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
City Journal
No More Masks
Covid-19 cases are on the rise again in the United States. Even President Biden is infected. But the biggest danger is not the virus—the now-dominant…
National Review
Regulators’ Misguided Crackdown on Nicotine Products and Their Makers
Federal agencies must really love black markets. Last week, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced a plan to limit nicotine in cigarettes and …
Blog
The FTC vs. the Right to a Fair Trial
The Food and Drug Administration recently proposed capping the nicotine in cigarettes, which will encourage many smokers to smoke more to get the same nicotine…
Blog
FDA’s Juul Ban Part of Deadly War on Nicotine
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) today announced that it denied the application of Juul Labs, maker of the Juul e-cigarette, to market its…
The City Journal
Better Late Than Never?
The federal requirement for a negative Covid-19 test prior to flying into the U.S. and the New York City toddler-mask mandate have both just ended.
Wall Street Journal
A Permanent Pandemic Means a Huge Medicaid Expansion
Covid is now endemic, yet the Biden administration keeps extending the public-health emergency. Its goal is to preserve the expansion of the welfare state through…
New York Post
How the FDA bungled the nation’s baby-formula supply
Infant formula provides the sole source of nutrition for infants who are not being breast fed and often supplements breast milk for those who are.
Blog
Banning Menthol Cigarettes Will Do Nothing to Promote Racial Justice
Public support for the War on Drugs has never been lower, due in no small part to increased awareness about the devastation drug criminalization…
New York Post
Billions in COVID relief haven’t been spent … but Biden still demands more!
That great sloshing sound you hear is the tens of billions of dollars of unspent COVID-19 relief funds slopping around federal, state and local government…
Inside Sources
Point: There’s No Evidence That Masks Work
Joe Biden proclaimed, “Wearing masks is not a political statement, it is a scientific imperative.” He was wrong. There is little evidence supporting generalized use of masks.
The New York Post
Studies Prove that Most Politicians and Experts Handled COVID Terribly
During the 2020 election, multiple public health “experts” claimed President Trump had “blood on his hands” and was responsible for “preventable” loss of life. They…
The Federalist Society
AUDIO: CEI’s Joel Zinberg Joins the Federalist Society to Discuss Mask Mandates
Senior Fellow Joel Zinberg joined The Federalist Society to discuss the CDC’s mask mandate and examine the strategy behind the Department of Justice’s decision to…
The Regulatory Transparency Project
AUDIO: Joel Zinberg Joins the Regulatory Transparency Project to Discuss CDC Mask Mandates
Senior Fellow Joel Zinberg joined the Regulatory Transparency Project to discuss the CDC travel mask ruling and more: Click here to read more.
National Review
Breathing Easier: End of the Mask Mandate?
There was almost an audible sigh of relief nationwide following Monday’s ruling by a federal district-court judge in Florida vacating the Centers for…
City Journal
A Breath of Fresh Air
In the latest of a long line of judicial rebukes to the Biden administration’s expansive view of administrative-agency power, a federal district court in Florida…
Blog
New Inflation Numbers Show Folly of Price Controls
Today’s release of inflation numbers by the Bureau of Labor Statistics confirms that the loudest voices in favor of price controls are usually the…
National Review
New York’s Child-Masking Madness
One of the more curious storylines playing out in the early days of Eric Adams’s tenure as mayor of New York City is his stance…
City Journal
Obamacare’s Hollow Celebration
Last week, Barack Obama joined President Biden at the White House to mark the 12th anniversary of the Affordable Care Act, also known…
C-SPAN
VIDEO: Senior Fellow Joel Zinberg Joins C-Span to Discuss the ACA and more
Senior Fellow Joel Zinberg joins C-Span to discuss the Affordable Care Act and the future of healthcare: Click here to read more.
