On March 6, 2024, Brian Blase’s newsletter previewing potential health policy topics of the SOTU was referenced in Inside Health Policy’s article “WH Health Agenda: Improve Medicaid, Maintain ACA Subsidies, Protect Medicare, Cut Drug Costs.”
From the article:
Meanwhile, former Trump administration officials and President of Paragon Health Institute Brian Blase blasted much of the Biden health agenda.
He argued in a SOTU preview that the enhanced subsidies the White House wants to make permanent are increasing federal spending without reining in premiums, expanding Medicaid does not improve population health and the Medicare drug pricing controls will chill innovations.
“The costs of developing cancer drugs are higher than other therapeutic areas, and companies will be less likely to develop cancer drugs when the potential return is artificially constrained,” he says.
Blase also says that the insulin caps were already in play before the IRA.
“The $35 cap on insulin in Medicare will be another applause line that is separated from reality. Before this policy was put in place, insulin copays were already decreasing due to new biosimilar competition — over 75 percent of insured insulin users already had copays under $35. Ironically, copay caps are favored by the largest incumbent insulin manufacturers because they mitigate price competition from cheaper alternatives,” Blase says.
