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]
My wife and I go to an island doctor. We don’t live on the island, but we drive to the island doctor because he is one of the best diagnosticians in an area heavily populated by the aging and heavily serviced by docs with degrees from prestigious medical schools.
Our doctor is a sole practitioner, with a nurse and a receptionist. On designated mornings, he has open hours, no appointment necessary for routine ailments, ditto his nurse for shots and tests. If he were running a tavern, it would be named “Cheers.” Good medicine, personally practiced.…