Blog
Affordable Care Act Anniversary Gives Little Reason to Celebrate
President Obama is joining President Biden at the White House to commemorate the Affordable Care Act (ACA), also known as Obamacare. But there is…
Blog
CEI Joins Coalition Urging FDA Not to Ban Synthetic Nicotine
This week CEI joined a coalition of groups urging Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Commissioner Robert Califf not to prohibit synthetic nicotine (read the…
New York Post
Mayor Adams Wants the Tots to Stay Masked Up, Instead of Listening to Science
Mayor Adams and his new health commissioner, Dr. Ashwin Vasan, have decided to extend the city’s school mask mandate for children under 5. This makes…
Letters
CEI Joins Coalition Letter on FDA Ban on Synthetic Nicotine
Dear Commissioner Califf, We write to you in opposition to a new regulation signed into law by Congress that will effectively ban vapor products that…
News Release
House Votes to Decriminalize Marijuana – an Important First Step
The House on Friday passed legislation to decriminalize marijuana at the federal level. The Marijuana Opportunity Reinvestment and Expungement (or MORE) Act…
The Chicago Morning Answer
Radio: Joel Zinberg Joins Chicago’s Morning Answer to Discuss Vaccine Mandates
Senior Fellow Joel Zinberg joins the Dan Proft Show to discuss vaccine mandates and more. Click here to read more.
New York Post
Eric Adams Needs to Expand Vaccine Exemptions to Everyone, Not Just Elites
Mayor Adams has exempted professional athletes and performers from the city’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate for private employers. This overdue and commendable action highlights the absurdity of…
Blog
FDA’s Dysfunctional Regulation of E-cigs Created the Synthetic Nicotine Problem
Winston Churchill once said that “If you destroy a free market you create a black market” and nowhere is the validity of that statement…
National Review
Now, Voyager: Ending the Covid Travel-Testing Charade
As Covid-19 cases, hospitalizations, and deaths continue to plummet, lawmakers around the country are beginning to lift restrictions. The Biden administration, however, is clinging to…
Forbes
Yes, Cannabis Banking Liberalization — SAFE Banking Act — Would Indeed Make U.S. More Competitive
As war continues in the aftermath of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, interest by policymakers and the media has spiked in the America COMPETES Act, legislation…
New York Post
CDC’s Silly Stalling on Flight Masks
The Transportation Security Administration, following the recommendation of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, will extend its mask mandate for airplanes through mid-April. Once again,…
Op-Eds
Watch Us Fight Covid
The Biden administration’s 97-page National Covid-19 Preparedness Plan, released this month, features a “Test to Treat” initiative that would set up “one-stop”…
Reason
Can the FDA’s New Commissioner Save the Agency from Itself?
Public trust in the U.S Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is at an all-time low, largely due to its bumbled handling of the pandemic. But…
Letters
CEI Joins Coalition Opposing March-In over Drug Prices
Dear Secretary Becerra, On behalf of millions of Americans across the country, we urge you to ignore calls and petitions asking you to deliberately twist…
Letters
CEI Joins Coalition Urging Congress to End Ban on DC Marijuana Sales
Dear Members of Congress, As you and your colleagues in Congress continue to finalize funding levels and bill language in the FY22 appropriations bill, the…
City Journal
Leading from Behind
Long after many states and localities dropped their mask mandates, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) finally revised its metrics to guide community…
New York Post
Biden Wants to Waste More Money on COVID on Top of the Trillions Spent
The Biden administration has released a new National COVID-19 Preparedness Plan that — surprise, surprise — calls for billions in new spending. The initiative is unnecessary,…
National Review
Testing Our Patience
A few days ago, a large, plain manila envelope arrived at my home. It was unmarked except for a mailing label headlined “USPS Connect.” I…
The Mike Gallagher Show
AUDIO: CEI’s Joel Zinberg Joins the Mike Gallagher Show
Senior Fellow Joel Zinberg joins the Mike Gallagher show to discuss how Florida managed Covid more effectively than blue states like New York. Click…
New York Post
Without Mandates or Lockdowns, Florida Better Managed COVID than New York
When the final history of the COVID-19 pandemic is written it will likely conclude that most of the non-pharmaceutical public health measures taken to combat…
New York Post
If There Was Any Benefit To Masking Kids, It’s Long Since Disappeared
States around the nation, including Democratic ones such as New York and California, are lifting indoor mask mandates. But the Centers for Disease Control and…
Fox News
Video: Doctor Explains Why Vaccine Mandates are Unnecessary
Senior Fellow Joel Zinberg joins Fox News to discuss why he believes vaccine and other COVID mandates are unnecessary due to natural immunity and falling hospitalizations:…
New York Post
Science Shows the Vaccine Mandates Are No Longer Necessary
This is a particularly pressing question now as many unvaccinated workers have or are about to lose their jobs. Nearly 3,000 New York City employees…
Fox Business
VIDEO: CEI Senior Fellow Dr. Joel Zinberg Discusses Mask Mandates on Fox Business
CEI senior fellow Dr. Joel Zinberg discusses Biden’s mask mandates on ‘Mornings with Maria.’ Click here to view more.
