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]
This week, President Barack Obama’s BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill and Offshore Drilling Commission began hearings in New Orleans to discuss the Gulf accident and the necessary response.
Rather than focusing on unbiased inquiry and saving American jobs, unfortunately, the commission and Obama Administration hastily and irrationally insist upon their offshore drilling moratorium. As a recent Washington Post article noted, during the hearing, “the commission members asked mostly broad questions that elicited little new information.” The fact that the commission…