IPI PolicyBytes | Categorised Content

TechBytes 7.26: A Pathway to Safety

Merrill Matthew Jr. — Thu, 8 Jul 2010 10:18:36 -0500

There is at least one bright spot in the recently passed health care reform legislation. Well, sort of.

The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act finally established a much-needed regulatory pathway for “biosimilars.” Those are the generic versions of “biologics,” complex drugs made from living (or products of living) organisms, such as vaccines, insulin, human growth hormones and many others.

Innovator companies will get:

12 years of data exclusivity for their products, providing reasonable intellectual property protection;

An arbitration mechanism to settle patent disputes; and

A transition pathway to approve biosimilars, which have been regulated like traditional drugs despite their greater complexity.

That’s all good as far as it goes, but the legislation doesn’t address a number of issues.

TaxBytes 7.25: Making European Socialists Blush

Merrill Matthews Jr. — Tue, 29 Jun 2010 07:44:58 -0500

After President Obama’s election, conservatives were afraid he would drag the U.S. down into European socialism. We underestimated his vision.

A mere 18 months later not even the European socialists want to go where the president wants to lead—ever more government spending. Indeed, most of Europe is headed in the opposite direction.

The U.K. has announced new austerity measures, including 25 percent budget cuts and a two-year public-sector pay freeze. Even the queen’s allotment will be frozen next year.

Germany has said it will cut its budget by nearly $100 billion over the next four years.

And France wants to cut its budget deficit from 8 percent of GDP this year to 3 percent by 2013.

By contrast, Obama tried to convince countries at the G-20 meeting to, lemming like, follow us off the economic cliff. They declined en masse.

TaxBytes 7.21: Debunk and Defund

Merrill Matthews, Jr. — Tue, 1 Jun 2010 16:32:45 -0500

Republicans have kicked off their ObamaCare “repeal and replace” campaign, but there will likely be neither repeal nor replace unless Republicans control both Congress and the White House, and that’s 2012 at best — if then. However, by taking over only one house of Congress opponents can dramatically lower the unsustainable cost of ObamaCare by refusing to fund its worst elements. Here’s a few suggestions.

Reduce Medicaid eligibility. Historically, states have varied widely on Medicaid eligibility, with some setting the threshold significantly below the federal poverty level (FPL). ObamaCare sets a nationwide eligibility threshold at 133 percent, which increases the number of people in the government-run program by an additional estimated 15 million by 2019. Funding Medicaid eligibility only up to 100 percent of FPL would dramatically lower its cost.

TaxByte 7.12: Obamacare and Obamaccounting

Merrill Matthews Jr. — Tue, 30 Mar 2010 16:06:35 -0500

I predict that one of the most common phrases in the American vocabulary over the next few years will be, “I didn’t know the health care bill would do that.” And Democrats will be saying it most.

Even as the president traveled to Iowa City to let everyone know Armageddon hadn’t happened, several large companies declared they would start health-reform-related write downs--AT&T for $1 billion.

Here’s the back-story. In 2003, Congress passed the Medicare prescription drug benefit. There was a concern among legislators that including that benefit might encourage large employers that provided retiree coverage to phase it out.

Republicans, who controlled Congress, decided to provide those companies with a subsidy, spending about $665 per retiree to subsidize the employer’s plan, but saving $1,209 if the retiree had been dumped into Medicare.

TechBytes 7.11: Closing in on the Counterfeiters

Tom Giovanetti — Fri, 19 Mar 2010 14:56:24 -0500

In many developing countries, including most African countries, as much as 60 percent of prescription drugs sold are actually counterfeit, containing little if any of the active molecule, and in some cases containing toxins and other harmful substances.

That's just one of the many frightening statistics that emerged from a conference last week in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, sponsored by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office for the benefit of government officials in the East African Region. IPI was pleased to be able to co-sponsor and participate in the conference.

Designed to help justice and customs officials intercept counterfeits and prosecute the perpetrators, the conference was a terrific example of cooperation between “north and south” in improving the health and welfare of East African populations.