Wall Street Journal
Covid Patients Suffer as the Biden Administration Tries to Practice Medicine
The Biden administration seems to think it knows better than physicians how to practice medicine. But its haphazard micromanagement of monoclonal antibodies to treat Covid-19…
City Journal
No Benefit, Many Costs
A new study from Johns Hopkins University’s Institute for Applied Economics supports what I and others have long maintained: lockdowns do not…
National Review
The Great Lockdown Lie
In the 1927 silent-film classic Metropolis, a dystopian city of the future is divided into elites living comfortably in opulent skyscrapers and workers toiling in dirty,…
National Review
Vaccine Mandates: Another Work-Around Doesn’t Work
Meat Loaf, the quirky rock star who just died, had a hit with Two Out of Three Ain’t Bad. The Biden administration wishes it could do…
Blog
Court Enjoins Enforcement of Federal Workforce Vaccine Mandate
The Biden administration has promulgated four COVID-19 vaccination mandates. Two were issued via administration regulations and were recently reviewed by the Supreme Court. For…
National Review
The Supreme Court’s Vaccine Decisions Are a Blow to the Administrative State
The Supreme Court issued a split decision on two of the Biden administration’s Covid-19 vaccination mandates. In the first, a 6–3 majority stayed the Occupational Safety…
Blog
Supreme Court Hears Oral Arguments over Vaccine Mandates
Today the Supreme Court heard over three hours of oral arguments on two of the Biden administration’s COVID-19 vaccine mandates. In the first case,…
New York Post
The Science Shows Eric Adams is Right in Fight to Keep NYC Schools Open
As new cases of the Omicron variant surge, thousands of schools have delayed a return to in-person learning. Cities including Atlanta, Milwaukee, Cleveland and Detroit…
City Journal
Omicron’s Silver Lining
New Covid-19 infections are reaching record levels in the U.S. and Europe. The surge is due both to the Delta…
New York Post
New York’s Racial ‘Risk Factor’ for COVID Treatment is Illegal and Immoral
New York City’s and state’s departments of health have reached a divisive and destructive low. In new guidelines rationing scarce, lifesaving oral antiviral medications and the…
National Review
Confronting Omicron: One Step Forward, One Step Static
President Joe Biden’s recent address on the Omicron variant was full of holiday miracles. After nearly a year in office, Biden finally conceded the…
The Wall Street Journal
Drug Prices Haven’t Been Going Up
Build Back Better may be dead, but its proposed drug price controls will likely reappear: negotiating prices for high-cost drugs in Medicare and price controls…
City Journal
Testing Our Patience
It has only been around a little more than a month, but the Omicron variant of the SARS-CoV-2 virus that causes Covid-19 has taken over.
National Review
Covid-19 Treatments and the FDA: A Sense of Urgency Might Help
As the Delta variant surges in various locales and the new Omicron variant expands around the globe, public officials are beginning to reimpose Covid-19…
National Review
The Covid Mandates Should Be Ignored
the highways in South Florida, the speed limit is generally 55 mph. I don’t know why, but it doesn’t matter: Everyone blows right through going…
Letters
CEI Joins NTU-Led Coalition Warns of BBB’s Impact on Drug Competition
Dear Senators and Representatives: On behalf of the undersigned organizations — taxpayer, consumer, and free market advocates from across the country — we write with…
City Journal
All for Show
New York City mayor Bill de Blasio will end his tenure at midnight, December 31, 2021, but he seems intent on inflicting one last insult…
National Review
Biden’s Travel Restrictions Don’t Follow the Science
Joe Biden never tires of saying his COVID-19 policies follow “the science.” He recently pontificated that he would battle the emerging Omicron coronavirus variant “with…
Letters
Coalition Letter to OIRA Re: Request for OIRA to Resolve Interagency Disagreement Concerning IQA Implementation About Medical Marijuana
The Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI) requests that OIRA resolve a dispute between two different agencies concerning responsibility for ensuring compliance with the Information Quality Act.
