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May 20, 2019 Policy Proposals

Measles is making a comeback. As of May 17, there were over 800 reported cases of the disease, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. That’s more than in any of the last four years. This uptick is dispiriting but shouldn’t be surprising. More and more people are deciding not to get their shots. In the past decade, the number of nonmedical vaccine exemptions for philosophical reasons has increased in 12 of the 18 states that allow them. A surge...

May 20, 2019 Price and Costs

The wrong model, no matter how hard you work it, will never provide the right answer. When it comes to how we pay for health care, the U.S. is using the wrong model. What’s worse, these financing inadequacies could threaten the viability of new therapies that will bring hope to patients who formerly had none. The well-being, and sometimes the lives of patients, depend on getting the health care financing model correct. New gene therapies will transform the treatment of devastating diseases. For...

May 16, 2019 Policy Proposals

There is a legal adage that “hard cases make bad law.” California may soon rediscover this wisdom. Assembly member Jim Wood has introduced a bill (AB 824) with the intention of discouraging “pay-for-delay” tactics. “Pay-for-delay” practices refer to a situation when a manufacturer of a patented drug pays the manufacturer of a generic drug to delay launching its competitive product in order to extend its exclusivity period. Undoubtedly, these practices are anti-competitive and violate the spirit of the entire patent system. Such...

May 15, 2019 Price and Costs

Why People with Diabetes Drive for Hours to Buy Insulin in Canada By Christopher Curley For Lija Greenseid, the math was simple. Drive a few hours to pay $56 for a box of Humalog insulin pens for her young daughter with type 1 diabetes or pay as much as $230 at home. The decision, in fact, was a no-brainer for Greenseid and a group of diabetes advocates and patients who made the trek from Minnesota to Canada to buy insulin in early May. That trip...

May 8, 2019 Innovation

In its international edition on April 25, the New York Times ran a blatantly anti-Semitic political cartoon that portrayed a blind President Trump wearing a yarmulke being led by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who was depicted as a dog wearing a collar with a star of David. It was, of course, outrageous, and seemed to me symptomatic of the Times' cluelessness about many things. Putting it another way, its editors, reporters, and columnists often don't know what they don't know....

May 7, 2019 Price and Costs

Sometimes the important reforms are those that address the mundane details. The Administration’s proposed changes to how pharmaceutical rebates are paid fall into this category. While far from a panacea, this reform could meaningfully improve the pharmaceutical market. For this reason, the Congressional Budget Office’s (CBO) just released “budget score“ on the proposal is disconcerting. A budget score from the CBO estimates the impact of policy changes on the federal budget. In this case, the CBO estimates that between 2020 and 2029 the...

April 30, 2019 Price and Costs

The costs of medicines continue to dominate the headlines, attracting the attention of Congress and the Trump Administration. Reforms are necessary, but many of the reforms under consideration will make the situation worse. Indexing U.S. prices to the prices in other countries that use price controls, or using third-party arbitration to set the price of prescription drugs, exemplify these wrong-headed policies. The Trump Administration’s proposal would set Medicare Part B prices (prices for drugs administered in a clinical setting) to the...

April 19, 2019 Innovation

Gene therapies are transformative treatments that fundamentally differ from traditional medical and pharmaceutical options because they modify a patient’s DNA in order to address the genetic causes of diseases. These therapies have the potential to dramatically improve the lives of millions of Americans living with life-threatening or life-altering diseases. Since gene therapies directly address the genetic causes of diseases, doctors and scientists anticipate that these therapies will be cures. If successful, the goal will no longer be simply treating these devastating diseases...

April 1, 2019 Policy Proposals, Price and Costs

Senator Rick Scott (R-FL) has just doubled down on one of the Trump Administration’s unsound ideas. His proposal is disappointing for many reasons, particularly because Alex Azar, Secretary of Health and Human Services, has proposed an alternative reform that, if Congress implemented, would meaningfully improve the affordability of prescription drugs for patients. As part of the “Transparent Drug Pricing Act of 2019”, Senator Scott proposes to set the list price of all medicines to the lowest retail list price among five...

March 28, 2019 Innovation

Gene therapies have the potential to dramatically improve the lives of millions of Americans living with life-threatening diseases. Watch the video to learn how policy obstacles are standing in the way of making gene therapies a reality for millions. [vc_video link="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eCW-E9i_jP8"]...

