Democrats Have Drawn a Target on Vulnerable Seniors’ Backs
Townhall.com | December 17, 2021 | Saul AnuzisBuild Back Better would set drug reimbursements far below the market-based prices that Medicare, the nation’s largest insurance program, currently pays. Cheaper drugs sound great, in theory. And who could possibly object to seniors paying less for their prescriptions?
Yet if only things were that simple. While the need for lower drug prices is urgent, those prices must be the result of market-based policies that don’t disrupt research and development into new treatments.
Our lawmakers appear not to have thought through the inevitable consequences of their intended measures.
If the federal government intervenes in the market and prevents biotech companies from earning a fair return, then the investors backing those capital-intensive firms will steer their money elsewhere. As a result, promising treatments will wither on the vine, perhaps never even making it out of the lab due to a lack of funding.
An analogy might prove illustrative. Imagine if the government arbitrarily declared that restaurants can’t charge more than $2 for cheeseburgers and 25 cents for fries. People might initially rejoice at the prospect of cheaper meals — but pretty soon, they’d notice that restaurants had taken that option off the menu, or reduced the size of formerly half-pound burgers to tiny sliders. As for the fries …
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