Fiscal Tax Blog

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Letter to the Editor: AARP’s financial entanglement

In her recent AgriNews piece, Matilda Charles highlights the benefits of AARP membership, but leaves out a crucial fact: AARP’s deep financial ties to UnitedHealth Group, the nation’s largest health insurer. AARP, an organization that claims to advocate for America’s seniors, collects billions annually in corporate royalties, primarily via AARP-branded UHG insurance plans. This financial entanglement raises important questions about AARP’s impartiality in advocating for meaningful healthcare reforms, particularly those that benefit and protect big…

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‘Shameful’: AARP’s partnership with healthcare giant faces backlash amid recent controversies

A partnership between AARP, the top interest group in the United States dedicated to the plight of seniors, is facing growing scrutiny over its partnership with UnitedHealthcare as the healthcare giant faces a growing number of controversies. “AARP now makes over a billion dollars a year in corporate royalties, more than triple what they make in membership dues,” American Commitment President Phil Kerpen told Fox News Digital. “The vast majority of those royalties come from the…

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Commitment to Seniors Launches Campaign Urging Congress to Eliminate the Biden Pill Penalty

Including the EPIC Act in Reconciliation is a Key First Step Toward Safeguarding Innovation and Protecting Older Patients CONTACT: Michael DeSantis michael@americancommitment.org Washington, D.C. — March 18, 2025 — Today, Commitment to Seniors, a project of American Commitment, launched a national and multi-state grassroots mobilization and paid media campaign urging Congress to eliminate the Biden Pill Penalty and include the Ensuring Pathways to Innovative Cures (EPIC) Act in reconciliation. The Biden administration’s disastrous Inflation Reduction Act (IRA)…

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Commitment to Seniors Applauds Senate Introduction of the EPIC Act to Eliminate the Biden “Pill Penalty”

Washington, D.C. — March 5, 2025 — Commitment to Seniors, a project of American Commitment, applauds Senators Thom Tillis (R-NC), Ted Budd (R-NC), Marsha Blackburn (R-TN), James Lankford (R-OK), and Steve Daines (R-MT) for introducing the Ensuring Pathways to Innovative Cures (EPIC) Act in the Senate. The EPIC Act eliminates the Biden “pill penalty,” which has led to American innovators pulling critically needed private sector investments in new cutting-edge therapies and cures for chronic diseases. A new national poll by McLaughlin…

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Commitment to Seniors Applauds Reintroduction of the EPIC Act to Fix the Biden “Pill Penalty”

Washington, D.C. — February 25, 2025 — Commitment to Seniors, a project of American Commitment, applauds Representatives Greg Murphy, Don Davis, and Richard Hudson for re-introducing the Ensuring Pathways to Innovative Cures (EPIC) Act. The EPIC Act fixes the Biden “pill penalty,” which discourages investment in small-molecule medicines and limits seniors’ access to cutting-edge treatments. A new national poll by McLaughlin & Associates highlights the urgency of this issue: 86% of senior voters are concerned that the IRA’s “pill…

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Kill Biden’s “Pill Penalty”

Congress should repeal every word of the Biden Inflation Acceleration Act, including the price controls on prescription drugs. The price controls will undermine the incentives to develop new cures across the board but are especially harsh on pills. Pill-form so-called “small molecule” drugs can be subjected to government price controls as soon as nine years after FDA approval, while “large molecule” drugs, which are those that come as injections or intravenously, are allowed 13 years…

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Congress Must Fix the Biden ‘Pill Penalty’

Last year, the catastrophically misnamed Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) was a punching bag on the campaign trail for raiding about $270 billion from Medicare prescription drug spending to fund green energy and electric vehicle giveaways and other Democratic special interest priorities. Less well-known is that the bill also contained a raid-within-a-raid on small molecule drugs subject to price controls four years earlier than biotech drugs. It’s called the “pill penalty” because it diverts research dollars…

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New Poll Reveals Seniors’ Overwhelming Concerns with the Biden “Pill Penalty”

CONTACT: Michael DeSantis michael@americancommitment.org A majority of older voters support the EPIC Act, which would fix the IRA’s pill penalty by granting small-molecule medicines the same 13-year exemption from government price setting as other medicines receive. Washington, D.C. — February 18, 2025 — Commitment to Seniors, a project of American Commitment, released a new national poll today conducted by McLaughlin & Associates among 1,600 likely voters 55 and older. The survey reveals older voters’ overwhelming concerns…