Declassified CIA documents reveal that the intelligence office that prepared lists of names for Guatemalan death squads was set up with assistance from the State Department in the 1960s, and that the CIA was collaborating with the Guatemalan military at the time of the massacres in the early 1980s. The surest way to achieve that is through a U.N.-sponsored genocide tribunal. The companies were hoping to defeat a commission proposal to move Medicare recipients over to traditional HMOs that would receive a federal subsidy. The industry fears that such a plan would lead to Medicare coverage of outpatient prescription drugs, and probably at federally negotiated prices which are always lower than the prices paid by private HMOs. Currently, Medicare does not cover outpatient medications.
Drug companies stand to lose big chunks of profit margin if the proposal passes.
Medicare, just for the prescription coverage. Sure, sure, the government has always been in big-business' pocket. But commissions like this one are intended counteract the influence of corporate money on legislation. Apparently, it's not working in this case. You're more likely to hear about them than you are to actually see any evidence of them.