Oliver Burckhardt came prepared for the dinner that President Trump hosted for a small group of major donors at his private Mar-a-Lago resort in South Florida on March 1.
A week earlier, one of Mr. Burkhardt’s biotech companies had donated $5 million to MAGA Inc., a pro-Trump political committee, that paved the way for him to attend the event.
At the dinner, Mr. Burckhardt got a chance to speak briefly to the president and other guests about himself and the work of his company, Extremity Care, which makes pricey medical products including paper-thin bandages made of dried bits of placenta, according to three people who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe the private event. He also brought copies of a flier urging the Trump administration to reverse a plan to restrict Medicare reimbursement for the bandages and criticizing former President Joseph R. Biden Jr. for having “rammed through a policy that would create more suffering and death for diabetic patients on Medicare.”
The next morning, Mr. Trump posted the flier on his social media site.
It was not just symbolic.
About one month later, the Trump administration announced it would delay until next year the Biden administration plan to limit Medicare’s coverage of the bandages, known as skin substitutes, saying that it was reviewing its policies.
It was the culmination of an expensive influence campaign by Extremity Care that underscored Mr. Trump’s willingness to grant access and preferential treatment to people and companies that fill the coffers of his political groups.
The February donation by Mr. Burckhardt’s company, which was revealed in a report filed late last week with the Federal Election Commission, was among dozens of seven- and eight-figure contributions to MAGA Inc. from donors, many of whom were rewarded with presidential face time to plead for their causes.
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The post After Donations, Trump Sided With Health Firms on Medicare Funds for Pricey Wound Care appeared first on New York Times.
