For all of the quality care it delivers, the U.S. health care system is one of the most dysfunctional sectors of the U.S. economy. The government spends nearly 50 cents of every dollar spent on health care, most consumers are almost entirely insulated from the cost of their decisions, and employers decide what kind of health insurance their employees get.
But while the U.S. health care system begs for reform, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act only exacerbates all of the current problems, promising to devolve into a price-controlled system rationed and micromanaged by bureaucrats.
IPI believes there are much better options: reform the tax treatment of health insurance; remove the state and federal mandates and regulations that make coverage more expensive; pass medical liability reform; and promote policies that create value-conscious shoppers in the health care marketplace.
Patent Protection for Me, But Not for You
Groups such as Business for Affordable Medicine (BAM) wants to reform the 1984 Hatch-Waxman Act in order to get access sooner to cheaper generic drugs. However, those efforts could weaken drug manufacturers’ patents. Interestingly, BAM members also have patents, and they defend those patents if another company tries to infringe them. In particular, GM complains that it has to spend money fighting the expansion of imitation parts — just like the drug manufacturers. Is the intellectual property of pharmaceutical companies less important than the intellectual property of member companies of Business for Affordable Medicine?
Who's Afraid of Pharmaceutical Advertising?
As the market for prescription drugs becomes more competitive, consumers have more choices of high-quality drugs at reasonable prices. It is competition and DTC advertising — not government regulation — that enables the choices and will enhance the benefits. If legislators and health policy experts want to ensure that more drugs are available at lower prices, they should consider policies that encourage advertising and competition. We have no reason to fear advertising; what we should fear is the people who want to control it.
The Biotechnology Revolution and Clinton-Care
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