Commentary: Stop the Left’s Medicare-for-All Agenda

by Emily Fansler

 

Our nation, especially in today’s climate, cannot afford a socialist takeover. If extreme liberals had it their way, our entire health care system would be run by the government, and any true conservative knows that is the absolute wrong approach. Health care costs would skyrocket and American patients, families and taxpayers would be left to foot the bill. If lawmakers aren’t careful, this could be our near future. 

Members of Congress, such as Senator Bernie Sanders and Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, are pushing policies targeting pharmacy benefit companies, using them as the latest pawn in their game to move our country towards a universal health care system. Despite being labeled as ‘drug pricing’ legislation, these proposals do nothing to address high prescription drug costs but instead expand the government’s role in the prescription drug market.

Several conservatives have already sounded the alarm on these proposals, and Tennesseans who care about the future of our health care system are grateful to see several conservative leaders who are still willing to stand up for the free market. Joe Grogan, former domestic policy adviser to President Donald Trump pointed out that pharmacy benefit companies “exist to negotiate prices with drug companies and manage drug spending for insurers and employers,” serving as “important intermediaries playing an undervalued role in the modern American economy. [Bernie] Sanders would rather place the government in this role.” This is part of Democrats’ broader “push to nationalize our healthcare system,” Grogan wrote, urging Republicans who sincerely support free market policies to “reject any effort to further insert the government into the healthcare system, including efforts targeting PBMs.”

Along with expanding the government’s role in our health care system and undermining competition in the prescription drug market, these proposals will also increase government something – something our country cannot afford. One proposal being considered would prohibit performance-based incentives for pharmacy benefit companies successfully securing rebates, which are used by health plan sponsors to pass along savings for patients. Incentivizing greater rebates means larger rebates which, in turn, helps patients and families see more savings. 

University of Chicago Economist Casey Mulligan analyzed the policy and concluded that this so-called ‘delinking’ legislation would increase federal spending on Medicare Part D premiums from $3 billion to $10 billion while costing patients and payers up to $18 billion as a whole. At a time of sky-high inflation that is squeezing the finances of American families, we simply cannot afford more unnecessary government spending and increased prescription drug costs for American patients – it is a recipe for disaster.

It seems the policymakers pushing these policies do not care if federal spending increases and if patients and hardworking families have to foot the bill, as long as it means the government has full control over our health care system. As Senator Rand Paul from our neighboring state of Kentucky recently made clear, the misguided legislation being pushed by big government advocates to undermine pharmacy benefits has the potential to actually raise drug prices. “If that happens,” Senator Paul explained, “just imagine the outcry for a single-payer health care system with government price controls. Maybe that’s exactly what the left is betting on – that if drug companies have free rein, the American people will get fed up fast, and demand a socialist paradise.” 

We know that politicians who want to grow the size and scope of government will do anything – including passing legislation that will cause drug prices to skyrocket – to advance their universal health care agenda. Are our lawmakers elected to represent Tennessee in Washington going to take the bait and let that happen? I certainly hope not.

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Emily Fansler is a political activist in Knox County, Tennessee.
Photo “Medicare-for-All Protest” by Molly Adams. CC BY 2.0.