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 relentless and dynamic free-market economy, American culture is one in which language sometimes outlasts the realities to which it refers. Thus, despite the fact that debit cards and direct deposits have largely obviated the need for checkbooks – and even though e-mail has eviscerated the demand for letters sent by post – most Americans still know the ironic meaning behind the phrase “the check is in the mail.” It’s an assurance of no assurance at all – a shorthand for smoothly delivered promises that will never be fulfilled.