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]
“Have any of you all met Paul Ryan? We should get him to come to the university. I’m telling you, this guy is amazing.”
That was Erskine Bowles, former White House Chief of Staff during the Clinton Administration. More recently, he co-chaired the Bowles-Simpson deficit commission that Barack Obama appointed but then proceeded to ignore. Perhaps this explains why. Speaking last September at the University of North Carolina, Mr. Bowles was unrestrained in his praise for Mr. Ryan:
“I always thought I was okay at arithmetic, but this guy…