On June 16, 2022 the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) issued a policy statement on drug rebates and fees paid by drug makers. The rebates and fee are paid to Pharmacy Benefit Managers (PBMs) sometimes in return for excluding cheaper alternatives on a drug plan formulary. The way it works is a drug maker will jack up the price of a given drug (like insulin) but give a steep discount to the PBM in return for guarantees that the plan will not include generic versions that cost far lesson the formulary.
Category: Health Economics & Costs
Public Health Experts: America has an Eating, Drinking and Lack of Exercise Problem
America has a collective drinking problem. And an eating problem. This is all made worse by Americans propensity to sit at home watching TV or playing video games. A recent study has found that deaths from alcoholic cirrhosis have more than tripled in 20 years. In 1999 alcoholic cirrhosis killed 6,007 Americans or about 3.3 per 100,000 adults. By 2019 the death rate had risen to 10.6 per 100,000. Keep in mind this is only for adults aged 25 to 85+
Gas Tax Rebate
Biden is thinking about it. Arnold Kling explains why it is a bad idea:
The basic economic analysis is straightforward. The price of gas has to be high enough to balance supply and demand. A rebate amounts to a subsidy for demand. Raising demand will force the price to go higher. Because supply is relatively inelastic, it will turn out that, relative to the price that would have prevailed without the rebate, the price will be driven up by close to the amount of the rebate. The main beneficiaries of a subsidy for gasoline demand will be producers.
And a gas tax holiday will work the same way. It will reward producers. Any consumer benefit will tend to be illusory.
Monday Links
- The liberal plantation? Washington, D.C., has the largest gap in racial economic equality, compared to the 50 states. The capital also has the largest median income, homelessness rate, unemployment rate, and labor force participation gaps. Study.
- Why has health care been relatively unimpacted by general inflation?
- Poll: One in ten men would like to be cloned
- Why did Biden agree to let China (and other “developing countries”) steal our intellectual property with respect to Covid vaccines?
- A column by New York Times’ David Leonhardt made a bold claim: “The death rate for white Americans has recently exceeded the rates for Black, Latino and Asian Americans.” The claim is almost assuredly wrong.