美国国家公共电台 NPR How Sen. Orrin Hatch Shaped America's Health Care In Controversial Ways

 

STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:

The arrival of the new Congress means the retirement¹ of Utah Senator Orrin Hatch.

NOEL KING, HOST:

Hatch was elected 42 years ago in 1976, when Gerald Ford³ was president. Presidents have come and gone since then - seven presidents from Carter to Trump⁴ - but Hatch has always been there.

INSKEEP: In public, Orrin Hatch has always been quotable, often partisan⁵, yet noted⁶ for working with key Democrats⁸.

KING: And behind the scenes, he was deeply influential⁹ on health care legislation. His bills affected¹⁰ millions of consumers and many health care companies.

INSKEEP: Erik Neumann of our member station KUER in Salt Lake City has an evaluation¹¹.

ERIK NEUMANN, BYLINE¹²: During his 42 years in the Senate, Orrin Hatch sponsored major pieces of health legislation. There was the 1983 Orphan¹³ Drug Act to promote drug development for rare diseases and, in 1990, the Ryan White CARE Act to treat people with HIV who were uninsured.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

ORRIN HATCH: AIDS does not play favorites. It affects rich and poor, adults and children, men and women, rural communities and the inner cities. We know much, but the fear remains¹⁴.

NEUMANN: It was a bold stance at the time. It was also an example of how well Hatch, a Republican, worked with Democrats. Hatch co-sponsored a number of bills with Democrat⁷ Ted² Kennedy. The two men were sometimes called the odd couple. In 1997, they proposed the Children's Health Insurance Program, or CHIP. It was a major achievement, according to Joan Alker, a health policy analyst¹⁵ at Georgetown.

JOAN ALKER: This is an area the country has made enormous progress on. And it's something we should all feel proud of, and Senator Hatch should, too.

NEUMANN: At the time, the number of uninsured children in America was around 10 million. Today it's less than half that. Hatch's influence on American health care came from the sheer number of bills he sponsored and because he was chairman of several powerful committees.

DAVID SUNDWALL: History was on his side because the Republicans were in charge.

NEUMANN: That's Dr. David Sundwall, a Utah professor who worked as Hatch's health director in the 1980s. When Reagan became president, the Senate also became Republican for the first time in decades. And Hatch nabbed the chairmanship of the committee that oversees¹⁶ the Food and Drug Administration, the CDC and the National Institutes of Health.

SUNDWALL: He was virtually catapulted into this chairmanship role. This is astonishing, that he had chairmanship of an umbrella committee in his first term in the Senate.

NEUMANN: In 2011, Hatch got a seat on the even more powerful Senate Finance Committee and later became chairman. Now he had oversight¹⁷ of Medicare, Medicaid and CHIP. Hatch's growing power did not go unnoticed by health care lobbyists. The watchdog group Center for Responsive Politics ranks Hatch as a top recipient¹⁸ in Congress for health industry contributions. And a lot of Hatch's money came from the pharmaceutical¹⁹ sector²⁰.

JEREMY GREENE: Clearly he was pharma's man on the Hill.

NEUMANN: That's Dr. Jeremy Greene, a medical historian at Johns Hopkins University. He says Hatch did work on lowering drug prices, but his overall record was mixed. Take a law he sponsored in 1984 with Democrat Henry Waxman. The Hatch-Waxman Act was meant to spur the development of more generic²¹ drugs.

And generic sales did increase. Still, companies that sold the more expensive brand-name drugs didn't lose out. The act gave them longer patents on their drugs. And Greene says that soon drugmakers figured out how to exploit the law's weaknesses.

GREENE: The makers²² of brand-name drugs began to craft larger and larger webs of multiple patents around their drugs to try and help find ways of preserving monopolies after the initial patent expired.

NEUMANN: Hatch has also gotten mixed reviews for his work with another industry, supplements. That's a catch-all term for vitamins, herbs and other natural health products. The multibillion-dollar industry is concentrated in Hatch's home state of Utah. Loren Israelsen is a former Hatch staffer who now leads a supplements trade group.

LOREN ISRAELSEN: There was really no place for these natural health products.

NEUMANN: As the industry grew, a debate began over how to regulate it. In 1994, Hatch responded by sponsoring the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act.

ISRAELSEN: It was necessary to have someone who would be a champion to say, all right, if we need to change the law, what does it look like, and let's go.

