For over three decades, CEI has advocated health care reforms that put more power in the hands of consumers to choose their health providers, treatment protocols, and scope of insurance coverage. We have advocated reform of the Food and Drug Administration’s drug and device approval process to allow for greater flexibility and patient choice. And in 2013, CEI organized the court challenges to Obamacare’s exchange subsidies that concluded with the Supreme Court’s King v. Burwell decision.
Healthcare Issue Areas
Featured Posts
Blog
FTC’s second interim report on PBMs: Don’t hold your breath
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) will consider issuing a second interim report on Pharmacy Benefit Managers (PBMs) tomorrow during its January 14 open meeting.
Blog
Congress shouldn’t rely on incomplete FTC PBM study
Lawmakers are making a last-minute push to regulate the practices of pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) during the lame duck session. However, it would be a…
Wall Street Journal
A Thumb on the Scale for Wegovy
The Biden administration announced one more bit of executive overreach on its way out the door. On Nov. 26, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid…
Search Posts
Letters
CEI joins ATR Coalition Urging CRA on Medical Debt Rule
Dear Member of Congress, We are writing to express our concerns regarding the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s finalized rule on eliminating medical debt records from…
Blog
FTC’s second interim report on PBMs: Don’t hold your breath
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) will consider issuing a second interim report on Pharmacy Benefit Managers (PBMs) tomorrow during its January 14 open meeting.
Blog
Congress shouldn’t rely on incomplete FTC PBM study
Lawmakers are making a last-minute push to regulate the practices of pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) during the lame duck session. However, it would be a…
Wall Street Journal
A Thumb on the Scale for Wegovy
The Biden administration announced one more bit of executive overreach on its way out the door. On Nov. 26, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid…
National Review
Telehealth Is Less Promising Than It First Seemed
A key issue facing Congress in its postelection, “lame duck” session is whether to extend regulatory flexibilities expiring at year end that make telehealth services more…
Study
Evaluating Telehealth
Executive Summary Why Did We Write This Report Telehealth—the use of remote audio and/or video technologies to provide health care services—has been promoted as…
News Release
Report: Telehealth flexibility deadline looms, but Congress needs better information to decide
Congress is poised to consider proposals that permanently or temporarily extend flexibilities for telehealth services enacted during the COVID-19 pandemic that are set to expire…
Blog
This week in ridiculous regulations: Human subjects and food paper
Republicans called Puerto Rico a “floating island of garbage” as a voter outreach tactic. Democrats got upset that a newspaper that generally supports Democrats didn’t endorse…
The Washington Post
What Trump winning the election could mean for the CDC
The Washington Post cites CEI expert Joel Zinberg on the changing face of the CDC and what does (and doesn’t) belong in the agency: “Many…
CSPAN
VIDEO: Dr. Joel Zinberg joins CSPAN to discuss health care proposals from presidential candidates
Click here to read more.
City Journal
The FTC Jettisons Economics—and Law
The Federal Trade Commission is stepping up its pursuit of its new favorite bogeyman: Pharmacy Benefit Managers. Two months ago, the FTC issued an …
Blog
Free the Economy podcast: Reforming red tape in the states with James Broughel
In this week’s episode we cover striking dock workers at US ports, free-market innovation in healthcare, and the changing pattern of federal…
Blog
Adam Smith on health policy
Today the Competitive Enterprise Institute published my OnPoint essay, “The Innovation Imperative: What Adam Smith Can Tell Us About Health.” This was adapted from…
News Release
Report: Health gains stem from private sector innovation, not government
A new Competitive Enterprise Institute report delves into evidence that populations are healthier and live longer as the result of private sector, profit-driven innovations…
Study
The Innovation Imperative
The Competitive Enterprise Institute recently celebrated its 40th anniversary in Edinburgh, Scotland. Edinburgh was chosen because the city was celebrating the 300th anniversary of the…
HeartLand Daily News
FDA Hid COVID Shot Side Effects—Congressional Report
Heartland Daily News cited CEI on COVID public health concerns Joel Zinberg, M.D., senior fellow at the Competitive Enterprise Institute and director of the Public…
Op-Eds
Often Wrong, Never in Doubt
Times have changed. Two years ago, tennis great Novak Djokovic could not play in the U.S. Open tournament. It was not because he had Covid-19…
Blog
Can AI thrive in health care’s HIPAA-shaped box?
Innovation continues to transform health care, enabling us to live longer and healthier lives. And now artificial intelligence (AI) is poised to supercharge that…
The Wall Street Journal
The FTC Goes Evidence-Free
Through three years of Lina Khan’s leadership, the Federal Trade Commission has suffered an unprecedented streak of high-profile court defeats. That’s because the agency regularly makes…
Blog
This week in ridiculous regulations: Blood donors and paper marketing
Donald Trump survived an assassination attempt. The Republicans held their convention in Milwaukee. Sen. Robert Menendez (D-NJ) was convicted on bribery charges and resigned, leaving…
Blog
Missing the economists in FTC’s latest PBM study
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) released its not-so-objectively titled interim report on Pharmacy Benefit Managers (PBMs): Pharmacy Benefit Managers: The Powerful Middlemen Inflating Drug…
News Release
New FTC study on drug costs fails to conduct empirical analysis of market conditions
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) release a new study today claiming Pharmacy Benefit Managers (PBMs) are responsible for higher drug costs. FTC Commissioner Melissa Holyoak…
Penn Live
Harrisburg is taking a wrong approach to drug pricing | PennLive letters
CEI’s Joel Zinberg was cited in a Penn Live article on Pharmacy Benefit Managers: Joel Zinberg from the Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI) explains, “PBMs enhance…
Politico
Biden’s got a plan to protect science from Trump
CEI’s Joel Zinberg was cited in Politico on the obstacles Trump faces with the NIH: Trump should have no illusions about what he’s up against,…
Blog
New FDA lab tests rule could bankrupt small labs
Yesterday the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced that on May 6 it will promulgate a rule under its authority to regulate medical devices.
