RPC Signs Price Fixing Coalition Letter

December 1st, 2019

Dear Republican Members of the House and Senate,

We represent fiscal conservatives and free market activists from across the country, and we

are concerned about the direction the health care policy debate is moving.

There is no doubt that left-of-center politicians have as one of their central goals a

"Medicare for All" style socialized healthcare scheme that will raise our taxes, limit our

choices, and ration our care.

However, what is troubling is how often otherwise right-of-center policymakers are

resorting to one of the key pillars of the Medicare for All playbook--government imposed

price controls. Whether it is called price fixing, rate setting, subsidy capping, or

inflation capping, government price controls have wormed their way into the healthcare

reform plans of too many of our friends in Washington.

Government price controls have always been opposed by fiscal conservatives, and for good

reason. They lead directly to scarcity of a product, since the government is forcing the

provider to sell below the market price. This scarcity then means the government gets to

ration who gets the product. Before long, the government is telling one person they get to

have the price controlled good or service that day, and tells another person they cannot.

This was a bad idea a half century ago with gasoline line rationing, and it's a bad idea today

in health care. Something can only be affordable if it's available to buy in the first place.