NEUMANN: The act reined²³ in the FDA oversight, saying supplements did not have to go through safety testing like prescription²⁴ drugs. That's led to ongoing²⁵ questions about whether supplements work and how they interact with other medications. Hatch co-sponsored the supplements law with Democrat Tom Harkin.

That bipartisanship was how he worked for decades, but in recent years not so much. He strongly opposed the Affordable²⁷ Care Act. And at one time, he called its supporters the stupidest people he'd ever met. Hatch is now 84. In his farewell speech on the Senate floor, he lamented²⁸ the polarization that's overtaken Congress.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

HATCH: Gridlock is the new norm. And like the humidity here, partisanship²⁶ permeates²⁹ everywhere, everything we do.

NEUMANN: And as Orrin Hatch prepares to leave Washington, there's no sign of relief. For NPR News, I'm Erik Neumann.

INSKEEP: This story is part of a reporting partnership³⁰ with local member stations and Kaiser Health News.

1 retirement   

n.退休，退职

参考例句：

• She wanted to enjoy her retirement without being beset by financial worries.她想享受退休生活而不必为金钱担忧。
• I have to put everything away for my retirement.我必须把一切都积蓄起来以便退休后用。

2 ted   

vt.翻晒，撒，撒开

参考例句：

• The invaders gut ted the village.侵略者把村中财物洗劫一空。
• She often teds the corn when it's sunny.天好的时候她就翻晒玉米。

3 Ford   

n.浅滩，水浅可涉处；v.涉水，涉过

参考例句：

• They were guarding the bridge,so we forded the river.他们驻守在那座桥上，所以我们只能涉水过河。
• If you decide to ford a stream,be extremely careful.如果已决定要涉过小溪，必须极度小心。

4 trump   

n.王牌，法宝；v.打出王牌，吹喇叭

参考例句：

• He was never able to trump up the courage to have a showdown.他始终鼓不起勇气摊牌。
• The coach saved his star player for a trump card.教练保留他的明星选手，作为他的王牌。

5 partisan   

adj.党派性的；游击队的；n.游击队员；党徒

参考例句：

• In their anger they forget all the partisan quarrels.愤怒之中，他们忘掉一切党派之争。
• The numerous newly created partisan detachments began working slowly towards that region.许多新建的游击队都开始慢慢地向那里移动。

6 noted   

adj.著名的，知名的

参考例句：

• The local hotel is noted for its good table.当地的那家酒店以餐食精美而著称。
• Jim is noted for arriving late for work.吉姆上班迟到出了名。

7 democrat   

n.民主主义者，民主人士；民主党党员

参考例句：

• The Democrat and the Public criticized each other.民主党人和共和党人互相攻击。
• About two years later,he was defeated by Democrat Jimmy Carter.大约两年后，他被民主党人杰米卡特击败。

8 democrats   

n.民主主义者，民主人士( democrat的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The Democrats held a pep rally on Capitol Hill yesterday. 民主党昨天在国会山召开了竞选誓师大会。
• The democrats organize a filibuster in the senate. 民主党党员组织了阻挠议事。 来自《简明英汉词典》

9 influential   

adj.有影响的，有权势的

参考例句：

• He always tries to get in with the most influential people.他总是试图巴结最有影响的人物。
• He is a very influential man in the government.他在政府中是个很有影响的人物。

10 affected   

adj.不自然的，假装的

参考例句：

• She showed an affected interest in our subject.她假装对我们的课题感到兴趣。
• His manners are affected.他的态度不自然。

11 evaluation   

n.估价，评价；赋值

参考例句：

• I attempted an honest evaluation of my own life.我试图如实地评价我自己的一生。
• The new scheme is still under evaluation.新方案还在评估阶段。

12 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

13 orphan   

n.孤儿；adj.无父母的

参考例句：

• He brought up the orphan and passed onto him his knowledge of medicine.他把一个孤儿养大，并且把自己的医术传给了他。
• The orphan had been reared in a convent by some good sisters.这个孤儿在一所修道院里被几个好心的修女带大。

14 remains   

n.剩余物，残留物；遗体，遗迹

参考例句：

• He ate the remains of food hungrily.他狼吞虎咽地吃剩余的食物。
• The remains of the meal were fed to the dog.残羹剩饭喂狗了。

15 analyst   

n.分析家，化验员；心理分析学家

参考例句：

• What can you contribute to the position of a market analyst?你有什么技能可有助于市场分析员的职务？
• The analyst is required to interpolate values between standards.分析人员需要在这些标准中插入一些值。

