newYou can now listen to Fox News articles!
The Biden administration recently introduced another leg of its plan to bring down the cost of prescription drugs, while the Department of Health and Human Services recently announced a timeline for the government to begin negotiating drug costs on behalf of consumers. According to new administrative guidance, HHS will begin talks with “high-cost” manufacturers in September and set prices for what it considers problematic drugs next year. The news follows President Biden’s signing of an Inflation Reduction Act that says Medicare can negotiate prices for certain medicines that aren’t facing generic competition.
Mr. Biden is right. Drug prices in America are too high. In fact, he costs more than 2.5 times more than he does in 32 other countries. And the President’s commitment to addressing this crisis is commendable. But giving the government more power will not solve the problem. The concentration of power in the hands of a few people triggered this crisis in the first place.
While it may be easy to blame “big and greedy drug companies” for not facing generic competition as the answer to America’s healthcare affordability problem, the problem is much more than that. complicated. It makes things worse, not better.
It is true that bringing generic drugs to market can help to some extent, and the slow approval of such drugs by the Federal Drug Administration (often taking years) means that more than 500 brand-name drugs are on the market. It’s one of the many reasons we don’t face conflict. It’s certainly not good for Americans’ wallets and regulators need to address this.
Biden groans over high insulin costs for people without health insurance
Three drug wholesalers, three of the country’s 15 richest companies, distribute more than 90% of the country’s drugs. All three of these companies have paid governments millions of dollars to settle claims of bad business conduct.
These three wholesalers have already found that they own most of the Pharmacy Service Administration Organization (PSAO), the company that pharmacies use to negotiate pharmacy network agreements. While many see generic manufacturers as a solution to wholesaler market dominance, health care and legal experts believe that generic manufacturers are making friendly deals with these drug distributors to increase costs. I believe that
Nearly every state in the country is investigating this apparent antitrust concern. Some state officials are calling it the largest price-fixing cartel in U.S. history. This cartel includes more than 300 of his medicines sold by generic manufacturers in almost every country.
The state argues that wholesalers benefit if generic drug prices remain high. So does the $100 million settlement some states have already paid to settle accusations of conspiracy to fix prices with generic drugs. Pharmaceutical manufacturer. And it would be naïve to think that generic drugs could not benefit from dealing with these drug distributors.
Click here to get the opinion newsletter
CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP
Yet the Biden administration still rules as if the generic drug industry represents the magic bullet to America’s drug affordability problem. Behavior represents the same thing that Penguin trusts to defeat the Joker.
Instead of picking winners and losers in the healthcare industry, the White House should direct the Attorney General and courts to investigate the collusion and market concentration issues plaguing the healthcare industry. Only facts and law enforcement are big enough, objective and powerful enough to solve this systemic problem. Politics and intuition cannot solve it. They are exactly what put America in this mess.
Now is not the time to concentrate power in the hands of even fewer people. Now is the time to let the judicial system dismantle this unbridled power. This is the only solution yet to be tried, and the only way Americans will receive true relief.
Click here to read more about Dr.Tom Price