TaxBytes 7.10: Doubling Down and Double-Counting

Merrill Matthews Jr. — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 14:58:40 -0500

So how did Social Security get tied up in health care reform? It’s kind of complicated so stay with me.

The Senate version of the health care reform bill that the House is supposed to vote on this week—um, let me correct. Despite weeks of Democrats calling for an “up or down vote,” the House isn’t actually going to vote on the bill. It’s going to vote on amendments to the bill and, if they pass, the Senate version will be “deemed” to have passed—without an actual vote on the bill.

Anyway, in the Senate bill is the “Cadillac tax” that makes employer-provided health insurance subject to taxation above a certain level. That means that employees with high-cost health insurance will, at some point after 2018, start paying more taxes—including Social Security taxes.

TaxBytes 7.08: Believe What I Say, Not What I Do

Merrill Matthews Jr. — Tue, 2 Mar 2010 14:34:35 -0500

Senator Jim Bunning could probably use a hug.

The retiring Kentucky Republican has been trying to get Congress to live up to its fiscal promises. And for that good deed he’s getting pummeled by Democrats, barraged by reporters and largely ignored by Republicans.

This is not a good sign for all that promised future austerity by either party.

Congress passed a new version of “pay as you go,” or “paygo,” legislation in February when it increased the government’s borrowing limit to $1.9 trillion. The goal of paygo is to force the government to find ways to offset any new spending. Democrats included the provision to help deflect criticism for their explosion in deficit spending.

President Obama showered it with praise: "PAYGO would hold us to a simple but bedrock principle: Congress can only spend a dollar if it saves a dollar elsewhere.

TaxBytes 7.04: The ’No’ Way

Merrill Matthews Jr. — Tue, 2 Feb 2010 13:37:27 -0500

President Obama introduced his budget this week amid lots of calls for Republicans to support the president’s laundry list of new and expanded spending programs, along with a minimal spending freeze and some tax cuts.

For example, Politico cites White House Communications Director Dan Pfeiffer saying that Republicans “have a responsibility now to partner with the President, to try to get things done for the American people.”

In short, Pfeiffer wants Republicans to quit being the party of “no.”

But bipartisanship is only good when the proposed legislation is good. And frankly, most of the president’s proposals have been stinkers.

Take the administration’s proposal to try accused 9/11 planner Khalid Sheikh Mohammed in downtown New York City. Republicans opposed the plan, as did most of the public.

SoundBytes 224: What Will the President Say in His State of the Union?

Merrill Matthews Jr. — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 14:43:09 -0500

What Will the President Say in His State of the Union? The Institute for Policy Innovation’s Dr. Merrill Matthews says he has some explaining to do.

Washington is all atwitter over President Obama’s upcoming State of the Union address. And understandably so, because the president has some serious explaining to do, like:

How he plans to get control of the $1.4 trillion federal deficit, more than three times the deficit Obama was so critical of under George Bush.

And how he intends to pay for all the Democrats’ new federal spending. Yes, he could raise taxes, but he already has several new taxes in his health care bill.

And maybe the president can explain why his much-boasted stimulus bill has had little impact on creating new jobs.

TaxBytes 7.02: The Game Is Changing

Merrill Matthews Jr. — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 14:44:44 -0500

Something remarkable is going on in America.

I can’t quite explain it; I’m not sure anyone can. But we can use Democratic Senator Ben Nelson of Nebraska to exemplify the change.

In order to “persuade”—some might say “payoff”—Nelson to vote for Senator Harry Reid’s health care reform bill, Reid agreed that the federal government would pay Nebraska’s portion of the increased Medicaid cost—forever.

Nelson can be forgiven for thinking his so-called “cornhusker kickback” would be hailed back home as a great achievement because, in the past, it would have been. Trying to maximize federal revenue is like a state hobby.

And Reid certainly thought Nebraska would approve. Why, he essentially called the other states a bunch of chumps for not getting their own kickback.