Democrats Want More Control Over Health Care
I wrote recently about how the Left continues to push for its socialist “utopia” of single-payer health care. But single-payer supporters aren’t the only ones plotting and planning for more government intrusion in the health care space, as Democrats across the board pursue an “affordability” agenda that taxpayers and patients won’t be able to afford in the slightest.
Last week, Senate Finance Committee Ranking Member Ron Wyden (D-OR) and several of his Democratic colleagues wrote a letter advertising how they were “working on a prescription drug pricing policy.” The “solutions” advertised were what you would expect—more government control:
- More drug “negotiation” (read: price controls)—“allow[ing] Medicare to negotiate more drugs faster,” expanding the price controls to the private marketplace, and repealing a provision from last year’s reconciliation measure that exempted some drugs for rare diseases from “negotiation.”
- Expanding the price control regime to include international pricing, which would likely import the arbitrary rationing systems used by countries like Great Britain—systems that discriminate against individuals with disabilities.
- New proposals to “create incentives for innovation and drug development…including through the tax code,” and to “leverage the tax code to create new sources of funding for federal grants, including from NIH, that support innovation and drug development.” Specifics of those proposals are unclear, but at best would likely use the heavy hand of government to influence decisions about what therapies do and don’t get developed (i.e., picking winners and losers).
The Wyden letter came just days after the Senate passed appropriations legislation that included several hundred pages of health care provisions, including changes to the compensation of pharmaceutical benefit managers (PBMs). In case anyone had any doubts, the PBM provisions didn’t sate Democrats’ desire to enact more “reforms” in health care, most of which would give government more control.
These new proposals won’t pass in the short term. But in the longer run, they matter significantly, because they could become the basis of a Democratic agenda if the party captures control of one or both chambers of Congress in November—and/or the White House in 2028.
At least voters can’t say they weren’t warned. But it’s another sign that conservatives need to put forward their own ideas on health care, because it’s hard to win a policy debate if one side doesn’t participate.