Drug Prices
Commentary
Price Controls On Doctors Are Costing Patients Dearly
Just like the December 2024 continuing resolution, the current budget reconciliation bill fails to address the problem of Medicare reimbursing physicians at below market rates. Without a fix, the inevitable consequences will be worsening doctor shortages, declining healthcare quality, higher overall healthcare spending, and the accelerated loss of independent practices. ...
Wayne H Winegarden
June 23, 2025
Commentary
A Real and Present Threat to Alzheimer’s Patients
It’s a quintessential government outcome. A program intended to increase access to promising medical innovations is actually preventing Medicare beneficiaries from receiving FDA-approved treatments. Medicare’s “coverage with evidence development” (CED) was never authorized by Congress. Instead, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services created the program in 2005 by leveraging ...
Wayne H Winegarden
June 18, 2025
Blog
The 340B Discounts Hospitals Receive Will Often Exceed Total Drug Prices in Europe
Table 1: PBM Fees and Rebates Can Exceed International Prescription Medicine Prices by As Much As 900% I previously highlighted how estimated rebates and fees PBMs receive for 10 commonly used brand medicines far exceed the total prices of those medicines in eight OECD countries (see Table 1). For example, ...
Wayne Winegarden
June 16, 2025
Drug Importation
Listen to Sally Pipes on “Free the Economy” podcast
Listen to PRI President, CEO, and Thomas W. Smith Fellow in Health Care Policy Sally C. Pipes discuss her new book The World’s Medicine Chest (Encounter Books) on the Free the Economy podcast from the Competitive Enterprise Institute. Click here to listen
Pacific Research Institute
June 13, 2025
Commentary
Tying U.S. Drug Prices To Foreign Markets Risks Innovation And Lives
Earlier this month, President Donald Trump signed what he called “one of the most consequential Executive Orders in our Country’s history.” The order is essentially an updated version of his administration’s 2020 “Most Favored Nation” policy. It directs pharmaceutical companies to tie the U.S. prices of their drugs to the ...
Sally C. Pipes
May 27, 2025
Blog
Don’t Take Cutting-Edge Drugs for Granted
It’s hard to imagine a more destructive plan. Importing foreign price controls on prescription drugs would reduce access to existing treatments for everything from rare diseases to cancer. To understand why, consider two recent pieces by Michael Baker for the American Action Forum’s “Reality Check-Up: The Truth About Single-Payer Systems.” ...
Sally C. Pipes
May 27, 2025
Commentary
Trump’s ‘Most Favored Nation’ Drug Plan Doesn’t Favor Americans
Last week, President Donald Trump revived one of the most ill-conceived health policy ideas of his first term. Via a new executive order, he’s directed his administration to deliver “most-favored-nation prescription drug pricing to American patients.” The idea is to bring other developed countries’ lower drug prices to the United ...
Sally C. Pipes
May 22, 2025
Blog
Read the latest on the push for drug price controls
To Improve Drug Affordability Congress Should Fix the Payment System
Demanding that drug prices in the U.S. equal overseas prices is akin to demanding that the price of all expensive handbags should equal the prices for the knockoffs that people purchase from street vendors. Of course knockoff bags are cheaper. They violate the intellectual property rights of the bag’s maker, ...
Wayne Winegarden
May 22, 2025
Commentary
Trump Should Support Effective Drug Policy Reforms Not The MFN Gimmick
The Trump Administration has announced its desire to impose price controls on drugs – officially called a most favored nation (MFN) policy. Essentially, the policy sets the price for the targeted drugs at the lowest price in other industrialized countries. The president’s justification for the MFN is simple: Americans are ...
Wayne H Winegarden
May 20, 2025
Blog
Read about the push for drug price controls
Trump and Biden Agree on Drug Pricing
Patients will pay dearly, as Michael Baker and Douglas Holtz-Eakin explain in two recent pieces for the American Action Forum’s “Reality Check-Up: The Truth About Single-Payer Systems. Biden signed the Inflation Reduction Act into law in 2022. It directs the feds to “negotiate” prices for a steadily increasing number of ...
Sally C. Pipes
May 20, 2025
Price Controls On Doctors Are Costing Patients Dearly
Just like the December 2024 continuing resolution, the current budget reconciliation bill fails to address the problem of Medicare reimbursing physicians at below market rates. Without a fix, the inevitable consequences will be worsening doctor shortages, declining healthcare quality, higher overall healthcare spending, and the accelerated loss of independent practices. ...
A Real and Present Threat to Alzheimer’s Patients
It’s a quintessential government outcome. A program intended to increase access to promising medical innovations is actually preventing Medicare beneficiaries from receiving FDA-approved treatments. Medicare’s “coverage with evidence development” (CED) was never authorized by Congress. Instead, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services created the program in 2005 by leveraging ...
The 340B Discounts Hospitals Receive Will Often Exceed Total Drug Prices in Europe
Table 1: PBM Fees and Rebates Can Exceed International Prescription Medicine Prices by As Much As 900% I previously highlighted how estimated rebates and fees PBMs receive for 10 commonly used brand medicines far exceed the total prices of those medicines in eight OECD countries (see Table 1). For example, ...
Listen to Sally Pipes on “Free the Economy” podcast
Listen to PRI President, CEO, and Thomas W. Smith Fellow in Health Care Policy Sally C. Pipes discuss her new book The World’s Medicine Chest (Encounter Books) on the Free the Economy podcast from the Competitive Enterprise Institute. Click here to listen
Tying U.S. Drug Prices To Foreign Markets Risks Innovation And Lives
Earlier this month, President Donald Trump signed what he called “one of the most consequential Executive Orders in our Country’s history.” The order is essentially an updated version of his administration’s 2020 “Most Favored Nation” policy. It directs pharmaceutical companies to tie the U.S. prices of their drugs to the ...
Don’t Take Cutting-Edge Drugs for Granted
It’s hard to imagine a more destructive plan. Importing foreign price controls on prescription drugs would reduce access to existing treatments for everything from rare diseases to cancer. To understand why, consider two recent pieces by Michael Baker for the American Action Forum’s “Reality Check-Up: The Truth About Single-Payer Systems.” ...
Trump’s ‘Most Favored Nation’ Drug Plan Doesn’t Favor Americans
Last week, President Donald Trump revived one of the most ill-conceived health policy ideas of his first term. Via a new executive order, he’s directed his administration to deliver “most-favored-nation prescription drug pricing to American patients.” The idea is to bring other developed countries’ lower drug prices to the United ...
Read the latest on the push for drug price controls
To Improve Drug Affordability Congress Should Fix the Payment System
Demanding that drug prices in the U.S. equal overseas prices is akin to demanding that the price of all expensive handbags should equal the prices for the knockoffs that people purchase from street vendors. Of course knockoff bags are cheaper. They violate the intellectual property rights of the bag’s maker, ...
Trump Should Support Effective Drug Policy Reforms Not The MFN Gimmick
The Trump Administration has announced its desire to impose price controls on drugs – officially called a most favored nation (MFN) policy. Essentially, the policy sets the price for the targeted drugs at the lowest price in other industrialized countries. The president’s justification for the MFN is simple: Americans are ...
Read about the push for drug price controls
Trump and Biden Agree on Drug Pricing
Patients will pay dearly, as Michael Baker and Douglas Holtz-Eakin explain in two recent pieces for the American Action Forum’s “Reality Check-Up: The Truth About Single-Payer Systems. Biden signed the Inflation Reduction Act into law in 2022. It directs the feds to “negotiate” prices for a steadily increasing number of ...