Health Care
Commentary
Trump vs. Obamacare — More Market Efficiency, Less Government Bureaucracy
Donald Trump is continuing to make his case for an overhaul of the Affordable Care Act. “We’re going to fight for much better health care than Obamacare. Obamacare is a catastrophe,” he said just before his victory in the Iowa Caucuses in January. He’s right to put healthcare reform at ...
Sally C. Pipes
February 16, 2024
Commentary
Loss of Medicaid isn’t a crisis. It’s a chance to make coverage better, cheaper
More than 16 million Americans have lost Medicaid coverage in recent months, according to data from the Kaiser Family Foundation. Two million Texans have rolled off Medicaid, newly released state data show. That’s good news, despite what the Biden administration would have us believe. For decades, Medicaid has burdened taxpayers ...
Sally C. Pipes
February 15, 2024
Commentary
Compared To UK Physicians, US Docs Have It Made
America’s doctors are lobbying for better pay. The American Medical Association and other doctor groups are currently urging Congress to roll back a 3.37 percent cut to Medicare reimbursement rates that took effect at the beginning of the year. This quarrel over pay should disabuse U.S. doctors of any sympathy for ...
Sally C. Pipes
February 15, 2024
Commentary
Read about the bill in Congress that would ban the use of "quality-adjusted life years"
Congress needs to cut QALYs
The House of Representatives last week approved a bill that would ban the use of “quality-adjusted life years,” or QALYs, as well as other measures for determining the purported value of a medical intervention, in all federal health programs. Now the Senate will consider the measure. QALYs should have no place in federal decision-making about whether ...
Sally C. Pipes
February 12, 2024
Commentary
Read the latest on Medicare's prescription drug price-setting scheme
Can Constitution Save Us from Drug Price Controls?
AstraZeneca made its case against Medicare’s prescription drug price-setting scheme before a federal judge in Delaware last week. It’s one of several drugmakers challenging the program on constitutional grounds, among them Johnson & Johnson, Merck and Bristol Myers Squibb. Defenders of the price control plan have portrayed these cases as the machinations of money-grubbing ...
Sally C. Pipes
February 9, 2024
Commentary
Reforming PBMs Improves the Drug Market and Thwarts Efforts to Socialize Medicine
By Sally Pipes & Wayne Winegarden There they go again. Free-market advocates are jeopardizing pro-market healthcare reforms based on an inability to recognize how cronyism tars the current industry dynamics. That distinction between companies operating in a free market and companies using cronyism to flourish in a government-dominated market is ...
Pacific Research Institute
February 9, 2024
Commentary
Read the latest on Florida's drug importation plan
Is the FDA opening a door for counterfeit drug trade?
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration gave the go-ahead last month for Florida to import prescription drugs in bulk from Canada. If all goes according to plan, the state government will be able to dispense certain Canadian-sourced drugs to people who receive care through the state Department of Corrections, the ...
Sally C. Pipes
February 8, 2024
Featured
Sally Pipes’ comments on the return of CA universal healthcare proposal in The Center Square
California proposal for universal healthcare bans private care, doubles spending By Kenneth Schrupp Healthcare experts say this measure would increase doctor wait times, shortages and strikes in a state public healthcare system already suffering from too few doctors. In Canada, where private coverage is outlawed, the average wait time from ...
Sally C. Pipes
February 7, 2024
Health Care
NEW BRIEF: End Anti-Market Distortions in Current PBM System Would Lower Patient Costs, Increase Access to Life-Saving Drugs
SACRAMENTO – Fixing the current broken system that incentivizes pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) to enact policies that benefit themselves and insurers at the expense of patients would lead to lower patient drug costs, finds a new brief released today by the Center for Medical Economics and Innovation at the nonpartisan ...
