Goldwater Joins Coalition Opposing Price Controls on Medical Innovation – In Defense of Liberty

Today, the Goldwater Institute signed on to a coalition letter, led by Americans for Tax Reform, in opposition to Democrats’ plan to impose price controls, a 95 percent excise tax, and inflation penalties on American pharmaceutical manufacturers. Democrats are attempting to include this plan in their socialist tax-and-spend bill. The letter was signed by 51 organizations.

The Goldwater Institute has long been a leader in opposing arbitrary, top-down government mandates on American healthcare, which pose an immediate danger to both the quality of care for our most vulnerable patients and to the future of treatment innovations. 

This proposal from Congress would impose price controls on up to 20 medicines in Medicare Part B and Part D. If the manufacturer does not accept this government-set price, they are hit with a 95 percent excise tax on the total revenues of the drug. While it is imposed on a small group of medicines, it creates a new tax and regulatory structure that can be expanded to all cures and to the entire healthcare system, becoming a stepping stone toward socialized healthcare. 

The proposal also includes an inflationary rebate penalty on every medicine, an arbitrary policy that could create an incentive for manufacturers to automatically increase the list price of their drugs each year to keep pace with inflation. 

While supporters of government price controls on American medicine argue they would allow the government to negotiate with the private sector, these policies would harm competition and access to cures, crush medical innovation, upend the market-based structure of Medicare Part D, and cost high-paying American jobs.

The letter urges members of Congress to oppose this dangerous plan.