June 26, 2006 11:36AM # Well That’s Another Fine Mess You’ve Gotten Us into By [Michael F. Cannon](https://www.cato.org/people/michael-f-cannon) --- SHARE [AARP](http://www.aarp.org/health/affordable_drugs/drug_prices_up.html) and [Families USA](http://www.familiesusa.org/resources/publications/reports/big-dollars-little-sense.html) are screaming about rising prescription drug prices, without and within Medicare Part D. The *[New York Times](http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/26/opinion/26mon4.html?_r=1&oref=slogin)* is calling for price controls on drugs purchased under Part D. A 2004 [study](http://www.manhattan-institute.org/html/mpr_01.htm) by the Manhattan Institute estimated that applying the type of price controls found in Medicaid and the Veterans Health Administration to Medicare would reduce pharmaceutical R&D by nearly 40 percent and reduce Americans’ aggregate lifespans by 277 million life-years. In other words, the logic of “negotiating drug prices” is that everyone under the age of 65 should die one year sooner so 42 million geezers (sorry, [Dad](https://www.cato.org/pub_display.php?pub_id=6324)) can save a few bucks on Lipitor. But is the logic of opposing price controls that workers should have to pay through the nose to pump these geezers full of drugs? Part D puts us all in a no-win situation: either pay up and bankrupt the nation or control prices, suppress R&D, and prepare to check out early. It is a trap, set by the Left and sprung by the GOP. That’s why — if the repeal train has left the station — the only sane option left is a radical overhaul of the entire program. With a little luck, Republicans will come to see the box in which they have put themselves and rediscover their interest in Medicare reform. ##### Related Tags [General](https://www.cato.org/general), [Health Care](https://www.cato.org/health-care), [Regulation](https://www.cato.org/regulatory-studies) [![Creative Commons License](/build/cato_2020/images/creative-commons.svg)](http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/) This work is licensed under a [Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/).