Manufacturers have long supported efforts to reduce America’s healthcare costs. And with 98 percent of manufacturers offering health benefits to their employees, we are as sensitive as anyone to the rising costs of care.
But we are also mindful that government “solutions” often make the problem worse, as we have witnessed with the many unintended consequences of Obamacare. With the Trump administration seeking ideas on how to reduce the cost of prescription drugs to consumers, we should be careful to avoid any “solution” that would lead to more government intervention into our healthcare.
In academia, the halls of Congress and state capitals, some have suggested imposing new top-down regulations or pricing rules on the companies that manufacture medicines and vaccines. Such nonmarket-based approaches sound simple and hopeful, but as is so often the case when the government applies its heavy hand, more losers than winners are likely to emerge.
The sickest and most vulnerable Americans stand to be the hardest hit. Such approaches could restrict access to needed medicines and discourage the development of new lifesaving treatments for the people who are struggling most. Other countries that have price controls often don’t provide lifesaving or life-changing treatments to many who urgently need them.
With approximately 7,000 medicines in development around the world and a Food and Drug Administration that works safely and relatively efficiently, the United States is a global leader in the development of medical breakthroughs. Years and years of costly research and development go into these efforts, with much of it funded by pharmaceutical manufacturers, empowering humans to live longer, better lives. Research pipelines also create jobs for manufacturing workers that support innovation and science.
Pharmaceutical manufacturers spend more on R&D than any other industry. They also put a sizeable share of their revenue back into R&D so that today’s treatments can help fund tomorrow’s cures. We are in a period of tremendous breakthroughs and medical discovery led by pharmaceutical manufacturers in partnership with the National Institutes of Health, universities and other private groups.
The potential to use gene therapies to cure blindness, cancer and other diseases is an exciting prospect, and the possibility to sharply slow Alzheimer’s disease or someday prevent the brain-ravaging illness entirely brings hope to families across America. These potential advancements—underway in real time—are reasons why we cannot turn back the clock on innovation with counterproductive government restrictions on pharmaceutical researchers and manufacturers.
Just imagine if we had never developed vaccines for smallpox, polio or tuberculosis. Picture a world with no treatments for cancer, heart disease, HIV or diabetes. It would be a world of untold anxieties, of lost loved ones, of shattered dreams.
Prescription drugs and vaccines play a crucial role in keeping people healthy. Some therapies are so successful in eradicating a disease that the need for an organ transplant or a long hospital stay is eliminated from treatment plans. Thanks to American ingenuity and a free market that pushes companies to strive for the next discovery, we make progress every day toward a healthier future.
Reducing healthcare costs requires a comprehensive approach to the various forces that strain the system. Rigid price controls or intrusive regulations in the name of “transparency” will not solve the larger problem. Nor will drug importation, which could put patients at risk by exposing them to drugs that do not meet high U.S. safety standards. These approaches will not address the causes of disease or simplify the healthcare bureaucracy that increases costs through its sheer complexity.
We need Democrats and Republicans to come together as our country faces mounting healthcare challenges. Stifling critical research and threatening America’s foundational free market principles are not the cure. The last thing we should do is sacrifice something we do well—the development of lifesaving medicines—because of good intentions gone wrong.
Jay Timmons is president and CEO of the National Association of Manufacturers (NAM).
