Commentary
California
‘Pay-for-Delay’ Generic Drug Bill Will Harm Californians
San Diegans and all Californians will pay a high price should a bill introduced by Assemblyman Jim Wood, a Democrat from Santa Rosa, become law. Proponents claim the bill is necessary to rein in anti-competitive practices by the pharmaceutical industry, but in reality, it will delay generic entry and raise the ...
Commentary
More Competition Will Improve Drug Affordability
Making medicines more affordable for patients promises to be a top policy priority for Congress when it returns from its August recess. Achieving this goal does not require new, elaborate, government programs or regulations. It requires reforms that will empower biosimilars to more effectively compete against originator biologics. To see ...
Commentary
Technology Can Make Rural America Healthier
Recently, Democratic presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg released a plan to improve health care in rural America. In a statement posted on his campaign website, he wrote, “Rural Americans are getting sicker and dying younger than people in cities.” He is right, but his plan misses the mark. Buttigieg wants to ...
Business & Economics
Corporate profits are socially responsible
The Business Roundtable recently released a statement announcing it had redefined “the purpose of a corporation.” Signed by almost 200 of the most powerful CEOs in America, the statement “affirms the essential role corporations can play in improving our society,” according to one of its signatories. Specifically, it suggests that companies should ...
Agriculture
Plants could give us new treatments for cancer, HIV and other diseases if we had better ‘pharming’ regulations
Politicians talk a lot about farming but seldom about “pharming,” even though the latter can also have a big impact on Americans’ pocketbooks—and their health. The punny name refers to genetically modifying plants such as corn, rice, tobacco and alfalfa to produce high concentrations of pharmaceutical ingredients. Many common medicines ...
Business & Economics
Sacramento, not D.C., is responsible for California’s unaffordable tax burden
Last fall, Democratic congressional candidates successfully painted the 2017 federal Tax Cuts and Jobs Act as a tax increase on hard working Californians to pick-up even more congressional seats. Congress, they charged, raised the tax burden of many Californians by, among other things, capping the State and Local Tax, or ...
Commentary
Vaping Hysteria Will Mean More Tobacco Deaths
By Henry I. Miller, M.S., M.D. and Jeff Stier When products could save lives, it’s important for people to be informed about those benefits, along with the risks. Conversely, it’s harmful and immoral to spread misinformation that negatively affects public perception of life-saving products and discourages their use. Consider, for ...
Commentary
Trump’s drug price controls could cost lives
The Trump administration is preparing a proposal that will likely peg what Medicare pays for prescription drugs to prices in other nations. Name brand drugs generally cost less abroad because foreign governments forcibly control their prices. So this international price index would effectively import those foreign price controls. That may sound like a ...
Commentary
A President Harris Would Mean Good-Bye To Private Insurance
Since announcing her candidacy for the Democratic nomination for president, Senator Kamala Harris hasn’t been able to make up her mind about whether she wants to eliminate private health insurance. At a CNN town hall in January, she voiced support for nixing private insurance, stating, “Let’s eliminate all of that. ...
Business & Economics
Making It Rain In California
The “Tax Cuts and Jobs Act” (TCJA) was signed into law on Dec. 22, 2017. The Act reformed the U.S. corporate income tax code cutting the rate to a globally competitive 21%. Reforms on the personal income tax side, which are scheduled to expire in 2025, reduced the marginal income ...
‘Pay-for-Delay’ Generic Drug Bill Will Harm Californians
San Diegans and all Californians will pay a high price should a bill introduced by Assemblyman Jim Wood, a Democrat from Santa Rosa, become law. Proponents claim the bill is necessary to rein in anti-competitive practices by the pharmaceutical industry, but in reality, it will delay generic entry and raise the ...
More Competition Will Improve Drug Affordability
Making medicines more affordable for patients promises to be a top policy priority for Congress when it returns from its August recess. Achieving this goal does not require new, elaborate, government programs or regulations. It requires reforms that will empower biosimilars to more effectively compete against originator biologics. To see ...
Technology Can Make Rural America Healthier
Recently, Democratic presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg released a plan to improve health care in rural America. In a statement posted on his campaign website, he wrote, “Rural Americans are getting sicker and dying younger than people in cities.” He is right, but his plan misses the mark. Buttigieg wants to ...
Corporate profits are socially responsible
The Business Roundtable recently released a statement announcing it had redefined “the purpose of a corporation.” Signed by almost 200 of the most powerful CEOs in America, the statement “affirms the essential role corporations can play in improving our society,” according to one of its signatories. Specifically, it suggests that companies should ...
Plants could give us new treatments for cancer, HIV and other diseases if we had better ‘pharming’ regulations
Politicians talk a lot about farming but seldom about “pharming,” even though the latter can also have a big impact on Americans’ pocketbooks—and their health. The punny name refers to genetically modifying plants such as corn, rice, tobacco and alfalfa to produce high concentrations of pharmaceutical ingredients. Many common medicines ...
Sacramento, not D.C., is responsible for California’s unaffordable tax burden
Last fall, Democratic congressional candidates successfully painted the 2017 federal Tax Cuts and Jobs Act as a tax increase on hard working Californians to pick-up even more congressional seats. Congress, they charged, raised the tax burden of many Californians by, among other things, capping the State and Local Tax, or ...
Vaping Hysteria Will Mean More Tobacco Deaths
By Henry I. Miller, M.S., M.D. and Jeff Stier When products could save lives, it’s important for people to be informed about those benefits, along with the risks. Conversely, it’s harmful and immoral to spread misinformation that negatively affects public perception of life-saving products and discourages their use. Consider, for ...
Trump’s drug price controls could cost lives
The Trump administration is preparing a proposal that will likely peg what Medicare pays for prescription drugs to prices in other nations. Name brand drugs generally cost less abroad because foreign governments forcibly control their prices. So this international price index would effectively import those foreign price controls. That may sound like a ...
A President Harris Would Mean Good-Bye To Private Insurance
Since announcing her candidacy for the Democratic nomination for president, Senator Kamala Harris hasn’t been able to make up her mind about whether she wants to eliminate private health insurance. At a CNN town hall in January, she voiced support for nixing private insurance, stating, “Let’s eliminate all of that. ...
Making It Rain In California
The “Tax Cuts and Jobs Act” (TCJA) was signed into law on Dec. 22, 2017. The Act reformed the U.S. corporate income tax code cutting the rate to a globally competitive 21%. Reforms on the personal income tax side, which are scheduled to expire in 2025, reduced the marginal income ...
