Posted on 12/25/2023 11:07:02 AM PST by E. Pluribus Unum
Contrary to its stated goal of reducing prescription-drug prices, the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) is likely to drive drug prices higher and delay or prevent the release of new drugs, especially those for rare conditions.
“IRA has made perverse incentives, so certain things don’t work anymore from a financial perspective,” David Epstein, the former CEO of biotech company Seagen, told Bloomberg.
The problems, as usual, stem from two things: (1) unconstitutional federal programs such as Medicare, and (2) politicians’ naïve faith in their ability to legislate away the laws of economics.
The IRA uses Medicare’s enormous buying power as leverage to make pharmaceutical companies knuckle under to the government’s demands, forcing them to pay Medicare back if their prices rise faster than inflation and to negotiate prices under the threat of a 95-percent tax on their sales should they refuse.
On December 14, the Biden administration announced that during the last quarter of fiscal year 2023, prices of 48 drugs for which Medicare Part B pays had increased faster than the overall rate of inflation, triggering automatic rebates of the difference to the government.
This approach, of course, is based on the typically simplistic reasoning of politicians, who assume that a given inflation rate causes all prices to rise at that same rate. In reality, the distribution of newly created dollars and the resulting changes in supply and demand cause prices of different goods and services to increase at different rates. That drug prices rose faster than the rate of inflation could reflect the fact that the federal government gets new dollars first and, via Medicare, spends them on drugs. It doesn’t necessarily indicate that drug makers are gouging taxpayers.
In any event, pharmaceutical companies aren’t going to sit idly by and watch their...
(Excerpt) Read more at thenewamerican.com ...
Well, with a name like Inflation Reduction Act, any sensible person should expect the act to drive prices higher. This is Biden we’re talking about.
When the Delusional Lying left talks about things like reducing inflation, hold on to your wallets as prices will start skyrocketing.
What confusion.
Inflation isn’t high prices. Inflation CAUSES higher prices.
What is inflation and who causes it?
Inflation is an increase in the money supply greater than the GDP.
The ONLY cause of inflation is the GOVERNMENT PRINTING PRESSES printing out too many dollars.
The government spending to support the mostly unconstitutional size of the federal government is the ONLY cause of inflation.
Next.
This act will screw us. But I want to see US consumers be able to buy drugs at the prices they are in Canada and the EU.
I know those prices are forced by local laws. But the big Pharma answer to that is to gouge US consumers to make up the difference. Essentially it’s a tax on Americans to subsidize EU and Canadian drugs.
Pharma hates it, but we should be able to buy prescription drugs overseas with no interference.
Exactly. Thanks.
Canada’s drugs are cheaper because everyone else must pay more to subsidize Canadian prices.
Put on your thinking caps, folks. Nothing is free and someone always pays. Medicare gets lower prices and everyone else pays higher prices. The reason a grocery store can give away a free turkey is because the rest of the fixins aren’t on sale.
Ask your doctor what the cash price is sometime. It will be reasonable.
EC
not that I want them to, but if the government really wanted for certain drugs to be cheap, they only need to use imminent domain to buy the rights to the drug and then simply make it available at cost to people.
That's the stupidest thing I have ever heard.
it really is no different than the government taking over power plants, water plants, or toll roads. The government can pay someone a fair price and then sell the product or service at cost to save citizens money.
Government is the greediest, most corrupt and murderous force on Earth. It is not even debatable.
But you have a religious faith in government. Good luck with that.
Everything he touches turns to shit.
Is there anything this Demoncrat has done that has been good for the common folk?
Contrary to its stated goal
That covers everything about Biden and his chain of stooges.
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