Wayne H Winegarden
February 7, 2024
Commentary
Americans Want Value for Healthcare, Not Another Welfare Plan
Obamacare’s insurance marketplaces are doing a brisk business. According to federal data released last month, a record 21.3 million Americans signed up for an exchange plan during the 2024 open enrollment season. Nearly 5 million were new customers. “Numbers do not lie,” said Chiquita Brooks-LaSure, administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid ...
Sally C. Pipes
February 6, 2024
Trump vs. Obamacare — More Market Efficiency, Less Government Bureaucracy
Donald Trump is continuing to make his case for an overhaul of the Affordable Care Act. “We’re going to fight for much better health care than Obamacare. Obamacare is a catastrophe,” he said just before his victory in the Iowa Caucuses in January. He’s right to put healthcare reform at ...
Loss of Medicaid isn’t a crisis. It’s a chance to make coverage better, cheaper
More than 16 million Americans have lost Medicaid coverage in recent months, according to data from the Kaiser Family Foundation. Two million Texans have rolled off Medicaid, newly released state data show. That’s good news, despite what the Biden administration would have us believe. For decades, Medicaid has burdened taxpayers ...
Compared To UK Physicians, US Docs Have It Made
America’s doctors are lobbying for better pay. The American Medical Association and other doctor groups are currently urging Congress to roll back a 3.37 percent cut to Medicare reimbursement rates that took effect at the beginning of the year. This quarrel over pay should disabuse U.S. doctors of any sympathy for ...
Read about the bill in Congress that would ban the use of "quality-adjusted life years"
Congress needs to cut QALYs
The House of Representatives last week approved a bill that would ban the use of “quality-adjusted life years,” or QALYs, as well as other measures for determining the purported value of a medical intervention, in all federal health programs. Now the Senate will consider the measure. QALYs should have no place in federal decision-making about whether ...
Read the latest on Medicare's prescription drug price-setting scheme
Can Constitution Save Us from Drug Price Controls?
AstraZeneca made its case against Medicare’s prescription drug price-setting scheme before a federal judge in Delaware last week. It’s one of several drugmakers challenging the program on constitutional grounds, among them Johnson & Johnson, Merck and Bristol Myers Squibb. Defenders of the price control plan have portrayed these cases as the machinations of money-grubbing ...
Reforming PBMs Improves the Drug Market and Thwarts Efforts to Socialize Medicine
By Sally Pipes & Wayne Winegarden There they go again. Free-market advocates are jeopardizing pro-market healthcare reforms based on an inability to recognize how cronyism tars the current industry dynamics. That distinction between companies operating in a free market and companies using cronyism to flourish in a government-dominated market is ...
Read the latest on Florida's drug importation plan
Is the FDA opening a door for counterfeit drug trade?
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration gave the go-ahead last month for Florida to import prescription drugs in bulk from Canada. If all goes according to plan, the state government will be able to dispense certain Canadian-sourced drugs to people who receive care through the state Department of Corrections, the ...
Sally Pipes’ comments on the return of CA universal healthcare proposal in The Center Square
California proposal for universal healthcare bans private care, doubles spending By Kenneth Schrupp Healthcare experts say this measure would increase doctor wait times, shortages and strikes in a state public healthcare system already suffering from too few doctors. In Canada, where private coverage is outlawed, the average wait time from ...
NEW BRIEF: End Anti-Market Distortions in Current PBM System Would Lower Patient Costs, Increase Access to Life-Saving Drugs
SACRAMENTO – Fixing the current broken system that incentivizes pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) to enact policies that benefit themselves and insurers at the expense of patients would lead to lower patient drug costs, finds a new brief released today by the Center for Medical Economics and Innovation at the nonpartisan ...
Americans Want Value for Healthcare, Not Another Welfare Plan
Obamacare’s insurance marketplaces are doing a brisk business. According to federal data released last month, a record 21.3 million Americans signed up for an exchange plan during the 2024 open enrollment season. Nearly 5 million were new customers. “Numbers do not lie,” said Chiquita Brooks-LaSure, administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid ...