As Senate Finance Committee Convenes on Healthcare Costs, First Do No Harm
As the United States Senate Finance Committee convenes today for a meeting entitled "The Rising Cost of Health Care: Considering Meaningful Solutions for All Americans," the enduring adage of medical care applies: Do no harm.
Specifically, as we've detailed at CFIF, we must especially avoid potentially catastrophic ideas like drug price controls (whether through so-called "Most Favored Nation" (MFN) programs or any other) and violations of patent and intellectual property (IP) protections in which the United States leads the world. Indeed, our more free-market approach explains why America leads the world in lifesaving healthcare innovation, accounting for an astonishing two-thirds of all new drugs introduced to the world each year:
The reasons that MFN schemes would only exacerbate…[more]
Whenever President Trump sets off a new controversy, there's always a period of hair-on-fire commentary, usually conducted in the absence of polls or other evidence of public opinion. It's happened again and again, the latest example being the president, the NFL and the national anthem.
Trump set things off Sept. 22 during a speech in Alabama. Now, after some time has passed, there are new polls with information on the underlying issue—NFL players protesting during the national anthem—and Trump's treatment of it.
On the protests, the short version is, the public, which disapproved…