National Review
The Return of the Cadillac Tax?
Like the phoenix, a key piece of the Affordable Care Act has risen from the ashes, resurrected, believe it or not, by the Republican Study Committee…
Blog
Free the Economy podcast: Paying for organs with Pete Jaworski
In this week’s episode we cover the future of AI and employment, why we shouldn’t trust Chinese economic statistics, and how the…
City Journal
A Solution in Search of a Problem
In his State of the Union address, President Biden touted the drug-price controls in his Inflation Reduction Act (IRA). Though the price controls have yet…
Blog
This week in ridiculous regulations: Taconite and lab fees
President Biden delivered his State of the Union address. Super Tuesday primaries all but settled this year’s presidential combatants. The FTC has a full slate…
National Review
Covid Vaccines: An Update on Balancing Risks and Benefits
A new large, multi-country study has confirmed what previous smaller studies found: Covid-19 vaccines have risks. In particular, the messenger RNA (mRNA) vaccines from Pfizer and…
City Journal
Ignoring the Science
A new CDC study reports that the first updated Covid-19 vaccine—the bivalent vaccine approved in fall 2022—was about 50 percent effective in blocking infection over a two-month…
The Federalist Society
Explainer 62 – FDA’s Regulation of Laboratory Developed Tests
CEI’s Joel Zinberg joined a podcast hosted by The Federalist Society for the Regulatory Transparency Project on the FDA’s regulation of laboratory developed tests:…
National Review
When Science Is Not Science
Just 22 percent of all adults and 41 percent of those 65 and older — the most vulnerable group — have received the updated 2023–24 Covid-19 vaccine.
Blog
When the FTC’s anti-merger goals overshadow the prospect of saving lives
The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals recently issued a ruling on the important case of Illumina-Grail v. Federal Trade Commission. A unanimous 3-0…
Beritbart
Unholy Alliance Between the Left and Big Pharma Threatens More Big Government Intervention in Health Care
CEI’s Joel Zinberg is cited in Breitbart on the big government intervention in healthcare: Economic experts recognize that the very foundation of a free…
City Journal
A “Coordinated Campaign”
The Covid-19 pandemic revealed a split between those who believe that the government has broad authority to control every aspect of the economy and society…
Washington Times
Cutting-edge drugs could vanish under Biden’s unprecedented move to seize patents
CEI’s Dr. Joel Zinberg is cited in the Washington Times on the Biden Administration’s move to seize patents: Dr. Joel Zinberg, a senior fellow…
National Review
Another FDA Power Grab
The comment period for the Food and Drug Administration’s latest power grab has just concluded. Roughly 20,000 comments were submitted addressing the FDA’s proposed rule which…
Comment
Comments RE: Docket No. FDA–2023–N–2177 for “Medical Devices; Laboratory Developed Tests
I am an attorney with the Competitive Enterprise Institute. The Competitive Enterprise Institute is a non-profit research and advocacy organization that focuses on regulatory policy.
Washington Times
Better late than never: New York Times finally admits school shutdowns hurt children
The New York Times has made a “startling” discovery. Its editorial board has recognized that “school closures that took 50 million children out of classrooms…
City Journal
Not-So-Affordable Care
In a 2022 book, Seemed Like a Good Idea, health economist Mark Pauly and his University of Pennsylvania coauthors describe how health-care policymakers “often rely on…
News Release
CEI leads coalition calling on Congress to repeal drug price control provisions of the Inflation Reduction Act
The Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI) and a coalition 43 conservative and free market groups sent a letter to Congress today calling for the…
Letters
Coalition Letter to End IRA Prescription Drug Price Controls
October 31, 2023 Dear Members of Congress, When the Inflation Reduction Act was passed and signed into law a year ago, the legislation granted the…
Blog
This week in ridiculous regulations: Blood donations to mortality tables
Poland voted its nationalist-populist government out of power. The US House of Representatives remained without a speaker, but with a lot of drama. Agencies issued…
City Journal
Equity vs. Evidence
The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force—a volunteer panel of national experts in prevention and evidence-based medicine that makes recommendations for clinical preventive services such as…
National Review
Restricting Pharmacy Benefit Managers Could Decrease Competition and Increase Drug Costs
Congress is considering multiple bills that aim to restrict the ability of pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) to negotiate discounts and rebates and to require the PBMs…
PCMA
Just the Facts: Research and Analysis Finds Anti-PBM Legislation Does Not Lower Prescription Drug Costs for Patients
PCMA cites CEI’s Joel Zinberg anti PBM legislation: “This policy would significantly change drug pricing and utilization and shift billions of dollars annually from patients…
Wall Street Journal
Court to FDA: Stop Playing Doctor
The Food and Drug Administration regulates pharmaceuticals, but it has no business playing doctor and giving you medical advice. That’s the message of a Sept.
News Release
Congressional Efforts to Regulate PBMs Risk Higher Drug Costs, Worse Health Outcomes for Patients
Pharmacy Benefit Managers (PBMs) are private businesses that developed in the free market to manage prescription drug benefits for health insurance plan sponsors. Nearly all…
Study
A Free Market Solution for Drug Distribution
Executive summary This paper describes and explains the function of Pharmacy Benefit Managers (PBMs) in the American health care economy. PBMs are private businesses that…
