He's a very smart guy, but he's basically carrying out the agenda of the pharmaceutical industry. His bill completely immunizes the drug industry from lawsuits.

I've always been concerned about this dangerously cozy relationship between the joint commission and the hospital industry generally, and the individual hospitals that it looks at,

It's a perfect fit for the pharmaceutical industry. The fact they he shaped this bill adds to his cachet.

Here we will see that pharmaceutical companies spend tens of billions of pounds every year trying to change the treatment decisions of doctors: in fact, they spend twice as much on marketing and advertising as they do on the research and development of new drugs. Since we all want doctors to prescribe medicine based on evidence, and evidence is universal, there is only one possible reason for such huge spends: to distort evidence-based practice.

When you put together a prescription drug bill that puts the pharmaceutical and insurance industry first, and the recipients way down at the bottom, of course you're going to get one big mess. And we have it.

Only the Netherlands and Denmark have a completely clean bill.