February 28, 2019 Innovation

Congress could soon vote on legislation that would gut America’s intellectual property laws. The bill isn’t just bad news for big pharmaceutical companies that hold lucrative patents. It’s terrible news for patients — medical research spending would dry up without strong patent protections. Americans could lose out on cures for cancer, heart disease, and other deadly chronic conditions. The proposed law would target patented drugs sold through Medicare’s Part D prescription drug program. Right now, private insurance companies design Part D plans...

February 26, 2019 Price and Costs

Today’s hearing in front of the Senate Finance Committee will, unfortunately, be another wasted opportunity. Surely, Senators will make grandiose speeches and be shocked at the cost of drugs. They will also continue to support the very policies that are causing the problems the hearing is supposed to address. A February 25th editorial from the New York Times exemplifies why this opportunity for effective reforms may very well be lost. The Senate hearing is not a day of reckoning as the Times claims. It should be an opportunity...

February 20, 2019 Price and Costs

In California, politics is taking precedence over patients. That’s the only conclusion to draw from Gov. Gavin Newsom’s recently released health care plan. He’s looking to impose price controls on prescription drugs. He’d like to expand Medicaid to undocumented immigrants up to the age of 26. He’s called for re-imposing the individual mandate, which would require everyone in the state to obtain coverage. He wants to subsidize the purchase of health insurance for those making up to six times the poverty...

February 20, 2019 Price and Costs

This year, 1.7 million Americans will be diagnosed with cancer. For over 600,000 of them, that diagnosis will prove fatal. But there’s hope on the horizon. More Americans are surviving cancer each year, according to a new study from the American Cancer Society. The cancer death rate declined precipitously between its peak in 1991 and 2016. Absent that decline, 2.6 million more cancer patients would have died during that period. By one estimate, 73% of recent survival gains are due to...

February 18, 2019 Price and Costs

*Featured in Kaiser Health News Morning Briefing* Today, Type 1 diabetes patients pay twice as much for insulin as they did in 2012. This is outrageous — but drug companies aren’t to blame. The problem is a dysfunctional supply chain that benefits everyone except patients. In today’s system, insurers hire third-party firms, known as pharmacy benefit managers, to manage drug plans. These PBMs negotiate with drugmakers and have the power to decide which drugs are covered by each plan. Each year, manufacturers dole out $150...

February 12, 2019 Price and Costs

In response to the problem of rising list prices for drugs, elected officials continue to propose counterproductive reforms. Whether it is importing drugs from Canada or indexing U.S. drug prices to the prices charged in other countries, these policies will make the current bad situation worse because they fail to understand the disincentives that are the root cause of the problem. Until now. A proposal by Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar, if implemented, would meaningfully improve the pharmaceutical market. The...

February 11, 2019 Price and Costs

Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar just released a sweeping proposal that would drastically change how Medicare pays for advanced cancer therapies and other potent medicines. The plan relies on foreign price controls to reduce drug spending by $17 billion over five years. Although drug spending may decline, the plan could increase health care spending elsewhere, as patients inevitably lose access to medicines. So while the savings is questionable, the negative health impact on patients is certain. Sec. Azar ought...

February 7, 2019 Price and Costs

Congress is poised to consider a bill that would allow Americans to import prescription drugs from Canada. The bill’s authors, Sens. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) and Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), label their effort as a bipartisan push to “help Americans who struggle to pay exorbitant prices for medication.” It’s noble of lawmakers to tackle prescription drug costs. Eight in ten Americans are concerned about the price of medicines, according to a Kaiser Family Foundation survey. But the Grassley-Klobuchar bill isn’t the right solution. While it...

February 7, 2019 Price and Costs

By Henry I. Miller, M.S., M.D. and Jeff Stier Trump administration officials keep searching for solutions to rising prescription drug prices, which are increasing faster than inflation. "Drug makers and companies are not living up to their commitments on pricing. Not being fair to the consumer, or to our Country!" President Trump tweeted on Jan. 5. Most of the administration's suggested remedies have been threats or the imposition of various types of price controls. On Thursday, Jan. 31, Department of Health and...