Taking a page from the playbook of credit card companies that have been raising interest rates in advance of the implementation of recently passed laws preventing their ability to do so, the drug industry has this year boosted wholesale drug prices significantly, apparently fearing congressional passage of health care reform that would limit future price increases.

At a time of low inflation, resulting in no cost-of-living increases for Social Security recipients, and a weak economy, there is no legitimate reason for drug companies to have pushed through a 9 percent increase in the wholesale price of drugs, the largest increase since 1992.

The more likely reason is that health care reform measures now moving through Congress could become law someday with provisions that would limit the growth in the price of drugs.

Slowing the rate of growth in the cost of health care in the United States is one of the primary goals of health care reform, and drug prices are a major component to health care costs. Despite this, few in Congress are focused on reducing health care costs, including drug costs.

A report last week by the New York Times revealed the recent price hike to drugs, and the reaction from the public and Congress has been consistent — and negative.

If the pharmaceutical industry wanted to do something to make the public even less sympathetic to its position in the health care debate, this pre-emptive price hike is it. Already, many people believe that drug makers take advantage of the American public by charging much more for drugs here than the prices charged in other countries, where the government bargains for cheaper prices.

One reason why Americans pay more for health care is because drug prices are higher here than in other countries. The drug makers' political influence was apparent in the creation of the Medicare Part D prescription drug benefit, which became law in 2003. In that expansion of drug benefits, the new law prohibited the federal government from bargaining for lower drug prices, something done in most other countries and even by the Department of Veterans Affairs, which enjoys significantly lower drug prices than those available through Medicare.

The result of the ban on government bargaining for lower prices is that drug prices in the United States are 40 to 60 percent higher than in other developed countries.

Drug makers are much like the big health insurance companies in that some of the largest potential cost savings in reforming health care in America are found in the profits of large, politically powerful companies. And companies in these industries now are busy spending hundreds of millions on lobbying Congress to protect those profits.

David Levinthal, of the Center for Responsive Politics, sees the lobbying by drug companies and notes, "So far, in the health care reform debate, they have gotten what they wanted."

The questionable increases to wholesale drug prices have caught the attention of Congress, where last week there were calls in both the House and the Senate for investigations into the pricing behavior of the pharmaceutical industry.

The latest drug price increases are expected to add $10 billion to the national drug bill, which is predicted to be about $300 billion this year. Earlier in the health care reform debate, the drug industry struck a behind-closed-doors deal with the White House in which the industry promised drug price savings of $8 billion a year for 10 years. Now, it looks as though the drug makers will just boost prices and profits enough to cover any future "savings."

Congress and the White House appear to be putting the profits of special interests, including big drug companies and the health insurance industry, ahead of the best interests of the American people and the once-dominant-but-now-secondary goal of bringing the cost of health care in the United States in line with other advanced nations.

Ceding to the interests of special interests and their lobbyists will not bring about meaningful health care reform that lowers health care spending in the United States and improves results. This year's significant price increases by the big drug companies makes that clear.

— J.L.W.III