2021 could be a bad year for patients in the United States.
Lawmakers have resumed their fight to pass sweeping price controls that would limit access to treatment and crush medical innovation—the same innovation that delivered COVID-19 vaccines in record time and faster than any country in the world.
Using a tricky Senate procedure called reconciliation, Senators need only 51 votes to implement Medicare price controls once the House drafts new legislation that builds off of Speaker Pelosi’s failed bill, H.R. 3, the Lower Drug Costs Now Act.
Proponents of this legislation tout billions in savings over the next decade, but usually fail to mention how many fewer drugs would come to market—up to 40, according to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office—and what this would mean for health plans for most Americans.
