![]() ![]() Our Task Force Report, entitled ”A New Direction for American Health Care,” noted that: Ted Kennedy’s (D-MA) and Ron Dellums’s (R-CA) proposals for national health insurance, which had already been evolving several years prior to that time. One of National Taxpayers Union’s first comprehensive policy blueprints for Congress was published some 45 years ago, when the organization made recommendations for market-based options to then-Sens. It seems difficult to remember a time when health care costs, especially new treatments involving prescription drugs, were not a part of the national policy discussion. ![]() It is up to policymakers in Congress and the executive branch to ensure that future innovations bring trillions of dollars more in economic, financial, and social benefits to American consumers. ![]() Using these case studies as a backdrop, we offer several pro-consumer and pro-taxpayer policy alternatives to the more counterproductive paths of price controls, such as: streamlined Food and Drug Administration approval processes and expedited inclusion of cost-saving drugs in Medicare and other government reimbursement chains, guarding against punitive tax policies toward research and development, and removing policy incentives that distort list prices (to name just a few). We also examine how generic medications have offered numerous benefits to consumers (who enjoy lower prices from increased competition) and taxpayers (who pay less for Medicare and Medicaid when those programs increase their share of prescriptions filled by lower-cost generics). economy between $200 billion and more than $500 billion per year. For example, a new generation of anti-obesity medications, increasingly accepted by private insurers and public programs, could significantly reduce the health-related costs of this condition, which have been variously defined and estimated to cost the U.S. We examine several case studies that explore cost-benefit analyses for particular conditions. A 2019 study in Health Affairs, for example, found that increased medication use for hypertension, high cholesterol, and diabetes alone led to an $824 per person slowdown in Medicare spending growth in the 2000s. This is perhaps one reason why prescription drug spending remains a relatively small portion of overall health spending (less than 10 percent of national health expenditures) and of the nation’s economic output (less than two percent of GDP).įuture innovations can also save taxpayers money on federal health programs, arguably the greatest source of upward pressure in the federal government’s budget for the years and decades to come. This paper is focused on doing so.Īcademic literature indicates that advances in medicine have brought trillions of dollars of benefits to the American economy in recent decades, helping people live and work longer, lead healthier and more productive lives, and avoid more expensive medical interventions that occur in hospital or physician settings. Unfortunately, proponents of prescription drug price controls like those in the IRA often fail to conduct a truly thorough and comprehensive analysis of the costs and the benefits prescription drugs offer patients, doctors, and taxpayers. One of the most recent examples is the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) of 2022, which requires Medicare to set the price for some brand-name drugs in the program and requires drug manufacturers to rebate Medicare if they increase their prices faster than inflation. Prescription drug costs are often in the public policy spotlight. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |