Pre-Holiday Potpourri

■ First up, we go south, and learn that:

"A state court jury on Tuesday found two major pharmaceutical companies defrauded Alabama in a long-running Medicaid drug pricing scheme and ordered the firms to pay more than $114 million in damages."

Although both companies denied that they'd done anything untoward, the jury disagreed. The alleged scam was not a short term deal, either; prosecutors claimed the scheme ran for some 14 years.

My question is: why did it take so long for this to unravel?

■ Our friends at The Industry Radar and the Kaiser Daily Report tell us that The Grand Experiment (aka Massachusetts Health Care Plan) is in a spot of trouble [ed: you're surprised?!]:

"Since the law was enacted in 2006, the percentage of uninsured Massachusetts adults has decreased from 13% to 7%...the actual cost was $625 million."

According to the article, that $625 million was spent on 355,000 people (some got more than others, of course). And it's only getting more expensive:

"Gov. Deval Patrick (D) has requested $869 million for the program for fiscal year 2009, compared with previous estimates of $725 million." That's a roughly 17% increase. But I thought that this would help "lower" the cost of insurance? My bad.

■ Finally, our Cousins Across the Pond have some advice for us:

"Ad by Brit says, 'You won't better your system with ours' "

Oh.

Turns out, not everyone is thrilled with the MVNHS©; lots of folks are a bit put off by the fact that, for example, some treatments are covered if you live in one area, but not if you live across town. The campaign features folks from Britain, Canada, and Europe, and has a simple message:

"Nationalized care systems...distribute care services and products based on whether it is cost-effective for the government, not whether the patient needs it or it will relieve a health problem."

Sounds about right.