
6 SEVEN SECRETS FOR NEGOTIATING WITH GOVERNMENT
consider the addition of a prescription drug benefit to the federal
Medicare program, the pharmaceutical and health care industries,
along with their trade associations, launched a massive lobbying
campaign involving some 950 lobbyists (30 of whom were former
senators or members of Congress) and the expenditure of $141
million to shape the policies governing this new benefit to their
advantage. Ironically, one of the rules that the pharmaceutical in-
dustry succeeded in writing into legislation was a provision that
prohibits the Federal Government’s Center for Medicare Services
from negotiating with drug