The sky is not falling. Americans are getting healthier.

Opinion>Opinions - Healthcare The views expressed by contributors are their own and not the view of The Hill The sky is not falling. Americans are getting healthier. Comments: by Tom Price, opinion contributor - 06/27/26 2:00 PM ET Comments: Link copied by Tom Price, opinion contributor - 06/27/26 2:00 PM ET Comments: Link copied

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Calculating politicians often play the part of Chicken Little. Why? Because a sky-is-falling attitude — as opposed to sober observation — provides them with the political cachet to push dramatic policy reforms. Climate alarmism to sell costly Green New Deal-style regulations is a textbook example from the last decade.

The left is not alone in crisis storytelling. There are elements of both parties that are reluctant to accept good news if it gets in the way of political aims. This is especially true when it comes to American health — an area in which there is, in reality, a lot to celebrate.

Obesity rates are finally declining. The number of deaths from heart disease is falling. According to the American Cancer Society, 7 in 10 people now survive at least five years following a diagnosis. That’s up from only half in the 1970s. What were once common childhood diseases are all but eradicated. Life expectancy in the U.S. has reached a new high of 79 years.

The gains are due in no small part to pharmaceutical innovations. Ten million Americans, and counting, are using GLP-1s to lose weight. Controlling cholesterol levels with statins is helping confront heart disease. HIV — and other infectious diseases — are no longer a death sentence and can be effectively managed with therapies. Encouraging headlines about new, targeted cancer drugs are now routine.

For anti-free market leftists and some MAHA populists, these are inconvenient truths because they complicate efforts to scapegoat companies that make leaps in human health possible.

Pharma companies are a favorite punching bag of progressive Democrats who argue their greed is the sole reason for high drug prices and therefore sick families. Medicine economics is complex and includes factors beyond a manufacturer’s control. But even so, on the whole, Americans pay less for most prescriptions compared to other countries because we enjoy a strong generics market.

Despite that fact, many Democrats exaggerate the affordability issue to justify a whole host of extreme policies. Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) believes the status quo justifies the government seizing the intellectual property of drugmakers — patent protections be damned. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) wants to force medicine commercials off the airwaves. He argues the ads are deceptive, expensive, and drive up costs for consumers.

Should Coca-Cola commercials also get the boot? Nixing the company’s $4 billion marketing spend could theoretically mean cheaper soda. Under this silly logic, however, what’s stopping the government from outlawing the entire American advertising industry?

Others, including some Republicans, are floating an equally foolish approach. They want Uncle Sam to follow in the footsteps of Europe by enforcing strict government price caps on prescription drugs. Sure, the proposal would guarantee cheaper prices for some products in the short run. But the long run would not be so hunky-dory as the availability of new lifesaving treatments, therapies, and vaccines shrivels, along with stifling research and development.

Prominent members of the current administration round out the anti-pharma stigma inside Republican circles. This includes some vaccine skeptics and purveyors of false links to autism. They have exploited the post-pandemic crisis of confidence in public health institutions being experienced by conservatives to push policy reforms that fly in the face of proven vaccine science.

Nowhere is that more evident than in the process for approving and recommending new shots, which has been slowed by design. As one national newspaper editorialized in March, it’s “embarrassing that Europe’s slow-twitch bureaucrats are approving new vaccines and drugs faster than the FDA.”

Is there room to improve the U.S. healthcare ecosystem? Absolutely. But too often, politicians offer “solutions” in search of a problem, risking the very progress they claim to advance. The not-so-hard truth is Americans are getting healthier and the sky is not falling.

Tom Price served as the 23rd secretary of Health and Human Services and is a former member of Congress from Georgia.

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