Health Care News Podcast

Americans have a right to complain that some prescription drugs are unaffordable. But the answer is not to have the government (taxpayers) pick up more of the tab. A better solution is to get costly regulatory obstacles out of the way.  Gregg Girvan, a scholar at The Foundation for Research on Equal Opportunity (FREOPP), says it is a myth that brand name drugs have to be excessively priced to guarantee future research and development.  He also says regulatory obstacles are standing in the way of making biosimilars, a cheaper alternative to biologic drugs, more available.  Europe outpaces the U.S. in allowing biosimilars to be more widely available.  All Americans should be pushing for reform before health care spending pushes out other spending even more than it does today.Ninety percent of all prescription drugs sold are generic.  Generic drugs are replicas of small molecule drugs (the drugs commonly taken in tablet form) and are cheap and affordable.  They have been revolutionary in driving down drug spendi