Sally C. Pipes
Commentary
Build Back Better’s Drug Reforms Make American Health Care Worse
Last week, President Joe Biden emphasized the importance of the drug pricing proposals in the Democrats’ roughly $2 trillion Build Back Better spending package. “I think it’s safe to say that all of us, all of us, whatever our age, wherever we live, we can agree that prescription drugs are outrageously expensive ...
Commentary
U.S. gains in war on cancer while other nations struggle
In the midst of the Covid-19 crisis, there’s some good news on the health care front. Cancer mortality rates are declining in the United States, according to a recent report from the National Cancer Institute. Sadly, patients in other countries may not be so lucky. Though the United States has ...
Commentary
The FDA is standing in the way of at-home COVID-19 tests
Earlier this month, President Joe Biden unveiled a plan to make at-home COVID-19 tests free for people with private insurance. They’ll have to pay for the tests first, then submit receipts to their insurer to get reimbursed. Only the government could come up with a plan so unnecessarily complicated. The Biden administration ...
Commentary
Latest Medicaid Data Show A Deeply Broken Program
A bank that misplaced over one-fifth of its deposits would be shut down almost immediately. So would a hospital that bungled one in five operations, or a private health insurer that mishandled one-fifth of its claims. But apparently, the bar is a lot lower for government programs. The Biden administration ...
Commentary
The True Cost of ‘Medicare for All’
Several hospitals in New Mexico activated crisis standards of care last month in response to a surge in COVID-19 patients. Earlier this fall, Alaska and Idaho did the same. In some places, providers were forced to begin rationing treatment based on the likelihood of survival. It was a shocking spectacle ...
Commentary
Omicron Is No Excuse to Prolong the Pandemic
Is the United States on the cusp of a new wave of COVID-19 devastation, thanks to the omicron variant? The Biden administration has banned travel to the United States from eight countries in southern Africa. Public officials nationwide are calling for vigilance and caution — and for people to get vaccinated or boosted. Omicron ...
Commentary
Charging the unvaccinated more for health care is a slippery slope
This month, Delta Airlines began levying a $200 monthly surcharge on unvaccinated employees enrolled in the company’s health plan for the financial “risk” they are supposedly imposing on the company. The airliner is not alone. A major health-care system in Louisiana plans to do the same for unvaccinated spouses on ...
Commentary
Swallowing the FDA red pill
Earlier this month, the Biden administration bought 10 million courses of Pfizer’s new COVID-19 pill, Paxlovid. Thanks to the Food and Drug Administration, however, it may be months before anyone can take it, as the agency hasn’t yet offered up a timetable for approving it. Its inaction will almost certainly result in ...
Commentary
Democrats’ Creative Accounting Can’t Hide Build Back Better’s True Cost
For weeks, President Joe Biden has insisted that the Democrats’ ‘Build Back Better’ spending bill would be “fully paid for.” The Congressional Budget Office begs to differ. In its newly released analysis of the bill, the CBO projects that ‘Build Back Better’ will increase the deficit by $367 billion over ...
Commentary
The FDA’s Dysfunction Is A Public Health Crisis Of Its Own
Earlier this month, President Biden tapped Dr. Robert Califf to lead the Food and Drug Administration. The agency had been operating without a Senate-approved commissioner for almost a year. In my last column, I detailed how the FDA’s failures reviewing and approving tests for COVID-19 have prolonged the pandemic. This week, we have a ...
Build Back Better’s Drug Reforms Make American Health Care Worse
Last week, President Joe Biden emphasized the importance of the drug pricing proposals in the Democrats’ roughly $2 trillion Build Back Better spending package. “I think it’s safe to say that all of us, all of us, whatever our age, wherever we live, we can agree that prescription drugs are outrageously expensive ...
U.S. gains in war on cancer while other nations struggle
In the midst of the Covid-19 crisis, there’s some good news on the health care front. Cancer mortality rates are declining in the United States, according to a recent report from the National Cancer Institute. Sadly, patients in other countries may not be so lucky. Though the United States has ...
The FDA is standing in the way of at-home COVID-19 tests
Earlier this month, President Joe Biden unveiled a plan to make at-home COVID-19 tests free for people with private insurance. They’ll have to pay for the tests first, then submit receipts to their insurer to get reimbursed. Only the government could come up with a plan so unnecessarily complicated. The Biden administration ...
Latest Medicaid Data Show A Deeply Broken Program
A bank that misplaced over one-fifth of its deposits would be shut down almost immediately. So would a hospital that bungled one in five operations, or a private health insurer that mishandled one-fifth of its claims. But apparently, the bar is a lot lower for government programs. The Biden administration ...
The True Cost of ‘Medicare for All’
Several hospitals in New Mexico activated crisis standards of care last month in response to a surge in COVID-19 patients. Earlier this fall, Alaska and Idaho did the same. In some places, providers were forced to begin rationing treatment based on the likelihood of survival. It was a shocking spectacle ...
Omicron Is No Excuse to Prolong the Pandemic
Is the United States on the cusp of a new wave of COVID-19 devastation, thanks to the omicron variant? The Biden administration has banned travel to the United States from eight countries in southern Africa. Public officials nationwide are calling for vigilance and caution — and for people to get vaccinated or boosted. Omicron ...
Charging the unvaccinated more for health care is a slippery slope
This month, Delta Airlines began levying a $200 monthly surcharge on unvaccinated employees enrolled in the company’s health plan for the financial “risk” they are supposedly imposing on the company. The airliner is not alone. A major health-care system in Louisiana plans to do the same for unvaccinated spouses on ...
Swallowing the FDA red pill
Earlier this month, the Biden administration bought 10 million courses of Pfizer’s new COVID-19 pill, Paxlovid. Thanks to the Food and Drug Administration, however, it may be months before anyone can take it, as the agency hasn’t yet offered up a timetable for approving it. Its inaction will almost certainly result in ...
Democrats’ Creative Accounting Can’t Hide Build Back Better’s True Cost
For weeks, President Joe Biden has insisted that the Democrats’ ‘Build Back Better’ spending bill would be “fully paid for.” The Congressional Budget Office begs to differ. In its newly released analysis of the bill, the CBO projects that ‘Build Back Better’ will increase the deficit by $367 billion over ...
The FDA’s Dysfunction Is A Public Health Crisis Of Its Own
Earlier this month, President Biden tapped Dr. Robert Califf to lead the Food and Drug Administration. The agency had been operating without a Senate-approved commissioner for almost a year. In my last column, I detailed how the FDA’s failures reviewing and approving tests for COVID-19 have prolonged the pandemic. This week, we have a ...
