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]
With a clear victory ushering in his second term, President Barack Obama is in the driver’s seat for the next three months. From now until February, he will negotiate some sort of tax deal with Republican House Speaker John Boehner, deliver his second inaugural address and speak to the nation about the State of the Union. In each case, the question he must answer is whether to steer a conciliatory course, or veer off into irreconcilable partisanship.
First up is negotiating a debt deal with House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH). Starting on January 1, 2013, the so-called fiscal…