Policy Proposals

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On this page, you’ll find our analysis on key state and federal pharmaceutical policy proposals, with a focus on providing the expected economic impact from these proposals.

April 27, 2020 Blog, Coronavirus, Policy Proposals

The presidential campaign of Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., may have ended, but his "Medicare-for-all" crusade marches on. Writing in The New York Times last week, Sanders argued that the coronavirus outbreak proved the government should take over our nation's health care system. Sanders isn't the only one championing "Medicare-for-all" in the wake of the pandemic. More than half of voters now say they support a single-payer system. But "Medicare-for-all" would not have improved our nation's response to the outbreak. Other countries with socialized medicine have struggled mightily to combat COVID-19. In fact, the United States would have been even...

April 21, 2020 Blog, Coronavirus, Policy Proposals

Dr. Oz and other TV docs hit with new coronavirus symptom: tripping over their own tongues By Corky Siemaszko Three of America's best known TV doctors are taking their medicine after making inflammatory statements about the coronavirus. . . . . . Dr. Henry I. Miller, a former federal Food and Drug Administration researcher and a senior fellow at the Pacific Research Institute in San Francisco, said they are ubiquitous on television because the medium is looking for "pseudo-experts" who reflect the biases of...

April 20, 2020 Blog, Coronavirus, Policy Proposals, Radio

Dr. Henry Miller joins the John Batchelor Show to provide an update on the state of testing in the United States and rest of the world. Dr. Miller explains that antibody testing will determine the true amount of cases, and also explains that only reliable, largely-used tests will help in the fight against the coronavirus. Dr. Miller also explains the danger of inaccurate and bad testing, like a recent example from the United Kingdom where their recent antibody tests were...

April 16, 2020 Blog, Coronavirus, Policy Proposals

President Trump announced at the White House coronavirus press briefing on Tuesday that the United States will immediately halt all funding for the World Health Organization, because it had caused "so much death" by "severely mismanaging and covering up" the coronavirus' spread, putting "political correctness over lifesaving measures." Other government officials, health experts, and analysts also have raised concerns about the WHO’s bungled response to the pandemic, accusing it of being too trusting of the Chinese government, which initially tried to conceal the outbreak in Wuhan. Rather than taking Beijing to...

April 14, 2020 Blog, Coronavirus, Policy Proposals

The coronavirus pandemic is threatening to stretch many hospitals to their breaking point. Beds are filling up with stricken patients, and public health officials are concerned about whether we'll have enough doctors and other healthcare professionals to care for them. So they're scrambling to roll back years' worth of regulations on the healthcare labor market—many of which never should've been in place to begin with. There's no shortage of red tape for policymakers to cut to boost the supply of care...

March 23, 2020 Blog, Coronavirus, Policy Proposals

As the coronavirus pandemic wreaks more and more medical and social havoc worldwide, we need to recall the observation of The Great One—no, not Dr. Tony Fauci of the National Institutes of Health—the other one, hockey player Wayne Gretzky, who said, “I skate to where the puck is going to be, not where it has been.” Anticipating what’s coming is especially important in confronting an emerging infectious disease whose dynamics and possible impacts we don’t yet know. If we react too...

March 17, 2020 Blog, Policy Proposals

The costs of economic fallacies are magnified during times of crises. Unfortunately, the Trump Administration’s trade fallacies are not only threatening our economic well-being, they are now putting people’s lives at risk. It is becoming politically incorrect to recognize that the expansion of international trade has helped Americans live better, more prosperous, lives. But, that does not change the reality that Americans benefit greatly from the global economy. As Dr. Arthur Laffer explained in a 2007 speech on the pillars of Reaganomics at the...

March 15, 2020 Blog, Coronavirus, Policy Proposals

Even for a nation as mighty, wealthy, and innovative as the United States, some problems don’t have ready solutions. Instead, we need to try to gather information, limit damage, and perform the needed course corrections. That’s where we are with the outbreak of coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 (the illness caused by which is designated COVID-19). There are some harsh, even frightening realities. First, we are past the point at which “containment” (the prevention of spread beyond known sources, such as travelers to China or...

March 2, 2020 Blog, Coronavirus, Policy Proposals

The Green New Dealers want us to think we have to either live more austere lives under coercive government policies or destroy the planet. Opponents of their plan, the theory goes, are willing to sacrifice the environment for short-term financial prosperity for the elite few. Nothing could be further from the truth. Meeting Americans’ needs, especially those of the neediest, requires free markets that can realize and reward the benefits of technological innovations, big and small. Big innovations are those such as the...

