20 June 2016 - High prescription drug prices have become a big political issue. But what are politicians actually going to do about them?

Sure, Congress is great at publicly shaming Martin Shkreli or former Valeant chief executive Mike Pearson for price gouging. But most solutions to slowing increases in drug prices are politically and practically difficult.

Giving Medicare the ability to negotiate prices would mean tampering with one of America’s favorite laws, and would inevitably force the government to dictate what medicines seniors take. Outright laws against big price increases? Good luck with a free-market, GOP Congress. ObamaCare tried to institute systems to compare the effectiveness of different medicines. They’ve been ineffective.

I’ve been trying to come up with an alternative, and I have an idea: a giant, government-run fund that would work to negotiate lower prices specifically for drugs for which normal free-market rules seem to have stopped applying, jolting the market for medicines. The fund’s aggregate buying power would add a check to prescription drug prices that doesn’t currently exist.

I’ve run my idea past some experts I trust. They think it would work in some cases, but not others. I still think it’s worth sharing.

For more details, go to: http://www.forbes.com/sites/matthewherper/2016/06/20/a-market-based-proposal-for-controlling-drug-prices/#4b0c0922d72c