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November 23, 2021 Innovation

Millions of Americans may soon be able to hear a bit easier. The Food and Drug Administration just announced a new rule that would permit over-the-counter sales of hearing aids. Regulators are soliciting comments from the public. This move to liberalize the market for hearing aids is an unmitigated piece of good news. It recognizes that patients should have greater control over the care they receive, and it promises to increase competition in the market for hearing aids, saving consumers money...

November 23, 2021 Coronavirus

An overwhelming consensus on any topic is very rare these days. But many Americans, whatever their political leanings, seem to feel that the policies, communications, and actions of the public health "experts" and politicians about the COVID-19 pandemic have been confusing, sometimes contradictory, and in some cases, inconsistent with the scientific evidence. Whether it was flip-flops on the effectiveness of masks, seemingly inane restrictions on certain activities, or baseless advocacy of ineffective drugs, the past 20 months have provided numerous reasons...

November 23, 2021 Industry Trends

Earlier this month, President Biden tapped Dr. Robert Califf to lead the Food and Drug Administration. The agency had been operating without a Senate-approved commissioner for almost a year. In my last column, I detailed how the FDA's failures reviewing and approving tests for COVID-19 have prolonged the pandemic. This week, we have a new source of dysfunction to explore—the FDA's foot-dragging on antiviral pills that treat COVID-19 and booster shots. Americans are needlessly suffering—and dying—because of that dysfunction. Since President Biden took office, FDA veteran...

November 18, 2021 Blog, Coronavirus

Dr. Henry Miller and John Batchelor talk about the coverage around COVID-19 surges in Europe and elsewhere and what that could mean for lockdowns and vaccinations. They discuss how the United Kingdom is handling a potential new surge including masking, vaccinations, and the arrival of new surges. Miller also talks about the various surges, especially related to the delta variant and the impact of long COVID symptoms. ...

November 17, 2021 Blog, Industry Trends, Issues

By Wayne Winegarden and Celine Bookin Billionaire investor Mark Cuban’s pharmaceutical company, the Mark Cuban Cost Plus Drug Company, is hoping to disrupt the pharmaceutical benefit management (PBM) industry with a new venture that seeks to address some of the most criticized practices of the industry. These include PBMs pocketing rather than passing on negotiated rebates and not being transparent in how they negotiate said rebates. PBMs traditionally contract with governments and businesses to manage drug formularies, determine co-pays, administer plans, and negotiate...

November 15, 2021 Policy Proposals

Earlier this month, the Biden administration mandated that employees at businesses with more than 100 workers be vaccinated or undergo weekly COVID-19 testing starting at the beginning of next year. Just two days later, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit halted the order in response to a lawsuit filed by a group of businesses and state attorneys general. The court upheld the pause Friday after an appeal from the Biden administration. Trade groups representing retail, trucking, and independent...

November 12, 2021 Blog, Issues, Policy Proposals, Price and Costs

Inflation is worrying Americans, and for good reason. The latest inflation report, the Consumer Price Index (CPI) released on November 10th, showed that prices were 6.2 percent higher in October 2021 compared to October 2020. More troubling, this was the fifth month in a row where the annual growth in CPI inflation exceeded five percent. Digging deeper into the CPI data provides important perspective on another pressing issue – the growth in drug prices. While fluid, the so-called Build Back Better...

November 4, 2021 Policy Proposals

Just a few days ago, it appeared that Democrats had given up on including prescription drug pricing reforms in their massive spending bill. But not anymore. In an eleventh-hour turn of events, congressional Democrats this week resurrected their long-standing desire to levy government price controls on prescription drugs. If lawmakers successfully deploy their latest price-control gambit, then patients today and in the future will miss out on state-of-the-art treatments that will never be invented. According to early reports, the new drug-pricing proposal would do away with Medicare Part...

November 3, 2021 Briefs, Price and Costs

Policies that promote biosimilar competition have the potential to save U.S. patients up to $5.8 billion collectively if biosimilars to Humira and Enbrel grow in market share, finds a new brief released today by the Center for Medical Economics and Innovation at the nonpartisan Pacific Research Institute, a California-based, free-market think tank. Click to download “Generating Drug Savings Through Competition” “The significant savings potential that patients and taxpayers alike would realize from introducing biosimilars to Humira and Enbrel to the U.S. market...

November 2, 2021 Policy Proposals

Allowing the federal government to negotiate drug prices is a politically winning talking point. According to polling, Americans from across the political spectrum support this government intervention. However, the talking point is only a political winner if it is presented without context. Americans back the policy if it leads to direct savings in their pocketbooks while not diminishing access to life-saving therapies — whether through less investment in research and development by the pharmaceutical industry or restricted access to approved treatments. That this...

