The mummified “Build Back Better” plan has arisen from the dead. If Democrats have their way, the federal government will set drug prices, and everyone will have less access to cures and future medical innovations.
If the Ghost of Build Back Better Past somehow gets enacted into law by Congress, expect to be unable to access innovative treatments. Patients who need treatments that are in the research and development phase won’t be able to access them because there will be little to no dollars invested in innovative treatments.
Democrats want to put price controls on drugs and other treatments under the guise of having the government “negotiate” prices. But let’s make one thing clear — this is not a “negotiation.” Negotiation with the federal government is like negotiating with the mob. It’s a one-sided bargain that results in a top-down, take it or leave it approach.
Democrats have guaranteed this by proposing a 95% tax penalty to force drug companies to accept whatever price government bureaucrats set.
Introducing price controls into any market, including pharmaceuticals or biomedical research and development, will restrict supplies and access. It’s that simple. This is economics 101. In this case, we are talking about the medications that make you well.
Fewer drugs will come to market in the next 30 years if the Democrats’ newly released drug pricing framework becomes law, according to the Congressional Budget Office.
Think of the cures and treatments we have today that we didn’t have 30 years ago — for HIV, hepatitis C, rheumatoid arthritis, numerous cancers, and many other conditions. Now ask yourself: Do you know someone who had a disease that was once untreatable?
I used to perform reconstructive foot surgeries for patients with rheumatoid arthritis. Fortunately, the need for almost all of these surgeries went away after a new drug came along. Other cures, such as that for hepatitis C, may have significant costs at the outset of treatment, but the long-term savings for the patient and the quality-of-life benefits are immense. This type of cure alone eliminates the need for a liver transplant and years of high-level care.
As we contemplate solutions, we need to think about what new therapeutics and cures can add to a patient’s quality of life. As a physician, I always seek to improve patients’ access to treatments — and that access increases by lowering out-of-pocket costs. As we address lowering patient costs, we must look at this holistically and for the long term.
Republicans introduced H.R. 19, the Lower Costs, More Cures Act, which has bipartisan provisions to lower healthcare costs, contains an out-of-pocket cap for seniors, and ensures America leads in healthcare innovation. The bill also secures our medical supply chain and makes sure that we do more to keep manufacturing here in the U.S. It also gives patients more drug price transparency and ensures public disclosure of drug costs and discounts. As a physician, I believe there could not be more important work in front of us.
The federal subsidies and price controls that Democrats propose in the name of “lowering” prices will cause fewer drugs to be available on the market. Patients will be unable to access the most innovative new drugs for their conditions because pharmaceutical companies will invest less in research and development.
Democrats are trying to rush this bill through, out of regular order, because they expect they will lose power in the fall. This is merely a push to rob Medicare dollars to pay insurance companies under Obamacare. If they lose the speaker’s gavel, their big government plans will be thwarted.
As a member of the House Ways and Means Committee and a physician who serves on the Republican Healthy Future Task Force leading the Treatment Subcommittee, I am looking forward to continuing the important work of lowering drug costs and supercharging the availability and development of lifesaving cures and medical devices.
The voters are saying no to the mummified Build Back Better plan, goodbye to socialist price control plans, and hello to a healthy future.
Rep. Brad Wenstrup, D.P.M., represents Ohio’s 2nd District in the U.S. House of Representatives, where he is a co-chairman of the GOP Doctors Caucus. He is also a colonel in the Army Reserve and a veteran of the Iraq War, serving as a combat surgeon.
