With the approval rating for President Joe Biden just this side of a sharp stick in the eye, the White House is scrambling to find something, anything they can advocate for that resonates with voters. Polling data indicates that the issues Democrats care most about are not the same as what independent voters, those who will decide the 2024 election, care about. There is one issue, however, that sounds good and could move votes: the cost of prescription drugs. Democrats believe they have a winner there, and they might -- but only if people don’t think too hard about it.

In the Venn diagram of issues Democrats care about and independent voters care about, there isn’t a lot of overlap. Democrats care deeply about abortion access, independents care about being able to afford food for their families. Not that there isn’t some overlap, but the issue that motivates a vote is different from issues voters care about, and the ability to care for your family resonates more than abortion. 

The ability to afford anything is a large motivating force for voters this cycle, with inflation wreaking havoc on family budgets across the country.  After trying to deny that inflation existed, then claiming it was “transitory,” Democrats are left with no choice but to address the cost of goods, though without acknowledging their role in creating that inflation. 

Health care could represent an easy target for Democrats. With the memory of the ObamaCare fight and the empty promises of savings that never materialized, along with five million Americans losing their health care plans, too fresh in people’s minds, those promises can’t be made again... yet. But the cost of prescription drugs can.

“President Biden and Congressional Democrats finally beat Big Pharma and allowed Medicare to directly negotiate lower drug prices by passing the Inflation Reduction Act -- despite zero Republicans voting in favor of the bill,” read a White House press release last month. That is a message the President has repeated often, as he views it as a victory worthy of celebration. 

And it would be, if you didn’t know anything about how markets work.

First, while the drug industry does not elicit any sympathy from people, Deloitte estimated the cost of bringing a new drug to market at more than $2 billion. That number will likely not cause the public to empathize with an industry raking in tens of billions every year, but imagine what happens to that research and development once price controls are introduced on a large scale. You’d better hope you or the people you care about come down with something for which there is already a good treatment or cure, or they get something millions of Americans suffer from. Otherwise, research will stop.

If the government implements price controls, drug companies will not invest the billions to create new drugs and bring them to market if there is zero chance to recoup those costs. That means treatments for rare diseases and ailments would be stuck where they are now. 

If the idea of price controls in the United States sounds far-fetched, they’re actually already here in the drug market. 

As part of the “Inflation Reduction Act,” congressional Democrats gave the Biden administration the ability to “negotiate” the price of certain drugs in the Medicare system. That may sound limited, but it’s the camel’s nose under the tent to wider, even more destructive government meddling. 

There is no negotiating with government; you either give them the price they set or you don’t get access to the 65 million Americans on Medicare. The older people get, the more likely they are to need medicines. That means government has all the leverage, and the income from a specific drug can go from hundreds of millions to nothing if a company refuses to accept what the government is willing to pay. 

The odds of seniors ever learning about this are almost zero, as doctors would know to prescribe only “covered” drugs where manufacturers chose to play ball. That may not be the drug a physician thinks is best for their patient, but that doesn’t really matter. When government says no, there is no one to appeal to. 

By the way, a company that refuses to bend the knee to government can be hit with a 95 percent excise tax on that drug. Talk about leverage -- “Give us the price we’re demanding or we will take almost every penny you make” is about as much one-sided as it gets. 

Once you get into bed with government, getting out is nearly impossible. And once the government gains control over something, the unintended consequences are rarely enough to get government back out again, just ask the millions who lost their health plans after President Obama repeatedly promised they wouldn’t. The best, and really only, thing to do is to limit what government can do in the first place. 

Mark Anthony is a former Silicon Valley Executive with Forrester Research, Inc. (Nasdaq: FORR). Mark is now the host of the nationally syndicated radio called The Patriot and The Preacher Show. Find out more at patriotandpreachershow.com. 

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