Proposed Senate Health care bill shows us how regulatory capture can really work

If you thought the inclusion of industry representatives on the government proposed "CER panel" illustrated regulatory capture, you, of course, were right. But it gets even worse, much worse. Go here to read about it on Health Care Renewal as Dr. Roy Poses explains how bad it is.He also references a NEJM commentary on that subject which should be widely read and discussed and might give some pause to those who seem to assume that the purported intent of legislation and the likely consequences are the same thing.

Here is the essence of this new outrage.I am quoting from Poses's blog entry.

The Finance Committee bill also includes language requested by industry lobbyists (pages 1138–1139) that threatens to withdraw federal funding for 5 years from any investigator who publishes a report on research funded by the proposed institute that is not within the bounds of and entirely consistent with the evidence.' Determinations regarding such consistency would be made by the newly created research entity, which would have industry involvement both in its governance and in study design. To allow scientists — and their institutions, which receive the support for the conduct of research — to be punished for the publication of work that is not approved by this entity is essentially to cede authority over the dissemination of government-funded research to a body that is at least partially controlled by persons with a potential commercial interest in its outcome.

Comparative effectiveness research in the ideal and what it may turn into with the passage of this provision have as much in common as a warm puppy and a hot dog.