Tag: Congress

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GOP bill would stick Congress members with veterans’ health care plan to call attention to failing VA

GOP bill would stick Congress members with veterans’ health care plan to call attention to failing VA

A Republican invoice released this 7 days would pressure users of Congress and their workers to get health care from the Section of Veterans Affairs, a modify aimed at forcing lawmakers to realize the longstanding difficulties with the VA.

Residence and Senate lawmakers and workers are expected to get their well being protection via the Washington, D.C., health and fitness insurance trade developed underneath Obamacare. They get access to gold-degree ideas, which usually means they shell out 20{08cd930984ace14b54ef017cfb82c397b10f0f7d5e03e6413ad93bb8e636217f} of their overall health care expenses when taxpayers deal with 80{08cd930984ace14b54ef017cfb82c397b10f0f7d5e03e6413ad93bb8e636217f}.

But, below laws proposed by Rep. Warren Davidson, an Army veteran and Republican from Ohio, lawmakers and team would receive VA treatment at VA services “as if this kind of users and workers were veterans.” Davidson says the point is to make lawmakers a lot more conscious of the issues with the VA.

WATCHDOG ASKS Judge TO Stop VA ‘STONEWALLING,’ Detect Officers Powering Overall health Treatment Limitations

Rep. Warren Davidson, a Republican from Ohio and Army veteran, wants lawmakers to use Veterans Affairs care so they can become more familiar with how the VA needs to be fixed.

Rep. Warren Davidson, a Republican from Ohio and Army veteran, wants lawmakers to use Veterans Affairs care so they can grow to be additional familiar with how the VA requires to be fixed.
(Al Drago-Pool/Getty Photographs)

“Furnishing our veterans with the greatest quality treatment is a bipartisan concern on which practically all associates of Congress concur,” Davidson stated in a assertion to Fox News Digital. “The VA is billed with fulfilling our nation’s obligation to give veterans with the overall health added benefits they have gained. To satisfy that obligation, the VA will have to have consistent and intentional congressional oversight.

“When I converse with veterans, they always anxiety the urgency surrounding veterans’ health and fitness treatment challenges, especially for psychological health providers,” he additional. “My bill will assure customers of Congress have a stake in improving upon the VA well being care procedure.”

DEMOCRATS REFUSE TO Take a look at ‘UNACCEPTABLE’ VETERAN Wellness Care DELAYS

The VA has been under tight scrutiny considering the fact that 2014, when it became obvious it was systematically underreporting veteran wait moments for well being care to make it glance as while veterans ended up receiving timely care. That observe led to findings that some veterans died although ready prolonged intervals of time for VA care. And that prompted Congress to make a pilot application enabling some veterans to get treatment exterior the VA.

Under former President Trump, the option of non-public care grew to become lasting beneath the MISSION Act, but the Biden administration has come below fire for hoping to downplay the personal overall health care choice. In a 2022 hearing, Republicans criticized VA Secretary Denis McDonough for redirecting a MISSION Act hyperlink from a webpage that educated veterans about their private treatment options to a website page that inspired them to signal up for VA treatment.

Denis McDonough, secretary of Veterans Affairs, is under fire from Republicans over the VA's implementation of legislation giving veterans the option of using private sector care. 

Denis McDonough, secretary of Veterans Affairs, is beneath hearth from Republicans more than the VA’s implementation of legislation offering veterans the choice of using non-public sector treatment. 
(Al Drago/Bloomberg through Getty Illustrations or photos)

Sen. Dan Sullivan, R-Alaska, final 12 months referred to as it an case in point of “blatant bias” from the MISSION Act.

“Given that I have been in Congress, I have supported the VA Mission Act, VA Accountability Act and the PACT Act,” Davidson reported. “These charges increased accessibility to care, expanded added benefits and enhanced the high-quality of care. Nonetheless, more ought to be completed to make improvements to the VA.”

SENATORS RIP VA SECRETARY FOR TRAPPING VETERANS IN Governing administration-Run Wellness Treatment: ‘BLATANT BIAS’

Veterans and veterans businesses proceed to complain about wait around periods for treatment. By way of requesting federal files, veterans teams and their allies have uncovered proof the VA is again producing facts to make it look VA wait around occasions are not as extended as they are.