November 1, 2021 Policy Proposals

Last week, President Joe Biden unveiled a new social spending framework that omitted many of the healthcare provisions Democrats have been calling for. One provision that has survived is a massive and wasteful expansion of Obamacare . In March, Congress made federal tax credits available to those shopping for coverage on the exchanges with incomes above 400% of the federal poverty level — about $106,000 for a family of four. Those tax credits cap what they’d have to spend on a benchmark health plan at 8.5% of...

October 21, 2021 Coronavirus - Alternate

Whether it was flip-flops on the effectiveness of masks, seemingly inane restrictions on certain activities, or crass politicization of the use of ineffective drugs, the past 20 months have provided numerous reasons to question what we were told. Significant numbers of people are resisting employer mandates to get the COVID-19 vaccine and thereby jeopardizing their jobs. Still, there is a useful but misunderstood and underused mitigation tool — rapid-result antigen tests , which detect pieces of the SARS-CoV-2 virus's proteins — that can...

October 21, 2021 Policy Proposals

Last week, Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., declared that expanding Medicare to cover dental, vision, and hearing benefits as part of the massive $3.5 trillion spending bill winding its way through Congress was "not negotiable." His hardline position is unsurprising. After all, he is the country's most high-profile proponent of a complete government takeover of health insurance. Assigning the federal government responsibility for seniors' dental, vision, and hearing care would seem to represent one more step toward Medicare for All. But it's odd for a self-styled...

October 21, 2021 Briefs, Price and Costs, Studies

Addressing the ongoing problems with the U.S. health insurance system, the Center for Medical Economics and Innovation at the nonpartisan Pacific Research Institute today announced the release of the first paper in the Coverage Denied series, which will analyze and propose reforms to fix the problems in the current system that threaten patient health outcomes and often lead to huge financial risks for patients facing unexpected or chronic health care challenges. Click to download the first paper in PRI’s Coverage Denied...

October 19, 2021 Policy Proposals

Last week, Sen. Bernie Sanders, a Vermont independent, indicated that one provision of Congress's massive spending bill was "not negotiable." Namely, expanding Medicare to include hearing, dental, and vision benefits. It's an odd place to draw the line. Many seniors already have those benefits, so the proposal is largely unnecessary. And despite the plan's exorbitant costs, the expansion would still fail to deliver much of the care it promises. Nearly half of the Medicare population, more than 26 million seniors , is...

October 19, 2021 Briefs, Policy Proposals, Price and Costs, Studies

Today, the Pacific Research Institute published an issue brief revealing overwhelming public disapproval for Medicare reforms that Congress is considering as part of its $3.5 trillion spending bill. Click here to read the full issue brief, "Drug Pricing Proposals Threaten America's Most Vulnerable Patients." "It's a relief that Americans oppose Congress's drug pricing proposals once voters learn the true consequences of these misguided reforms," said Sally C. Pipes, the brief's co-author and PRI president, CEO, and Thomas W. Smith Fellow in Health...

October 15, 2021 Coronavirus-Alternate2

This year's influenza ("flu") season, which has already begun in some parts of the country, revs up in November, and last until spring, will be made more ominous than ever by the current high numbers of COVID-19 cases in many parts of the nation. The coincidence of infections in the population by the two highly infectious respiratory viruses has the potential to create a "twindemic" for our already stressed healthcare infrastructure. As of October 7th, daily cases of COVID-19 nationally were...

October 12, 2021 Policy Proposals

Democrats are dead-set on having the federal government pick up more of the nation's health tab. This is the principle behind everything from the drive to lower Medicare's eligibility age, to the push for billions of dollars for home care, to bigger subsidies for coverage through Obamacare's exchanges, to the dream on the far left of Medicare for All. People have a "right" to health care, progressives argue. So, in their mind, it should be free -- or at least heavily subsidized. But, health care...

October 12, 2021 Coronavirus - Alternate

After more than a year and a half of an agonizing pandemic, researchers at Merck and Ridgeback Biotherapeutics have announced a successful oral antiviral treatment. The drug, called molnupiravir, prevents about half of COVID-19-associated hospitalizations. The data monitoring committee, which oversees clinical trials, stopped the trials because the evidence of efficacy was sufficiently persuasive — hospitalizations reduced by 50%, deaths by 100% — that they deemed it unethical to continue with a placebo-treated control group. On Oct. 11, the sponsors requested emergency...