Fiscal Tax Blog

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End the Big Insurance Protection Racket

By Phil Kerpen May 20, 2026 The health insurance companies have taken to the airwaves to blame the hospital systems for out-of-control health care costs. Their argument has some merit, because hospital costs have skyrocketed in recent years. But the insurance companies have been the chief culprits in the cartelization of health care, and it was the Obamacare law they helped shape that was the proximate cause of industrywide consolidation, with a loss of choice…

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Commitment to Seniors Urges the U.S. Senate to Oppose any Inclusion of the “Most Favored Nation” Drug Pricing Model in Vote-A-Rama

Washington, D.C. – May 20, 2026 – Commitment to Seniors (C2S), a project of American Commitment urges the U.S. Senate to oppose any effort to include the “Most Favored Nation” (MFN) drug pricing model in the upcoming vote-a-rama on Reconciliation 3.0. This foreign price-fixing policy could have a devastating impact on the prescription drug market millions of older Americans rely upon. MFN would import foreign price controls by tying U.S. drug prices to those set…

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China is winning the first mile of drug innovation

The next breakthrough therapy may still be marketed in New York or Basel. But increasingly, it is being born in Shanghai. China’s pharmaceutical industry has moved beyond imitation into something more consequential: early-stage innovation at scale. The clearest signal isn’t manufacturing output or even late-stage approvals. It’s what’s happening at the very front of the pipeline, Phase 1 and Phase 2 clinical trials, where scientific ideas first become viable medicines. By that measure, China is no longer catching up. It…

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Here’s what the CEOs at major for-profit payers earned last yea

As the health insurance industry continues to face significant headwinds and challenges, the CEOs of major firms largely stayed steady in their compensation for 2025. Based on annual proxy filings from the six major national payers, these executives earned a total of $190.5 million in compensation last year. One of the notable storylines from 2025 was the sudden departure of UnitedHealth Group CEO Andrew Witty in May, and his replacement, Stephen Hemsley, carries a unique…

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Patients Should Not Have to Wait Until 2028 for Accountability

Prescription drug prices keep rising, driven in part by a system in which pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) sit at the center—controlling which drugs are covered, what pharmacies are paid, and what patients ultimately spend. Yet their profits are tied to higher prices, not lower ones, creating a system where the middleman benefits when costs rise. As long as those incentives remain hidden, patients are left paying the bill with no way to challenge it. Bringing…

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Germany Wants Cheaper Drugs—And Americans To Pay The Difference

What does a new healthcare reform effort in Germany have to do with American patients? Quite a lot, actually. The German government is looking to cut healthcare spending by tens of billions of euros. To that end, it is pushing pharmaceutical companies to accept significantly lower prices for new medicines. That may help Germany balance its books. But it comes at a cost to American patients and pharmaceutical innovation. It’s also fundamentally unfair to the United States.…

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How The AARP Profits From Seniors’ Economic Misery

As health care costs continue to rise, families of all ages and sizes continue to feel the pinch. But when seniors get squeezed, one organization in particular benefits, and it’s not one you might think. While it claims to run a seniors’ advocacy organization, AARP, formerly the American Association of Retired Persons, actually profits from its own members’ economic misery. As premiums rise for its members, so too does AARP’s financial windfall — a perverse…

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Price Controls Could Prevent the Next ‘Miracle Drug’

The death rate from cancer in the United States has fallen by more than one-third since 1991. HIV-related mortality has dropped ninefold since 1995. Death rates for Alzheimer’s, chronic respiratory diseases, and stroke have all declined in recent years, too. These gains didn’t happen by accident. They’re the result of decades of medical innovation — from antiretroviral therapy drugs to breakthrough cancer treatments — that have helped people live longer, healthier lives. These pharmaceutical breakthroughs…