Congress Should Approve Medicare Drug Benefit That Does Not Restrict Access to New Medicines, Op-Ed States

Congress should approve a Medicare prescription drug benefit that would "capitalize on the health benefits and cost savings associated with" using new medicines, rather than legislation that focuses on "cost containment and little else," Robert Goldberg, director of the Center for Medical Progress at the Manhattan Institute, writes in a Wall Street Journal opinion piece. Current drug benefit proposals would limit Medicare beneficiaries' access to new treatments as a cost-control measure, Goldberg says, adding that such measures "ignore the huge advances made in medicine and the improvements medicines have made in health care and human affairs." He writes that new treatments lead to "longer life, more productivity and lower health costs that offset the cost of [the medications'] development and consumption," citing a Columbia University study that found hospital stays, bed days and surgical procedures "declined fastest for patients with the greatest increase in the total number of drugs prescribed, as well as the greatest change in the use of new drugs." Goldberg concludes, "Policy makers and consumer groups believe new drug development is a marketing mirage that could easily be replaced by a combination of government supply depots, federal research labs and generic drug firms. ... Yet is an entitlement rife with cheap drugs and restrictions, and shorn of breakthroughs, a substitute for spending more on medicines that extend the boundaries of health?" (Goldberg, Wall Street Journal, 5/7).