Colorado lawmakers are considering SB 175, legislation to create a “Prescription Drug Affordability Board” that would set prices on a dozen prescription drugs offered to patients in the state.
But research shows that this board of unelected bureaucrats would do much more harm than good. According to the nonpartisan American Consumer Institute (ACI), this policy would lead to widespread drug shortages, making it difficult for patients to get access to the drugs they rely on.
According to the report, “allowing bureaucratic agencies to set prices for medicines will not address the affordability challenges patients face. Instead … this misguided approach could undermine pharmaceutical competition and limit consumers’ access to medicines.”
Price controls aren’t a new idea. In many European countries where they exist, patients have access to less than half of all new drugs that are developed. By comparison, Americans had access to nearly 90 percent of all new medicines that were developed between 2011 and 2018. Why would we want to impose Europe’s failed experiment with drug rationing on Colorado?
And why would we want to kill off the type of rapid innovation that gave society multiple safe and effective COVID-19 vaccines in less than 9 months? Yet, SB 175, if passed would do just that – stifling drug development in Colorado and telling companies not to sell their treatments in our state.
Making health care more affordable is a praiseworthy goal, but SB 175 is the wrong prescription. Tell your legislator to vote “NO” on this drug rationing scheme!