For illustration, they uncovered that as an alternative of measuring hold out periods starting off from the working day a veteran requests care, the VA is setting up the clock when a VA “scheduler” commences the do the job of placing up an appointment, which can be weeks or even months soon after a veteran initially requests care.

Veterans Affairs has also been criticized for long wait times for veterans at clinics and hospitals around the country.

Veterans Affairs has also been criticized for lengthy wait situations for veterans at clinics and hospitals around the country.
(Alastair Pike/AFP by means of Getty Visuals)

The look of small hold out situations can make it more difficult for veterans to qualify for treatment outside the VA. Below the MISSION Act, a person element that would make veterans suitable for private sector care is long wait periods, and veterans’ groups say artificially quick hold out moments are preventing thousands of veterans from obtaining the care they require outdoors the VA.

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Past calendar year, Us citizens for Prosperity Foundation (AFPF) sued the VA for accessibility to documents detailing the VA’s implementation of the MISSION Act. Even though a judge ordered the VA to produce all those paperwork, AFPF previous month returned in advance of a Washington, D.C., choose to desire it create much more applicable files, such as papers that reveal which senior leaders in the VA are trying to restrict the use of the MISSION Act.

Pete Kasperowicz is a politics editor at Fox News Electronic.

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Congress must listen to working families and overhaul healthcare, minimum wage and education | Bernie Sanders

Congress must listen to working families and overhaul healthcare, minimum wage and education | Bernie Sanders

I am very pleased to be assuming the chairmanship of the US Senate’s well being, education and learning, labor and pensions committee (Assist), a committee with large jurisdiction over some of the most critical troubles experiencing the American people. As I move into that position I’m pondering about how we can most effective address some of the really serious challenges dealing with my fellow Vermonters and performing families all throughout the state.

Currently, in phrases of health, we have a dysfunctional health care process in which we expend the astronomical and unsustainable sum of nearly $13,000 for just about every man, woman and boy or girl, 2 times as substantially as most made countries and nearly 20{08cd930984ace14b54ef017cfb82c397b10f0f7d5e03e6413ad93bb8e636217f} of our GDP. However, even with that substantial expenditure, 85 million People are uninsured or underinsured and we have worse wellness outcomes and lessen lifestyle expectancy than quite a few other nations. When the insurance policy companies make large earnings, above 500,000 persons declare individual bankruptcy each individual calendar year from medically relevant financial debt, and about 68,000 die due to the fact they simply cannot afford to pay for the treatment they need. Our challenging and fragmented program is so broken that it simply cannot even deliver the quantity of medical doctors, nurses, dentists and mental well being personnel that we desperately need to have.

As a nation, we will have to emphasis on the fact that the perform of a rational healthcare technique is to present top quality treatment for all, not only huge gains for the insurance plan industry.

Today, as we pay by considerably the best selling prices in the globe for prescription medication, the pharmaceutical field is producing document-breaking revenue and much more than a several executives in drug companies are turning into billionaires. Meanwhile, in spite of billions in governing administration financial investment in prescription drug investigate and development, nearly one out of four Us citizens are not able to pay for the drugs their medical doctors prescribe and too lots of seniors are splitting their lifesaving tablets in half due to the fact they just cannot afford to pay for them. And since Medicare doesn’t include dental, hearing and eyesight, there are hundreds of thousands of seniors who are striving to survive with out these essential health care demands.

But it’s not just our health care “system” which requirements a big overhaul. In terms of instruction, we will need to get a difficult look at how we are educating our children – from childcare to graduate university.

When psychologists tell us that the first four yrs of everyday living are the most essential in phrases of human intellectual and emotional growth, it is really hard to deny that our childcare program is in disarray. The price tag is unaffordable for lots of doing work mom and dad, there are not enough slots out there, the good quality is spotty and the shell out and rewards childcare staff receive is unconscionably minimal. This is not how we should really be managing our kids, the long term of The us.

The situation in K-12 education and learning is not a great deal far better. For a assortment of good reasons – absence of respect, low shell out, the worry of Covid and the politicization of school boards – 1000’s of gifted and dedicated teachers are quitting the job, leaving students unprepared for the challenges they confront as they enter the grownup world. The foreseeable future of this country depends upon the excellent of training we provide our young ones, and there is no explanation why we simply cannot develop the very best general public academic technique in the earth.

