Commentary
Today's commentary on pharmaceutical benefit managers
Will Senate Hearing Expose PBMs’ Unscrupulous Drug Pricing Tactics?
Today , Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., will haul executives from three insulin manufacturers and three pharmacy benefit managers before the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee for a hearing on “the need to make insulin affordable for all Americans.” Sen. Sanders is sure to call the pharmaceutical executives — …
Thank the IRA for Cuts to Critical Drug Research
President Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act is just eight months old. It hasn’t yet slayed inflation. But it’s already gutting drug research and development. The law gives Medicare the power to impose price controls on certain prescription drugs for the first time. By September, federal officials will select the first 10 …
Small-Molecule Price Controls Are A Big Mistake
The Biden administration is in the midst of setting the terms for its program of price controls on prescription drugs dispensed through Medicare. The first 10 medicines subject to the price caps will be selected by the end of this year. That prospect is already chilling investment in drug research, particularly …
CA banking on offshore wind for energy goals
Gavin Newsom’s Carbon-Neutral Grid Plan Looks To Be Going The Way Of The Bullet Train To Nowhere
California’s planned transition to a carbon-neutral electricity grid by 2045 relies heavily on offshore wind power. It might take a miracle to get there. The growth of offshore wind will have to accelerate faster than a Tesla Model S, which goes from zero to 60 in less than two seconds. …
Democrats want a fully socialized healthcare system
The Inflation Reduction Act Was Only The Beginning
As it turns out, the fears that the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) was simply another step toward a fully socialized healthcare system were well founded. For evidence, less than a year after the IRA was signed into law U.S. Senators Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), Peter Welch (D-VT) and 23 Democrat colleagues …
Read about Biden's latest policy proposal
Time for Hospitals to Come Clean About Pricing
The Biden administration is cracking down on hospitals that keep their prices secret. Under a policy announced last week, failing to abide by Trump-era hospital price transparency rules will no longer prompt a warning letter from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. Instead, hospitals will have 45 days to …
Biden wants to add another few billion dollars to the deficit
Don’t expand Medicaid to noncitizens
Last week, the Biden administration released a plan that would open up Medicaid and Obamacare to nearly 580,000 undocumented immigrants. Never mind that the federal deficit is projected to reach $1.4 trillion this year. What’s another few billion dollars? The proposed rule centers around the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, which allows undocumented …
Latest Anti-Nuclear Lawsuit Threatens Progress on California’s Clean Energy Goals
An agreement to pull the plug on the Diablo Canyon nuclear plant in San Luis Obispo County was settled in 2016. But plans to close it in 2025 were delayed last year when California was hit in the mouth with an extreme heat wave that threatened the power grid. The …
Golden State Teeters on Edge of Healthcare Cliff
Democrats in the California Legislature are moving ahead with a new bid to impose single-payer health care in the Golden State. Last week, the Senate Health Committee green-lit SB 770 by a 7-2 margin. The measure holds Gov. Gavin Newsom to a set of deadlines for advancing his long-promised government takeover of …
Don’t Expect Life Expectancy To Explain American Health Care
Misinformation is killing Americans. At least, that’s what one of America’s top public health officials says. Speaking to CNBC in April, U.S. Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Robert Califf said misinformation is part of the reason Americans have lower life expectancies than people in other wealthy nations. The FDA chief is hardly …
