Drug Pricing
Commentary
Where’s the Outrage?
How can you tell if competition is working in a given market? Generally speaking, prices go down while quality goes up. Productivity increases as more efficient methods are discovered. Shortages are rare to nonexistent. And, most important, consumers win. Government intervention, monopolies, and other market distortions can disrupt the normal ...
Commentary
Why Health-Care Mergers Aren’t So Scary
Prominent politicos are voicing concerns about the wave of impending mergers in the health-care industry. On August 1, California insurance commissioner Dave Jones urged the Justice Department to block the merger of Aetna and CVS, fretting it “will have anticompetitive effects and … harm consumers.” Days later, the American Medical Association echoed his concerns. ...
Commentary
Single-Payer Progressives Lie Their Way to Victory
November’s midterm elections are just around the corner. This fall, Democratic congressional candidates are betting the farm — or shall we say the House — on government-run health care. The crop of Democrats eyeing the presidency in 2020, meanwhile, is similarly united behind a government takeover of the U.S. healthcare ...
Drug Importation
Sally Pipes in Health Care News Article on Drug Imports
Trump Administration Considers Allowing Some Drug Imports By Christopher Talgo U.S. Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Alex Azar has directed the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to establish a working group to weigh the risks and rewards of drug importation, which is currently banned in the United States. The ...
Business & Economics
It’s Generics Not PBMs That Keep Pharmaceuticals Affordable
Expenditures on prescription drugs grew 12.4 percent in 2014 and 8.9 percent in 2015. These eye-popping data are not representative of the long-term expenditure trend, however. Not only did the growth in prescription drugs expenditures slow to 1.3 percent in 2016, longer-term (between 2009 and 2016), the average annual growth ...
Commentary
Canadian Pharmacy Scandal Reveals The Dangers of Drug Importation
A U.S. district court in Montana just imposed a $34 million fine on Canada Drugs, an online pharmacy charged with selling counterfeit medications to unsuspecting Americans. Some of the drugs contained no active ingredients. Canada Drugs isn’t the only online pharmacy that puts patients’ lives in serious jeopardy. The National ...
Blog
When the Public Option Is the Only Option
Single-payer has failed abroad and at home. Yet the call for single-payer from progressives has never been louder. Vermont senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and his dedicated followers have been the loudest. In his campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2016, he promised “Medicare for All.” In September 2017, he ...
Commentary
Trump’s Drug Pricing Speech Mostly Hit the Right Notes
Last Friday, President Trump delivered a major speech from the White House Rose Garden on prescription drug prices. He announced several policies aimed at reducing the overall cost of pharmaceuticals and limiting patients’ out-of-pocket expenses. His reform agenda, entitled “American Patients First,” is largely excellent. It mostly harnesses the power ...
Business & Economics
Pharmaceutical Price Controls Will Not Improve Health Care Outcomes in Illinois
Due to its national implications, last week’s introduction of the Department of Health and Human Services’ (HHS) blueprint on drug prices is garnering all the attention. Despite its importance, HHS’ blueprint should not overshadow the many poor, and even unconstitutional, policy proposals that are occurring at the state level. For ...
Business & Economics
Creating an Affordable Health Care System Requires More than Rounding Up the Usual Suspects
Health care is becoming less affordable every year. Over the past 10 years, national healthcare expenditures have grown 45 percent, but our economy has grown only 28 percent. This isn’t sustainable; and, solving this problem should be a top policy priority. However, “rounding up the usual suspects,” as Captain Renault ...
Where’s the Outrage?
How can you tell if competition is working in a given market? Generally speaking, prices go down while quality goes up. Productivity increases as more efficient methods are discovered. Shortages are rare to nonexistent. And, most important, consumers win. Government intervention, monopolies, and other market distortions can disrupt the normal ...
Why Health-Care Mergers Aren’t So Scary
Prominent politicos are voicing concerns about the wave of impending mergers in the health-care industry. On August 1, California insurance commissioner Dave Jones urged the Justice Department to block the merger of Aetna and CVS, fretting it “will have anticompetitive effects and … harm consumers.” Days later, the American Medical Association echoed his concerns. ...
Single-Payer Progressives Lie Their Way to Victory
November’s midterm elections are just around the corner. This fall, Democratic congressional candidates are betting the farm — or shall we say the House — on government-run health care. The crop of Democrats eyeing the presidency in 2020, meanwhile, is similarly united behind a government takeover of the U.S. healthcare ...
Sally Pipes in Health Care News Article on Drug Imports
Trump Administration Considers Allowing Some Drug Imports By Christopher Talgo U.S. Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Alex Azar has directed the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to establish a working group to weigh the risks and rewards of drug importation, which is currently banned in the United States. The ...
It’s Generics Not PBMs That Keep Pharmaceuticals Affordable
Expenditures on prescription drugs grew 12.4 percent in 2014 and 8.9 percent in 2015. These eye-popping data are not representative of the long-term expenditure trend, however. Not only did the growth in prescription drugs expenditures slow to 1.3 percent in 2016, longer-term (between 2009 and 2016), the average annual growth ...
Canadian Pharmacy Scandal Reveals The Dangers of Drug Importation
A U.S. district court in Montana just imposed a $34 million fine on Canada Drugs, an online pharmacy charged with selling counterfeit medications to unsuspecting Americans. Some of the drugs contained no active ingredients. Canada Drugs isn’t the only online pharmacy that puts patients’ lives in serious jeopardy. The National ...
When the Public Option Is the Only Option
Single-payer has failed abroad and at home. Yet the call for single-payer from progressives has never been louder. Vermont senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and his dedicated followers have been the loudest. In his campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2016, he promised “Medicare for All.” In September 2017, he ...
Trump’s Drug Pricing Speech Mostly Hit the Right Notes
Last Friday, President Trump delivered a major speech from the White House Rose Garden on prescription drug prices. He announced several policies aimed at reducing the overall cost of pharmaceuticals and limiting patients’ out-of-pocket expenses. His reform agenda, entitled “American Patients First,” is largely excellent. It mostly harnesses the power ...
Pharmaceutical Price Controls Will Not Improve Health Care Outcomes in Illinois
Due to its national implications, last week’s introduction of the Department of Health and Human Services’ (HHS) blueprint on drug prices is garnering all the attention. Despite its importance, HHS’ blueprint should not overshadow the many poor, and even unconstitutional, policy proposals that are occurring at the state level. For ...
Creating an Affordable Health Care System Requires More than Rounding Up the Usual Suspects
Health care is becoming less affordable every year. Over the past 10 years, national healthcare expenditures have grown 45 percent, but our economy has grown only 28 percent. This isn’t sustainable; and, solving this problem should be a top policy priority. However, “rounding up the usual suspects,” as Captain Renault ...