In phrases of better education and learning, we face the absurd problem of hundreds of 1000’s of vibrant younger people who have the wish and capability to get a higher education education but are not able to do so due to the fact their family members absence the revenue. How quite a few wonderful medical professionals, researchers, and teachers are we losing as a result? There are also hundreds of thousands of youthful people today who will need schooling in purchase to develop into qualified mechanics, carpenters, welders, and electricians who are not obtaining the submit-large university coaching they need. Additional, 45 million Americans are having difficulties with college student credit card debt – often in the hundreds of hundreds of dollars.

In phrases of labor and our economy, we need to figure out that we dwell in a time period of additional cash flow and prosperity inequality than at any time in the previous hundred a long time. While the pretty prosperous develop into richer and a few persons now very own additional wealth than the bottom half of American culture, 60{08cd930984ace14b54ef017cfb82c397b10f0f7d5e03e6413ad93bb8e636217f} of American employees reside paycheck to paycheck and tens of millions are trying to exist on hunger wages. Meanwhile, we have a pathetic federal minimum wage of $7.25 per hour which has not been elevated because 2009.

As far more and extra staff try to improve their normal of living by forming unions, they are experiencing intense and illegal union busting from these employers as Starbucks, Amazon, McDonalds and other main businesses.

There is a ton of discussion in the media about how “divided” our country is and, on quite a few challenges, that is absolutely genuine. But what we do not appreciate is that on some of the most significant problems experiencing our place the American people today – Democrats, Republicans, independents – are very united.

The American people today know we are being ripped off by the drug companies and they want reduced prescription medicine prices.

The American people know that our healthcare technique is outrageously highly-priced and they want common and decrease charge wellbeing care.

The American folks know that schooling is critical to our lives and the upcoming of this country and they want superior excellent and affordable education and learning from childcare to graduate college.

The American people today know that no a person can survive on a $7.25-an-hour bare minimum wage, and they want to elevate the minimum amount wage to a living wage.

The American persons know that personnel have a constitutional appropriate to type unions and that organizations that have interaction in illegal union busting things to do will have to be held accountable.

And these are just a few of the challenges in the jurisdiction of the Enable committee that a potent greater part of the American people today want us to deal with.

At a time when too a lot of People in america are supplying up on democracy, now is the time to try to restore religion in our authorities. Now is the time for Congress to have the courage to acquire on the lobbyists and potent special passions and display the American people today that our government can get the job done for them, and not just the 1{08cd930984ace14b54ef017cfb82c397b10f0f7d5e03e6413ad93bb8e636217f}. Let us do it.

  • Bernie Sanders is a US senator, and the ranking member of the Senate spending plan committee. He signifies the condition of Vermont, and is the longest-serving independent in the background of Congress

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Congress hearts health tech – POLITICO

Congress hearts health tech – POLITICO

PROGRAMMING NOTE: We’ll be off next week for the holidays but will return to your inboxes on Tuesday, Jan. 3.

Congress’ fiscal 2023 spending bill offers certainty for the health care industry that there’s bipartisan support for retaining rules adopted during the Covid-19 pandemic which permit easier access to virtual and at-home care.

The bill, which lawmakers plan to pass this week, will extend through 2024:

– eased Medicare rules allowing expanded access to telehealth. Those rules were previously scheduled to expire five months after the end of the Covid public health emergency, which could come next year. The Department of Health and Human Services permitted Medicare patients easier access to telehealth at the outset of the pandemic and Congress bolstered that decision in a March 2020 Covid relief law.

– a rule allowing high-deductible health plans to offer subscribers telehealth appointments before they’ve hit their deductibles. The rule previously would have expired at year’s end. Congress first allowed high-deductible plans to pay for virtual visits in the March 2020 law. Lawmakers allowed the provision to expire at the end of 2021 before passing another extension in March.

– waivers permitting hospitals to treat some emergency department and inpatient hospital patients from their homes. The move, adopted by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services in November 2020, was aimed at expanding hospital capacity as health care organizations were slammed with Covid-19 patients. The waivers would have expired with the end of the public health emergency.

