Medicare
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 ...
Sally C. Pipes
December 6, 2021
Blog
Inflation, Drug Price Controls, and President Biden’s Build Back Better Program
Inflation is worrying Americans, and for good reason. The latest inflation report, the Consumer Price Index (CPI) released on November 10th, showed that prices were 6.2 percent higher in October 2021 compared to October 2020. More troubling, this was the fifth month in a row where the annual growth in ...
Wayne Winegarden
November 12, 2021
Featured
NEW BRIEF: 340B Hospitals More Profitable, Provide Less Charity Care, Receive Unwarranted Subsidies
So-called 340B hospitals whose mission is to help the vulnerable are more profitable and provide less charity care, finds a new brief released today by the Center for Medical Economics and Innovation at the nonpartisan Pacific Research Institute, a California-based, free-market think tank. Click to download “Profiting from 340B” “The ...
Wayne H Winegarden
November 10, 2021
Commentary
Democrats Abandon US Patients to Rescue Drug-Pricing Reform
Just a few days ago, it appeared that Democrats had given up on including prescription drug pricing reforms in their massive spending bill. But not anymore. In an eleventh-hour turn of events, congressional Democrats this week resurrected their long-standing desire to levy government price controls on prescription drugs. If lawmakers successfully deploy their latest ...
Sally C. Pipes
November 4, 2021
Health Care
NEW BRIEF: U.S. Patients Could Save Up to $5.8 Billion Through Competition from Humira and Enbrel Biosimilars
Policies that promote biosimilar competition have the potential to save U.S. patients up to $5.8 billion collectively if biosimilars to Humira and Enbrel grow in market share, finds a new brief released today by the Center for Medical Economics and Innovation at the nonpartisan Pacific Research Institute, a California-based, free-market ...
Wayne H Winegarden
November 3, 2021
Blog
Getting the Drug Spending Facts Right
In a typical rant, Senator Sanders claimed in a September 15th press release that “at a time when the drug companies are charging us by far the highest prices in the world, Congress must demand that Medicare negotiate prices with this extremely greedy and powerful industry.” The Senator clearly misunderstands ...
Wayne Winegarden
October 29, 2021
Commentary
Single-Payer Will Worsen Healthcare Workers’ Plight
Healthcare workers are exchanging scrubs and gloves for signs and megaphones. In what’s been called “Striketober,” frontline staff are walking out of hospitals, emergency rooms, and doctor’s offices to insist on better pay, benefits, and hours. Earlier this month, Kaiser Permanente workers in California voted to authorize a strike over ...
Sally C. Pipes
October 25, 2021
Commentary
Sally Pipes: Democrats’ Drug Pricing Reforms Aren’t What They Seem
As part of their spending bill, Congressional Democrats are advancing legislation that’ll empower Medicare to “negotiate” drug prices in the program’s Part B and Part D benefits. They insist this policy enjoys broad support among voters. But they’re misleading the public. What Democrats are proposing is in fact a sweeping ...
Sally C. Pipes
October 19, 2021
Drug Pricing
NEW BRIEF: Focus Groups Overwhelmingly Disapprove of Government “Negotiated” Drug Pricing
Today, the Pacific Research Institute published an issue brief revealing overwhelming public disapproval for Medicare reforms that Congress is considering as part of its $3.5 trillion spending bill. Click here to read the full issue brief, “Drug Pricing Proposals Threaten America’s Most Vulnerable Patients.” “It’s a relief that Americans oppose ...
Sally C. Pipes
October 19, 2021
Commentary
Democrats Have Built a Healthcare Agenda Around an Imaginary Crisis
Is America in the midst of a health insurance crisis? That’s the picture Democrats in Washington are painting. According to their narrative, health coverage is out of reach for a number of Americans. Only an aggressive — and exorbitantly expensive — effort to expand the number of people covered by taxpayer-funded insurance ...
Sally C. Pipes
October 15, 2021
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 ...
Inflation, Drug Price Controls, and President Biden’s Build Back Better Program
Inflation is worrying Americans, and for good reason. The latest inflation report, the Consumer Price Index (CPI) released on November 10th, showed that prices were 6.2 percent higher in October 2021 compared to October 2020. More troubling, this was the fifth month in a row where the annual growth in ...
NEW BRIEF: 340B Hospitals More Profitable, Provide Less Charity Care, Receive Unwarranted Subsidies
So-called 340B hospitals whose mission is to help the vulnerable are more profitable and provide less charity care, finds a new brief released today by the Center for Medical Economics and Innovation at the nonpartisan Pacific Research Institute, a California-based, free-market think tank. Click to download “Profiting from 340B” “The ...
Democrats Abandon US Patients to Rescue Drug-Pricing Reform
Just a few days ago, it appeared that Democrats had given up on including prescription drug pricing reforms in their massive spending bill. But not anymore. In an eleventh-hour turn of events, congressional Democrats this week resurrected their long-standing desire to levy government price controls on prescription drugs. If lawmakers successfully deploy their latest ...
NEW BRIEF: U.S. Patients Could Save Up to $5.8 Billion Through Competition from Humira and Enbrel Biosimilars
Policies that promote biosimilar competition have the potential to save U.S. patients up to $5.8 billion collectively if biosimilars to Humira and Enbrel grow in market share, finds a new brief released today by the Center for Medical Economics and Innovation at the nonpartisan Pacific Research Institute, a California-based, free-market ...
Getting the Drug Spending Facts Right
In a typical rant, Senator Sanders claimed in a September 15th press release that “at a time when the drug companies are charging us by far the highest prices in the world, Congress must demand that Medicare negotiate prices with this extremely greedy and powerful industry.” The Senator clearly misunderstands ...
Single-Payer Will Worsen Healthcare Workers’ Plight
Healthcare workers are exchanging scrubs and gloves for signs and megaphones. In what’s been called “Striketober,” frontline staff are walking out of hospitals, emergency rooms, and doctor’s offices to insist on better pay, benefits, and hours. Earlier this month, Kaiser Permanente workers in California voted to authorize a strike over ...
Sally Pipes: Democrats’ Drug Pricing Reforms Aren’t What They Seem
As part of their spending bill, Congressional Democrats are advancing legislation that’ll empower Medicare to “negotiate” drug prices in the program’s Part B and Part D benefits. They insist this policy enjoys broad support among voters. But they’re misleading the public. What Democrats are proposing is in fact a sweeping ...
NEW BRIEF: Focus Groups Overwhelmingly Disapprove of Government “Negotiated” Drug Pricing
Today, the Pacific Research Institute published an issue brief revealing overwhelming public disapproval for Medicare reforms that Congress is considering as part of its $3.5 trillion spending bill. Click here to read the full issue brief, “Drug Pricing Proposals Threaten America’s Most Vulnerable Patients.” “It’s a relief that Americans oppose ...
Democrats Have Built a Healthcare Agenda Around an Imaginary Crisis
Is America in the midst of a health insurance crisis? That’s the picture Democrats in Washington are painting. According to their narrative, health coverage is out of reach for a number of Americans. Only an aggressive — and exorbitantly expensive — effort to expand the number of people covered by taxpayer-funded insurance ...