By Prof. Casey B. Mulligan and Em. Prof. Tomas J. Philipson
Democrats don’t understand healthcare markets.
We agree with your editorial “Biden Does a Stealth Medicare Rewrite” (Aug. 6) on the Inflation Reduction Act’s harm to the Medicare drug program. Two years ago, we warned on these pages that Democrats’ signature legislation was secretly gutting it (“The Inflation Reduction Act Comes for Medicare,” op-ed, Nov. 22, 2022). Insurance price controls advertised as helping seniors would instead upset them—in an election year—by cutting benefits, increasing premiums and forcing drug plans to be canceled. Defenders of the Inflation Reduction Act muddied the waters, asserting that we were confused and that insurer revenue shortfalls wouldn’t occur.
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