Yes, but: Those are all big wins for health care industry groups. But some took a loss as well. The bill sustains a prohibition against creating a national patient ID that providers and health technology firms say is needed to ensure a safe and seamless transition to electronic medical records.

This is where we explore the ideas and innovators shaping health care. 

We can now get our medical records and results in cool mobile apps — great, right? But if they’re written in medicalese, the average person won’t be able to understand them. So, whose job is it to translate our medical histories into something intelligible? Let Ruth know.

Share news, tips and feedback with Ben Leonard at [email protected], Ruth Reader at [email protected], or Carmen Paun at [email protected].

Send tips securely through SecureDrop, Signal, Telegram or WhatsApp.

Today on our Pulse Check podcast, Ben talks with Mark Cuban, famous for his “Shark Tank” reality TV show on ABC and one of America’s most prominent investors, about the Cost Plus Drug Company he founded with Alex Oshmyansky to take on the pharmaceutical market and lower drug prices.

The U.S. will remain atop the list of donors to global health causes if Congress, as expected, passes the fiscal 2023 spending bill this week.

But the 7 percent boost in funding the State Department and Agency for International Development will oversee comes amidst huge needs stemming from the Covid-19 pandemic, during which the fight against infectious diseases, such as measles, polio and HIV, was disrupted.

Of the $10.5 billion for State and USAID in the year-end spending package:

– The biggest boost, $445 million, will go to HIV/AIDS programs, for a total of $6.7 billion. The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, got the biggest percentage increase with $440 million, raising the U.S. contribution to $2 billion for next year.

– Global health security will get $200 million more, for a total of $900 million. The money will go to programs seeking to build the capacity of other countries to prevent, detect and respond to infectious disease outbreaks. At least some of it is expected to go to the World Bank’s Pandemic Fund.

– Tuberculosis programs will get a $23.5 million increase to nearly $395 million.

– Malaria programs will receive $795 million, a $20 million increase. Polio programs will get $85 million, a $10 million hike.

– Funding for family planning and reproductive health programs remained flat at $575 million. The U.S. will also contribute $32.5 million to the United Nations Population Fund.

The Department of Health and Human Services and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will also get nearly $700 million in global health funds.

California could be the third state to decriminalize “magic mushrooms” if Democratic state Sen. Scott Wiener’s new bill becomes law.

Wiener, who represents San Francisco and environs, wants to make it legal to possess plant-based psychedelic substances, including psilocybin, dimethyltryptamine (DMT), ibogaine and mescaline, for personal use by adults 21 or older.

Psychedelics are on the frontier of drug legalization:

– Oregon, in 2020, and Colorado, earlier this year, decriminalized psychedelics. Both changes were the result of ballot initiatives.

– Oakland, Santa Cruz and San Francisco in California; Ann Arbor, Detroit and Hazel Park in Michigan; Somerville, Cambridge, Easthampton and Northampton in Massachusetts, and Washington, D.C., no longer treat possession of psychedelic plants as a crime.

Wiener’s bill excludes LSD and MDMA, or ecstasy, two synthetic drugs that alter perception and are currently being tested for use in treatment for anxiety and post-traumatic stress disorder, respectively.

The bill includes penalties for transporting the substances it decriminalizes onto school grounds or giving them to anyone under 21.

The Health Information Technology Advisory Committee that Congress created to advise HHS on how to improve the flow of medical data is about to get more diverse.

Comptroller General Gene Dodaro appointed seven new members to the committee on Monday, five of them women.

Last year, the GAO announced an all-male group of nominees, which sent some in the health IT world into an uproar. The new group will move the panel toward greater balance, as it currently has 19 men and eight women appointees.

The new members will get three-year terms on the committee. They are:

— Deven McGraw, lead for data stewardship and sharing at Invitae, a genetic testing company, and a former high-ranking official in HHS’ Office for Civil Rights privacy division

— Kikelomo Belizaire, chief medical officer at Pegasystems, a software company, and former medical director of insurer Anthem’s commercial unit

— Shila Blend, health information technology director of the North Dakota Health Information Network and former deputy chief of staff for the state’s Covid-19 response

— Hannah Galvin, chief medical information officer of Cambridge Health Alliance, the Massachusetts health care provider, and former senior manager of clinical effectiveness at athenahealth

— Anna McCollister, a patient advocate and former chief advocate for participatory research at Scripps’ Translational Science Institute

— Bryant Karras, chief medical informatics officer at Washington state’s health department and a former University of Washington assistant professor

— Naresh Sundar Rajan, chief data officer at CyncHealth, which aids in information exchange among providers in Nebraska and neighboring states

Why it matters: Congress established the advisory committee via the 21st Century Cures Act six years ago.

