Who is pushing for price controls? The answer may surprise you
Progress in medical innovation is possible because we have a health care system that recognizes and rewards risk-taking.
Progress in medical innovation is possible because we have a health care system that recognizes and rewards risk-taking.
Progress in medical innovation over the past few years has been nothing short of remarkable.
These advancements are possible because we have a health care system that recognizes and rewards risk-taking. After all, the science of drug development is hard and only getting harder as researchers tackle the most intractable diseases and develop treatments tailored to the unique needs of individual patients. In fact, just 12 percent of medicines that enter clinical trials ever make it to patients and for some diseases, the odds of success are even lower.
To the detriment of patients, there is a concerted effort to downplay the challenges of developing new medicines and dramatically overstate the cost impact of this innovation – all in an effort to advance a legislative agenda that would have serious and harmful consequences for patients.
Despite the federal government recently projecting that spending on medicines will grow in line with overall health care spending through at least the next decade, the insurance industry – which has historically been opposed to price controls – is aggressively pushing legislation in certain states that would place arbitrary caps on medicine prices. For example:
The Boston Globe, Boston Herald, and WBUR in Boston all recently reported that the health insurance industry is a driving force behind the Massachusetts legislation. And Capitol Wire in Pennsylvania recently highlighted how insurance industry representatives’ are backing the price control legislation in that state.
Medicines are the solution to the cost challenges facing the nation’s health care system, not the cause. Without new medicines to treat Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s, cancer and other conditions, the cost to treat these diseases could bankrupt our health care system.
Legislation to arbitrarily cap prescription drug prices would have a devastating impact on medical innovation, threatening to turn back the clock on progress that is being made against some of the most challenging and debilitating diseases of our lifetime.
Patients deserve better.
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