Comment
Letter to OIRA Re: Request for OIRA to Resolve Interagency Disagreement Concerning IQA Implementation About Medical Marijuana
The Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI) requests that OIRA resolve a dispute between two different agencies concerning responsibility for ensuring compliance with the Information Quality Act.
The New York Post
Politicians Are Using Omicron as an Excuse to Return to their Autocratic Ways
Since the start of the pandemic, governors around the country have often struggled to appear to be doing something to stem COVID-19, regardless of whether…
City Journal
One Size Doesn’t Fit All
In a rebuke of the Biden administration, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals reaffirmed its stay of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s (OSHA) workplace…
The New York Post
A Reality Check on How we Handle COVID-19 Risks
COVID-19 is still with us. Cases are rising in Europe and to a smaller extent in this country. But the fact that SARS-CoV-2, the virus…
Letters
CEI Joins ATR Led Drug Price Control Coalition Letter
Dear Member of Congress: We write in opposition to the Democrat plan to impose price controls, a 95 percent excise tax, and inflation penalties on…
National Review
What’s Taking the FDA So Long on COVID Drug Molnupiravir?
On October 1, pharmaceutical companies Merck and Ridgeback Biotherapeutics announced that their investigational oral antiviral drug Molnupiravir reduced the risk of hospitalization or death…
New York Post
Letter Confirms Wuhan Lab’s COVID-19 Leak was Funded by US Taxpayers
The origin of the SARS-CoV-2 virus that causes COVID-19 remains unclear, but recent revelations reinforce the likelihood that the true source was a lab leak…
City Journal
Mandating Trouble
Thanks to Mayor Bill de Blasio’s Covid-19 vaccine mandate for city workers, New York faces the prospect of slower ambulance- and fire-response times, fewer cops…
News Release
Ill-Advised Nicotine Tax Thrown Back into Democrats’ “Build Back Better” Bill
Upon news that congressional Democrats today put a nicotine tax provision back into President Biden’s ever-changing “Build Back Better” plan (ostensibly aimed at COVID-19 relief,…
City Journal
The Evidence Mounts
The origin of the SARS-CoV-2 virus that causes Covid-19 remains unclear, but recent revelations reinforce the likelihood that the true source was…
Citation
VIDEO: Dr. Joel Zinberg Joins Dana Loesch on FirstTV to Discuss Vaccines
Senior Fellow Joel Zinberg joins to discuss why President Biden can’t make you get vaccinated; the outsourcing of parenting. Watch…
National Review
Innovators to the Rescue
Thirty years ago, I spoke at a conference on xenotransplantation — the transplantation of organs, cells, or tissues between species — at Columbia…
Blog
The Youth Vaping “Epidemic” Has Ended; So Should Extreme Youth-Centric Anti-Vaping Measures
People will tolerate just about any imposition if they believe it will protect children from harm. Hence, appeals to “think of the children” are…
The Dallas Morning News
No, President Biden can’t make you get vaccinated
COVID-19 vaccine mandates are all the rage, with some people anxious to impose them and others vehemently opposed. President Joe Biden recently directed the Department of…
New York Post
Kyrie: Listen to a Doc, the Vaccines are Safe and Highly Effective
Kyrie Irving is a great basketball player, but he won’t be in the Brooklyn Nets lineup this season. The reason isn’t some nagging injury or…
News Release
FDA Approves One E-Cigarette for US Market – More Needed to Help Smokers Quit
The Food and Drug Administration on October 12 authorized the first electronic cigarette in the U.S. – one made by tobacco giant R.J. Reynolds.