The panel advises HHS’ National Coordinator for Health Information Technology on policies, standards and certification criteria relating to implementing health information technology with the goal of improving electronic access, sharing and health data usage.

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Healthcare Priorities For The Next Congress

Healthcare Priorities For The Next Congress

What sort of healthcare reforms can we anticipate from the 118th Congress? The outlook is a bit cloudy.

At extensive previous, Congress will possible transform its awareness to things other than COVID-19. But Democrats have missing their legislative trifecta and will have to operate with a House narrowly controlled by Republicans.

But if lawmakers are intrigued in in fact strengthening the nation’s healthcare program, there are a number of reforms that can command bipartisan assistance.

Let’s start with expanded entry to telehealth. A single of the several very good points to appear out of the pandemic was the embrace of telemedicine by patients, vendors, and payers alike. To assure clients had entry to important health expert services while they were being inspired to continue to be property, federal and condition authorities gave health professionals additional leeway on what solutions they could provide nearly. Medicare expanded reimbursement for telehealth procedures. As a consequence, telehealth use amongst Medicare enrollees amplified 63-fold in the course of the pandemic.

It truly is simple to see why. Telehealth visits are notably valuable for the 3.6 million People who delay treatment every yr for the reason that they are unable to get to a doctor’s business office. They spare sufferers the trouble of taking time off get the job done, commuting to and from the doctor’s workplace, and ready in the ready home. All that time has a authentic cost—about $89 billion a yr, in accordance to Altarum, a consultancy.

Congress’s year-close paying bill expands COVID-period telehealth flexibilities by 2024. But lawmakers can and really should go even further—and make those flexibilities long term. Similar legislation has captivated bipartisan guidance. And the December spending plan deal displays that Republicans and Democrats alike are on board with the thought in some fashion.

Increasing entry to Overall health Price savings Accounts is one more way that Congress can increase Medicare. Correct now, people today coated by the method are not able to contribute tax-no cost funds to these accounts to use for potential healthcare charges. The tax-advantaged accounts can make out-of-pocket healthcare fees far more affordable and profit the complete healthcare procedure by encouraging persons to store all over for the ideal benefit for their cash.

Very last April, Rep. Ami Bera, D-Calif., introduced the Wellness Savings for Seniors Act, which would permit Medicare beneficiaries add to HSAs. Two of her Republican colleagues co-sponsored the evaluate. It’s value dusting that monthly bill off for the new Congress.

Medicare is not the only entitlement primed for reform. As aspect of the 12 months-stop price range offer, Democrats eventually agreed to elevate a COVID-period suspension of Medicaid eligibility critiques, which led to practically 13 million ineligible men and women becoming enrolled in the software. This lack of oversight is each needless and costly. Incorrect Medicaid payments cost taxpayers above $80 billion past calendar year.

The December wheeling and dealing by Congress is a good reminder that Democrats can be introduced to the negotiating table for entitlement reform. And they may well be even much more ready to compromise in buy to get one thing out of the final two decades of President Biden’s time period.

For instance, Republicans may want to see what it will just take to get even far more Medicaid oversight, or supplemental adaptability for states to administer their Medicaid applications as they see fit.

It really is normally mentioned that the expression “may perhaps you reside in interesting times” is each a blessing and a curse. When it comes to overall health plan, we are constantly living in exciting instances. For everyone’s sake, let us hope no matter what Congress does in the up coming couple of years is the very good variety of intriguing.

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How the new Congress can improve drug pricing reform

How the new Congress can improve drug pricing reform

Several factors of U.S. wellness treatment arouse passions much more than out-of-pocket selling prices for prescription medications. Us citizens pay back additional for the very same medication than do individuals in other nations around the world, and we pay out a larger share of GDP on prescription medicines. As the federal federal government moves ahead with reforms set in movement in the latest decades, the new Congress really should refocus on a much more distinct issue: also couple of incentives to sell generic or other reduce-price tag drugs and the job of pharmacy benefit managers.