February 24, 2020 Blog, Issues, Policy Proposals

California wants to get into the drug making business. Gov. Gavin Newsom just announced his intention to have the state contract with generic drug manufacturers to make drugs to sell to state residents, presumably at lower cost than they’re available on the market today. But the plan won’t deliver much in the way of savings. In fact, it could cost taxpayers a significant amount of money. There are far more effective ways to make prescription drugs more affordable — say, by injecting...

January 31, 2020 Blog, Policy Proposals

The White House Council of Economic Advisors just issued a damning indictment of a House bill (H.R. 3) designed to lower drug prices. According to White House economists, the measure endorsed by Nancy Pelosi and her fellow House Democrats could prevent the development of 100 new drugs over the next ten years. CEA concluded "the threat [the bill] poses to continued medical innovation will harm American patients in ways that far outweigh any benefits." This analysis is spot-on. That's why it's so surprising that...

January 23, 2020 Policy Proposals, Price and Costs

Drug supply chain, pricing system reforms will slash healthcare costs, says PRI By Jeff Lagasse As the Trump administration pushes for price caps and government controls to address prescription drug prices, a new issue brief released by the Center for Medical Economics and Innovation at the Pacific Research Institute contends that reforming the complex drug supply chain and ending the current drug pricing system that overcharges patients – along with systemwide reforms – are what's needed to lower America's healthcare costs. Many proposals have been...

January 23, 2020 Policy Proposals, Price and Costs

Twenty-five years ago, the leading cause of death for adults between the ages of 25 and 44 was complications from HIV. At the time, 50,000 Americans were dying from AIDS-related causes a year, with the African American community particularly hard hit – 49 percent of the people dying from AIDS-related deaths were African Americans. Today, thanks to highly active antiretroviral therapies (HAART), along with other medical advances, people with HIV like basketball great Magic Johnson are living longer and healthier lives. And,...

January 20, 2020 Issues, Policy Proposals

A recent New York Times editorial about the Food and Drug Administration reflects a systematic weakness at the once-venerable Gray Lady: The members of the editorial board often rely on sloganeering and popular wisdom instead of substantive evidence. The editorial was headlined, “The FDA Is in Trouble. Here’s How to Fix It.” The agency is in trouble. But it’s due to the very kinds of “fixes” the Times recommends. The FDA is highly bureaucratic and risk averse, leading to a slow and expensive drug approval...

January 13, 2020 Blog, Policy Proposals

Dr. Wayne Winegarden, director of PRI’s Center for Medical Economics and Innovation, breaks down recently-proposed plans in Washington and Sacramento that emphasize price caps and more government control to address prescription drug prices. He discusses the conclusions of his new study on America’s drug pricing challenge, which makes the case that system-wide reforms to improve the complex drug supply chain and increase transparency are what’s needed to lower health care costs. [embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LXSIkIWH3X4[/embed]...

December 13, 2019 Issues, Policy Proposals

Yesterday the House passed the ill-considered “Pelosi bill” that would impose draconian price controls on drugs. Ignoring the bill’s many adverse impacts, price control advocates like Speaker Pelosi appear to believe that these command and control schemes can solve the systemic health care affordability problem. But, as the latest government data illustrates, such efforts are a fool’s errand. Consider that back in 1960 national health expenditures equaled 5.0% of GDP. Health expenditures have been growing faster than the economy ever since reaching 17.7%...

November 14, 2019 Blog, Policy Proposals, Price and Costs

Biosimilars could generate savings of about $116 million in New Jersey annually—including the state’s Medicaid program and patients with commercial insurance, according to a new issue brief by the Center for Medical Economics and Innovation at the Pacific Research Institute. Nationwide, those annual savings could reach $7 billion. PRI is a San Francisco-based free-market think tank. “We broke it down so you can look at it by state total and then breakout how much is for Medicaid which is directly applicable...

November 7, 2019 Blog, Innovation, Policy Proposals

Once wide coercive powers are given to government agencies…such powers cannot be effectively controlled. F.A. Hayek As part of the chorus calling for drug price controls, the New York Times editorial page has claimed that “Americans will need to accept a trade-off that other advanced nations long since come around to: Slightly fewer new drugs will come to market, in exchange for better prices on the medications that already exist”. There is not one part of this statement that is true. Worse, if the Times’...