Op-Eds
Journalists Face Disaster as COVID-19 Deaths Drop
The COVID-19 pandemic in the U.S. is ebbing, but you would never know it from the headlines. Bad news, accurate or not, sells. And in the…
Blog
Tobacco Tax Equity Act Perpetuates Economic and Health Disparities
Mainstream interest in the issue of structural racism is long overdue. Yet nascent efforts to root out vestiges of racism in the U.S. political system…
New York Post
Stop the General Panic: COVID is Dangerous Now Only to Unvaccinated
More than ever, COVID-19 is a pandemic of the unvaccinated, the elderly, and those with pre-existing conditions. Yet there’s a disturbing tendency by the administration…
City Journal
Follow the (Political) Science
Both before and after the 2020 election, Joe Biden complained that President Donald Trump had politicized the Covid-19 pandemic. Biden insisted that he, in contrast…
Blog
More Evidence that the Biden Administration Is Not Following the Science
In a rebuke to the Biden administration’s announcement that it would be rolling out COVID-19 booster shots for adults during the week of September…
The Washington Examiner
OSHA Cannot Constitutionally Coerce People into Vaccinations
President Joe Biden says he will have federal regulators make employers require workers to get vaccinated against COVID-19, or else they’ll…
The Vaping Post
The US Vape Industry Grows Discouraged as The FDA Rejects Thousands of PMTAs
The Vaping Post cites CEI on the vapor industry: A recent blog on Competitive Enterprise Institute’s website highlighted that the amount of applications…
National Review
Injecting a Little Lawlessness
The most far-reaching and questionable part of the Biden administration’s six-pronged COVID-19 Action Plan directs the Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration…
New York Post
The US is Nearing Immunity from COVID-19
Despite media claims that “We Can’t Turn the Corner on COVID,” the numbers of COVID-19 cases, new hospitalizations, and deaths nationwide…
News Release
Biden Vaccine Mandate Will Fail: CEI Statement
In response to President Biden’s September 9 announcement about new government policies aimed at pressuring private and public sector workers to get vaccinated, Competitive…
City Journal
Delta is Dying
Despite media claims that “We Can’t Turn the Corner on Covid,” the numbers of Covid-19 cases, new hospitalizations, and deaths nationwide …
National Review
Time to Reclaim the Right to Choose
One of the more entertaining features of the late pandemic period is the ongoing battle between the Democrats’ State Media (CNN, Washington Post) and Red State…
Blog
FDA Shows Its Bias against E-cigarettes as Deadline Approaches
After years facing the constant threat of extinction, it seemed the vapor industry would finally be vindicated. The evidence on e-cigarettes regarding their safety and effectiveness…
National Review
DeSantis vs. Dr. Fauci
The latest skirmish in the blue media vs. red state wars started when Florida governor Ron DeSantis had the temerity to suggest that vaccination against…
City Journal
Booster Overkill
Several weeks ago, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention changed its guidance and recommended that fully vaccinated individuals wear a mask in…
New York Post
Biden’s Losing Support for His COVID Handling. Maybe He Should Stop Politicizing it
President Biden is threatening legal action by the secretary of education against Republican governors to get them to OK school mask mandates. This follows his…
News Release
Supreme Court Strikes Down CDC Eviction Moratorium, Upholds Rule of Law
The U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday struck down the nationwide eviction moratorium imposed by the Centers for Disease Control, which was ostensibly aimed at…
City Journal
Science Matters—and So Do Individual Rights
As battles over Covid-19 mandates roil the country, it is vital that policies be scientifically based. Well-established legal precedent gives state governments and private entities…
Real Clear Policy
Sacrificing Truth and Science to Vilify Juul
Two prominent U.S. Senators want Juul to be punished for paying a scientific journal to “rig the science,” as Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) put it.
New York Post
Lockdowns and Mandates Impede Far Better Voluntary Safety Measures
After a year of start-and-stop public-health measures, more often guided by intuition than by science, studies are confirming what economists long suspected: The COVID-19 lockdowns were…
City Journal
Individual Choices, Not Lockdowns
After a year of start-and-stop public-health measures, more often guided by intuition than by science, studies are confirming what economists long suspected: the Covid-19 lockdowns…
Blog
For CDC to Repair Its Reputation, It Must Get Out of Housing (and Politics)
The Centers of Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) was once considered one of the most trusted public health institutions in the world, but its handling…