Though a number of prescription drugs are very costly, the reality is that by way of a blend of productive policies, principles and additional reliance on insurance, Americans’ typical out-of-pocket expenditure for medications has been slipping. On top of that, the use of prescription medication proceeds to maximize because of the availability of medications and treatment options for frequent ailments.

The most high-priced medication have no generic equivalents or biosimilars or treat chronic or uncommon conditions, which at times demand life time use. Out-of-pocket expenditures for variants of some lifestyle-saving drugs, these types of as insulin for sort 1 diabetes, have risen in the past. This has rightly captivated the consideration of lawmakers.

Enter the prescription drug negotiations element of the Inflation Reduction Act — the end result of years of attempts by Congress and condition policymakers, and an strategy that sure the late, commemorated Rep. John Lewis (D-Ga.) with President Trump. The premise is that drug providers overcharge People and, by extension, the authorities. Drug brands make most of their income from the U.S. sector, so there could be some reality to the thought that Us citizens subsidize other countries that impose price tag controls.

However, pressured negotiations with drug manufacturers will have unintended implications, several of which have already commenced to exhibit — together with a reduction in the quantity of medicines in progress.

The complexity of drug pricing is a uniquely American phenomenon, a great deal like our sophisticated health and fitness treatment procedure. Article-revenue drug reimbursements, mandated by regulation, make perverse incentives. Most likely the most reviled middleman in the distribution chain is the pharmacy benefits supervisor (PBM). Designed by wellness insurers in the 1980s, PBMs engage in a very important role in the final cost that people pay back and the financial gain margins of drug brands.

People and designs almost never fork out the list selling price of medicine. As a substitute, PBMs negotiate with manufacturers to obtain discount rates or rebates. Legislation mandate that PBMs share these with insurance policy options, such as Medicare and Medicaid. PBMs generally make money on rebates from model-title medicine. They also determine which medications are on the formulary for most coverage strategies. This suggests they have an incentive to do the job with drug brands that want their goods involved.

It’s only rational that brands issue this song-and-dance into their choices about the listed price of medications. They have each individual cause to start negotiations with higher list prices. In reality, study has revealed that for each and every $1 maximize in rebates, the listing cost of a drug will increase by $1.17.

The tale of insulin deserves special point out. In accordance to researchers, the share of web drug expenditures (the cost of the drug right after rebates and discounts) that goes to manufacturers has been lowering whilst that which goes to the middlemen (primarily PBMs) has enhanced.

Companies may not be well known, but if they really do not make enough return on their medicines, it imperils not just the sustainability of the drugs but also the entire drug pipeline. Even though the rebate procedures evolved from the need to have for insurance designs to negotiate rates, congressional and state mandates have strengthened PBMs, which have just about every incentive to incorporate only the medicine with superior record rates and thus the most rebate dollars.

Congress need to zero in on these value-inflating mandates in the Medicaid and Medicare Section D systems, and then move ahead with these varieties of incentives in thoughts. Drug manufacturers’ contributions to a healthier modern society are tough to overstate, and like all economic brokers, these providers react to incentives.

1 such coverage, and a hallmark of effective policymaking, is the Hatch-Waxman Act, which incentivizes receiving the generic equivalents of manufacturer-title medicine on to the market. As a outcome, about 90 percent of all medicines in the United States now have generic equivalents.

In fact, PBMs do not make any dollars on generics. A different efficient legislation, regardless of some complications, is the Orphan Medications Act, which incentivizes creating medicines for exceptional health conditions available. Eliminating some abuses (this kind of as the “evergreening” that transpires beneath Hatch-Waxman, where producers receive extended exclusivity by way of miniscule adjustments in manufacturer-identify prescription drugs) could support increase these procedures.

The essential to fairer drug prices is the growth and availability of generic equivalents and biosimilars. Alternatively of obsessing around rebates and cost transparency, Congress need to concentrate on this plan.

Kofi Ampaabeng is a health economist, senior analysis fellow and facts scientist with the Mercatus Heart at George Mason College.