The U.S. Food and Drug Administration recently announced plans to help states and Indian tribes purchase certain prescription drugs from Canada, where brand-name medicines tend to be cheaper because the government caps their price. The new guidance is part of a larger Trump administration effort to cut drug prices. But states should think twice before opening their borders to foreign drugs. The new importation strategy would leave America’s drug supply vulnerable to dangerous counterfeit medicines from abroad. Let’s start with the logistical hurdles. Canada is by no means eager to share its medicines with American patients. In response to a…
Author: Sally C. Pipes
In its final days in office, the Biden administration finalized a rule to eliminate nearly $50 billion in medical debt from 15 million Americans’ credit reports. But the rule betrays a complete misunderstanding of health economics — and like former President Biden’s other market interventions, it may only serve to make Americans worse off. Medical debt simply isn’t the crisis many have made it out to be. A recent analysis from the Peterson-KFF Health System Tracker found that just 8% of American adults hold medical debt. Among those with outstanding healthcare bills, roughly half owe less than $2,000. Just over…