Word: direct
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...bill barred the government from negotiating for lower drug prices for its 43 million Medicare recipients. Instead, that task was delegated to private insurers and their agents, who Democrats argued - and still argue - don't have the muscle to get the steep discounts that a huge government program could. "Direct negotiation for lower prescription-drug prices is directly related to our lobbying- and ethics-reform legislation," Rahm Emanuel, then the chairman of the House Democratic Caucus, told the New York Times in January 2007. Both were needed, he said, "to make sure that special interests do not control what happens...
...That puts the White House on the other side from House Democrats, who are trying to subject the drug industry to the kind of direct price negotiations with Medicare that Emanuel once championed. The White House also agreed, sources say, not to get behind a provision in the House bill that would eliminate a good deal the industry got from another provision in the Medicare prescription-drug program. The law shifted 6 million eligible beneficiaries from Medicaid - which pays lower prices for drugs - to the Medicare drug plan. In just the first two years of the program, that shift...
...Spotify doesn't see itself as a rival to iTunes, mainly because it feels that it offers a service iTunes can't match. "We honestly don't think there is a direct competitor to Spotify, as no one's doing exactly what we're doing at the moment," Butcher says via e-mail. "We're confident that Apple will allow the Spotify app, as we think it will improve the iPhone users' experience even further." (Read "Maximize Your iPhone...
...this year, a foundation supporting Oregon's Lake Oswego school district has raised $1.6 million solely to fund teachers. The bulk of the fundraising was done through direct appeals - phone calls, e-mails, snail mail - and all money is spread out equally over the area's 13 schools through an agreement between the foundation and the district. Lake Oswego, an affluent bedroom community outside Portland, is able to leverage the wealth of its parents to help its 13 schools. "Our parents are willing to step up and provide money," says Bill Korach, Lake Oswego district superintendent. "But we are just...
...including benefits - so most parents are not under the illusion that they will be able to bake-sale their way into saving multiple jobs. Which is why some communities establish educational foundations. These nonprofits, typically staffed by volunteers, alumni and retired staff, take the university approach to fundraising: direct calls, mailings and appeals to former students, local businesses and even current staff. "This approach is different from relying on the PTA booster-club mentality," says Jim Collogan, president of the National School Foundation Association. "This says, We're going to get serious, find our alumni and talk to them about...