manchin

He said that action would drastically reduce the amount of pills distributed, while assuring patients who need the drugs would be able to get a 30 day supply with a possibility of a 90-day extension if a doctor sees fit. He says the only opposition to this change has come from pharmaceutical companies.

Federal lawmakers struggle to make good

U.S. Senators Joe Manchin and Jay Rockefeller, along with 48 other senators and Congressman Nick Rahall (all D-W.Va.) sent a letter today to Defense…

U.S. Senators Joe Manchin and Jay Rockefeller, along with 48 other senators and Congressman Nick Rahall (all D-W.Va.) sent a letter today to Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel urging that the National Guard and Reserves, and the civilians who support our troops, receive pay during the government shutdown.

The letter comes despite the passage of the “Pay Our Military Act” which was signed into law just before the government shutdown. The intent was to make sure all military personnel receive pay. Still, somehow many service members and civilians, especially in the National Guard and Reserves, have been furloughed without compensation.

Meanwhile the list of legislators who have said that they plan to donate or refuse compensation earned over the course of the shutdown grew to 127 today.

Senator Joe Manchin announced today that he will donate the salary he receives during the government shutdown to the Save the Children charity in West Virginia

Congresswoman Shelley Moore-Capito has also asked that her pay be withheld until the shutdown is over. A representative from her office reports that she intends to donate that pay to a charity, but doesn’t specify which one.

Quick fact: Members of the House and Senate have earned $174,000 annually since 2009–which is about $500 every day. Among congressional leaders, House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) earns $223,500 annually, while the Senate leaders Harry Reid (D-Nev.) and Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) each get $193,400.

Manchin calls Boehner to allow House vote, end shutdown

Today U.S. Senator Joe Manchin delivered a speech on the Senate floor to discuss the government shutdown. He apologized for ongoing political antics and…

Today U.S. Senator Joe Manchin delivered a speech on the Senate floor to discuss the government shutdown. He apologized for ongoing political antics and reiterated the call for House Speaker John Boehner to call a vote on a clean continuing resolution bill.

“I can tell you right now, the unanimous consensus on the House is that if John Boehner would allow the House to vote on the clean CR, it’ll pass today,” Manchin said in a conference call after his speech.

Senator Manchin says he’s appalled by the view from his front-row seat in Washington. He says he believes it would have been an appropriate measure to legislate a transitional year where no individual fines would have been applicable in the new Affordable Care Act plan, but he says resorting to shutting down the government is a careless act of self-destruction in perilous times.

“If market forces start working against us, there might be other forces that start causing shut downs or delays or inconveniences or hardships that we have no control over,” he warned.

Manchin says he continues to meet daily with other members of Congress to find a breakthrough and worries that in the meantime, the shutdown is costing upwards of $300 million a day.

Manchin proposes alternative to striking Syria

Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) continues to lobby for a bill he’s cosponsoring with Sen. Heidi Heitkamp (D-N.D.) promoting a diplomatic solution to problems in Syria.

Manchin and Heitkamp have proposed a joint resolution that would give Syria’s president 45 days to agree to sign the Chemical Weapons Convention and comply with its provisions. The Convention prohibits the development, stockpiling or use of chemical weapons and requires they be destroyed.

At this point Manchin opposes the Obama Administration’s proposed limited military strike.

“The question I continue to ask myself which I’m sure you all have and all American have and anyone you’ve asked, is there an imminent threat to our country and to our people. And I have found that to be absolutely not the case,” Manchin said.

Manchin said he decided to oppose immediate US military intervention after spending last week listening to all sides of the issue during Senate hearings.

“But I have to ask why are we the only ones going alone, why does it rise to the level that we should be the ones acting,” he said. “If the Arab League is not willing to go in and help their people if you will, and take the lead, if the rest of the international community has not come to the aid and not willing to come to the aid for different reasons why should we.”

Manchin said the resolution also requires the Obama administration to work at finding a diplomatic solution to preventing Syria from using chemical weapons again.