Biden + Sanders Aim to Hamstring US Health Care
On Wednesday July 8, 2020, Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders’ “Unity Task Force” unveiled a new health care plan that would expand Obamacare and move toward Sanders’ proposed “Medicare for all”. (1) The plan would be a detriment to the American health care system by weakening intellectual property rights, imposing a restrictive inflationary penalty, and expanding restrictions on federal funding.
Strong intellectual property rights give companies the confidence to make significant investments into research and development. Less investment into research and development means fewer and lower quality new medicines.
The United States has been the global leader in health innovation for decades. (2) Biden and Sanders’ proposals would have global impacts on public health and open the door for China and India to expand their influence in the global health market.
Biden and Sanders’ task force also proposes to impose price restrictions by levying heavy fines against companies whose drug prices exceed the inflation rate. This near-sighted proposal ignores the nebulous relationship between individual markets and the economy as a whole. Not only would this arbitrarily tie drug prices to inflation, but it would incentivize higher prices for new drugs to account for the restriction down the line.
The plan also makes vague reference to targeting drug prices underwritten by government money. The end-goal seems to be to reduce drug costs at point-of-sale beyond what is required of privately funded drugs. The federal government accounted for nearly a quarter of all spending on medical and health research and development in 2015. (3) These restrictions would make the pool of federal funding less viable for small- and medium-sized companies and undercut the NIH’s focus on funding these companies. (4)
Less innovation, higher drug prices, and expanded restrictions for government funded research and development. Not exactly the “socialist utopia” Biden and Sanders are peddling, is it?
Say NO to socialist price controls!
References
Biden-Sanders Unity Task Force Recommendations. 8 June 2020, https://joebiden.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/UNITY-TASK-FORCE-RECOMMENDATIONS.pdf.
Sullivan, Thomas. “PWC Medical Technology Innovation Scorecard: US Falling Behind in the Race for Global Leadership.” Policy & Medicine. www.policymed.com, https://www.policymed.com/2011/01/pwc-medical-technology-innovation-scorecard-us-falling-behind-in-the-race-for-global-leadership.html.
U.S. Investments in Medical and Health Research and Development. Research America, 2016, https://www.researchamerica.org/sites/default/files/2016US_Invest_R%26D_report.pdf.
Ben-Menachem, Gil, et al. “Doing Business with the NIH.” Nature Biotechnology, vol. 24, no. 1, Jan. 2006, pp. 17–20, https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2782946/