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]
Americans in the other 49 states can be forgiven if they don’t understand what the big deal about California is. Sure, the Golden State is a land of movie stars, sun kissed beaches and endless innovation. But it’s also a place perched on the edge of bankruptcy, strangled by public-sector unions and radical environmentalists and prepared to release tens of thousands of convicts because it hasn’t built enough prisons. As if that weren’t enough, it’s now concluding the summer with out-of-control wildfires and a massive hurricane off its coast – mother nature apparently…