16 oversees   

v.监督，监视( oversee的第三人称单数 )

参考例句：

• She oversees both the research and the manufacturing departments. 她既监督研究部门又监督生产部门。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The Department of Education oversees the federal programs dealing with education. 教育部监管处理教育的联邦程序。 来自互联网

17 oversight   

n.勘漏，失察，疏忽

参考例句：

• I consider this a gross oversight on your part.我把这件事看作是你的一大疏忽。
• Your essay was not marked through an oversight on my part.由于我的疏忽你的文章没有打分。

18 recipient   

a.接受的,感受性强的 n.接受者,感受者,容器

参考例句：

• Please check that you have a valid email certificate for each recipient. 请检查是否对每个接收者都有有效的电子邮件证书。
• Colombia is the biggest U . S aid recipient in Latin America. 哥伦比亚是美国在拉丁美洲最大的援助对象。

19 pharmaceutical   

adj.药学的，药物的；药用的，药剂师的

参考例句：

• She has donated money to establish a pharmaceutical laboratory.她捐款成立了一个药剂实验室。
• We are engaged in a legal tussle with a large pharmaceutical company.我们正同一家大制药公司闹法律纠纷。

20 sector   

n.部门，部分；防御地段，防区；扇形

参考例句：

• The export sector will aid the economic recovery. 出口产业将促进经济复苏。
• The enemy have attacked the British sector.敌人已进攻英国防区。

21 generic   

adj.一般的，普通的，共有的

参考例句：

• I usually buy generic clothes instead of name brands.我通常买普通的衣服，不买名牌。
• The generic woman appears to have an extraordinary faculty for swallowing the individual.一般妇女在婚后似乎有特别突出的抑制个性的能力。

22 makers   

n.制造者，制造商（maker的复数形式）

参考例句：

• The makers of the product assured us that there had been no sacrifice of quality. 这一产品的制造商向我们保证说他们没有牺牲质量。
• The makers are about to launch out a new product. 制造商们马上要生产一种新产品。 来自《简明英汉词典》

23 reined   

勒缰绳使（马）停步( rein的过去式和过去分词 )； 驾驭； 严格控制； 加强管理

参考例句：

• Then, all of a sudden, he reined up his tired horse. 这时，他突然把疲倦的马勒住了。
• The officer reined in his horse at a crossroads. 军官在十字路口勒住了马。

24 prescription   

n.处方，开药；指示，规定

参考例句：

• The physician made a prescription against sea- sickness for him.医生给他开了个治晕船的药方。
• The drug is available on prescription only.这种药只能凭处方购买。

25 ongoing   

adj.进行中的，前进的

参考例句：

• The problem is ongoing.这个问题尚未解决。
• The issues raised in the report relate directly to Age Concern's ongoing work in this area.报告中提出的问题与“关心老人”组织在这方面正在做的工作有直接的关系。

26 Partisanship   

n. 党派性, 党派偏见

参考例句：

• Her violent partisanship was fighting Soames's battle. 她的激烈偏袒等于替索米斯卖气力。
• There was a link of understanding between them, more important than affection or partisanship. ' 比起人间的感情，比起相同的政见，这一点都来得格外重要。 来自英汉文学

27 affordable   

adj.支付得起的，不太昂贵的

参考例句：

• The rent for the four-roomed house is affordable.四居室房屋的房租付得起。
• There are few affordable apartments in big cities.在大城市中没有几所公寓是便宜的。

28 lamented   

adj.被哀悼的，令人遗憾的v.（为…）哀悼，痛哭，悲伤( lament的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• her late lamented husband 她那令人怀念的已故的丈夫
• We lamented over our bad luck. 我们为自己的不幸而悲伤。 来自《简明英汉词典》

29 permeates   

弥漫( permeate的第三人称单数 )； 遍布； 渗入； 渗透

参考例句：

• Studies show that water vapor quickly permeates plastic packaging material. 研究证明水蒸汽能迅速渗入塑料封装材料。
• Democracy permeates the whole country. 民主主义（的思想）普及全国。

30 partnership   

n.合作关系，伙伴关系

参考例句：

• The company has gone into partnership with Swiss Bank Corporation.这家公司已经和瑞士银行公司建立合作关系。
• Martin has taken him into general partnership in his company.马丁已让他成为公司的普通合伙人。