News & Blogs

Ronald Bailey: Biden’s Drug Price Controls Would Make Americans Sicker and Shorten Their Lives

Part of the way that the Biden administration and congressional Democrats want to pay for their $3.5 trillion social welfare “infrastructure” plan is by forcing pharmaceutical companies to lower the prices they charge the government for their medications. Democrats argue that benchmarking the prices paid for certain prescription drugs to prices paid by other developed countries will offset around $500 billion in government spending over the next ten years. Voilá—one-seventh of their infrastructure plan would be paid for. First,…

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WSJ Editorial Board: The Political Raid on Future Cures

It’s one of the strangest, and most destructive, juxtapositions in political history. Even as vaccines developed by drug companies are saving the world from Covid, the Democratic Party wants to rob these firms of the reward for innovation that is essential to developing future cures. That’s one of the big stories as Democrats scramble to finance their $3.5 trillion expansion of the entitlement state. Even they can’t find more than $2.2 trillion in taxes to…

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Jon Decker: OptumRx and UnitedHealth Group Drown in Overbilling Lawsuits, AARP Remains Silent

When it comes to adhering to the rules, Pharmacy Benefit Managers (PBMs)—the middlemen of the healthcare industry—are known to play fast and loose. OptumRx, a subsidiary of the nation’s largest health insurance company UnitedHealth Group (UHG), is certainly no exception. Time and again, these corporate middlemen have found themselves in legal hot water, taking advantage of the U.S. healthcare system by overcharging patients and taxpayers. But in the case of OptumRx, what makes their recent…

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Dan Walls: Drug prices and a new, different school year

I agree with an important point made in a recent op-ed penned by AARP’s Lucretia Young — drug prices are objectively too high in this county. But I am fiercely opposed to the idea that allowing Medicare to negotiate prescription drug prices is the right way to lower costs for patients at the pharmacy counter. And most Americans agree with me. In fact, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation, 65% of Americans oppose negotiation if…

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Mass Marion: AARP and the triumph of image over skeezy reality

President Biden has decided to enforce an executive order issued by former President Trump that requires hospitals to post their prices publicly — to be “transparent.” Not only is the administration insisting on compliance, but it’s doubling down by increasing the penalties for the 80% of large hospitals that have dragged their feet so far. The administration should be congratulated not only for the policy, but for not suggesting to the media that the previous administration had nothing to do with…

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Senator Tim Scott: Putting Patients First

Research shows that since 1982, new drugs provided an extra 150 million years of life—and that the United States led the way with 719 new drugs. This is nothing short of miraculous. For seniors, and for all Americans, it is impossible to put a price on living longer and living better. Sadly, that is exactly what H.R. 3 would do, to tragic effect.

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Commitment to Seniors Releases New Television Ad Criticizing Government Spending Plans at the Expense of Seniors

  WASHINGTON, D.C. — Commitment to Seniors, a project of American Commitment dedicated to protecting seniors’ healthcare interests, releases a new television advertisement condemning big government spending plans, which will come at the expense of seniors’ access to lifesaving medications. The ad criticizes Democrat politicians, including Bernie Sanders and Nancy Pelosi, for harming Medicare beneficiaries and filling the pockets of big health insurers. “Washington politicians are at it again, saying they want to reform Medicare…

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Jon Decker: Biden’s EO to Boost ‘Competitiveness’ Puts America at Disadvantage

President Biden recently unveiled a new executive order on “Promoting Competition” in the U.S. economy. Though the executive order is purported to ‘up our game’ – its health care recommendations plainly drop the ball. If Biden’s agenda is enacted as articulated, it would put American medical innovation at enormous competitive disadvantage – and carry especially devastating consequences for our most vulnerable populations, including seniors. Biden’s EO states, “It is also the policy of my Administration…

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