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]
In an era of sharp partisan divide, the need for litigation reform is a rare issue on which almost all Americans outside of the plaintiff lawyer lobby agree.
According to surveys, 89% of American voters consider lawsuit abuse a problem, and nearly 80% believe the country suffers an excess of lawsuits.
One specific manifestation of litigation abuse is what's known as venue abuse, which refers to plaintiffs deliberately filing lawsuits in districts where no defendant resides, where no substantial portion of the events at the center of the lawsuit occurred and where no substantial portion…